Anniston Civil Rights Trail, Alabama Historical Markers
The Anniston Civil Rights Trail project began in 2010 to remember the people who risked their lives in Anniston during the tumultuous 1960s Civil Rights Movement across the South.
By Mark Hilton, August 5, 2017
Formerly the Anniston Memorial Hospital, now the Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center.
When seven injured "Freedom Riders" arrived at the Hospital on
this date, the mob that had attacked them earlier in the day
followed. The Riders were testing desegregation of public
transportation in the South by riding buses. The bus they . . . — — Map (db m106647) HM
Desegregation of the Library began when two African American
pastors, Reverends William B. McClain and Nimrod Q. Reynolds,
peacefully attempted to enter the building on September 15, 1963.
Their actions were endorsed by the city of Anniston . . . — — Map (db m106644) HM
Front
This was the site of the Greyhound bus terminal where on May 14, 1961, a bus carrying black and white Civil Rights Activists known as "Freedom Riders" was attacked by a mob of whites who were protesting desegregation of public . . . — — Map (db m106621) HM
Saint John, founded at the turn of the 19th century, is the first
African-American Methodist Episcopal Church in South Anniston.
The original structure was built in 1922. The current building was
erected in 1951 on the corner of D Street and . . . — — Map (db m144905) HM
Seventeenth Street Missionary Baptist Church served as the home of "mass meetings" for black Annistonians who planned and executed Anniston's part of the Civil Rights Movement. Reverends D.C. Washington (1937-1960) and Nimrod Q. Reynolds . . . — — Map (db m106651) HM
Local "Jim Crow" laws in the first half of the 20th century enforced racial segregation in public transportation facilities throughout the South. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia (1960) upheld that segregation in these . . . — — Map (db m106602) HM
The Anniston City Commission, on May 16, 1963, established by resolution the Human Relations Council, consisting of five white men and four black men. The Council's purpose was to "make recommendations concerning human relations," and its members . . . — — Map (db m106627) HM
Willie Brewster became the target of white extremists after words spoken at a National States Rights Party encouraged them to commit acts of violence against blacks. As Brewster drove home with co-workers from the night shift at Union Foundry, he . . . — — Map (db m106626) HM
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, race relations in the South were dominated by local "Jim Crow" laws. Although in 1960 the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation violated the Interstate Commerce Act, local laws persisted. . . . — — Map (db m106605) HM
This district was once the economic and social hub of Anniston's African American community. In its heyday (1940-1950), the District was a "city within a city," with businesses that catered to the black community. Grocery stores, restaurants, . . . — — Map (db m106650) HM