Editing Anniston, Alabama (section)

===Civil Rights era===
{{main|Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks}}
[[File:249 The Other Bus.jpg|thumb|right|Historic marker commemorating the [[Freedom Riders]] in downtown Anniston]]
Anniston was the center of national controversy in 1961 when a mob bombed a bus filled with civilian [[Freedom Riders]] during the [[American Civil Rights Movement]]. As two Freedom buses were setting out to travel the south in protest of their [[civil rights]] following the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] case saying bus segregation was unconstitutional, one headed to Anniston, and one to [[Birmingham, Alabama]], before finishing in [[New Orleans]]. The [[Freedom Riders]] were riding an integrated bus to protest Alabama's [[Jim Crow]] [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]] laws that denied African Americans their [[civil rights]]. One of the buses was attacked and firebombed by a mob outside Anniston on [[Mother's Day (United States)|Mother's Day]], Sunday, May 14, 1961. Prior to the bus being firebombed, attackers broke windows, and slashed tires, using metal pipes, clubs, chains and crowbars, before the police came to escort the bus away.<ref name="GetontheBus">{{cite web|last1=Gross|first1=Terry|title=Get on the Bus: The Freedom Riders of 1961|url=https://www.npr.org/2006/01/12/5149667/get-on-the-bus-the-freedom-riders-of-1961|publisher=NPR|access-date=May 15, 2017}}</ref> The bus was forced to a stop just outside of Anniston, in front of Forsyth and Sons grocery, by more mob members.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Young Witness|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedom-riders-young-witness/.|publisher=PBS|access-date=May 14, 2017}}</ref> As more windows were broken, rocks and eventually a firebomb were thrown into the bus. As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intent on burning the riders to death. An exploding fuel tank caused the mob to retreat, allowing the riders to escape the bus. The riders were viciously beaten as they tried to flee, where warning shots fired into the air by highway patrolmen prevented the riders from being [[lynching|lynched]] on the spot.<ref name="GetontheBus" /> A 12-year-old girl, Janie Forsyth, set out against the mob with a bucket of water and cups to help the Riders, first tending to the one who had looked like her own nanny.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lee|first1=Cynthia|title=A single act of kindness becomes part of civil rights lore|url=http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/civil-rights-activists-still-remember-203453|website=newsroom.ucla.edu|access-date=May 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170509143532/http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/civil-rights-activists-still-remember-203453|archive-date=May 9, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> Forsyth and Son grocery is located along [[Alabama State Route 202|Alabama Highway 202]] about {{convert|5|mi|0}} west of downtown. The site today is home to a historic marker and was designated [[Freedom Riders National Monument]] by President Barack Obama in January 2017.<ref>{{cite web |last=Whisenhunt |first=Dan |title=A Single Step: Memorial to 'Freedom Riders' Just a Beginning |work=Jacksonville State University News |publisher=Jacksonville State University |date=May 13, 2007 |url=http://www.jsu.edu/news/jan_june2007/05142007c.html |access-date=January 8, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Freedom Riders National Monument|url=https://www.nps.gov/frri/index.htm |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>

In response to the violence, the city formed a bi-racial Human Relations Council (HRC) made up of prominent white business and religious leaders, but when they attempted to integrate the "whites-only" public library on Sunday afternoon, September 15, 1963 (the same day as the [[16th Street Baptist Church bombing]] in Birmingham), further violence ensued and two black ministers, N.Q. Reynolds and Bob McClain, were severely beaten by a mob. The HRC chairman, white [[Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)|Presbyterian]] minister Rev. Phil Noble, worked with an elder of his church, Anniston City Commissioner Miller Sproull, to avoid [[KKK]] mob domination of the city. In a telephone conference with President [[John F. Kennedy]], the President informed the HRC that after the Birmingham church bombing he had stationed additional federal troops at Fort McClellan. On September 16, 1963, with city police present, Noble and Sproull escorted black ministers into the library.<ref>''Beyond the Burning Bus: The Civil Rights Revolution in a Southern Town'' by Phil Noble, p. 123</ref> In February 1964, Anniston Hardware, owned by the Sproull family, was bombed, presumably in retaliation for Commissioner Sproull's integration efforts.

On the night of July 15, 1965, a white racist rally was held in Anniston, after which [[Willie Brewster]], a black foundry worker, was shot and killed while driving home from work. A $20,000 reward was raised by Anniston civic leaders, and resulted in the apprehension, trial and conviction of the accused killer, Damon Strange, who worked for a leader of the [[Ku Klux Klan]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.annistonstar.com/view/full_story/2746199/article-The-Death-of-Willie-Brewster--Memories-of-a-dark-time?instance=special |title=The Death of Willie Brewster: Memories of a Dark Time. |access-date=September 13, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124112638/http://annistonstar.com/view/full_story/2746199/article-The-Death-of-Willie-Brewster--Memories-of-a-dark-time?instance=special#ixzz0zHd558Sj |archive-date=November 24, 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Historian [[Taylor Branch]] called the conviction of Damon Strange a "breakthrough verdict" on p.&nbsp;391 of his [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning book, ''[[At Canaan's Edge]]''. Strange was convicted by an all-white Calhoun County jury to the surprise of many people, including civil rights leaders who had planned to protest an acquittal. This was the first conviction of a white person for killing a black person in civil rights era Alabama.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.annistonstar.com/pages/special_willie_brewster |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715053248/http://www.annistonstar.com/pages/special_willie_brewster|url-status=dead|title="The Death of Willie Brewster: An appraisal of Anniston's moment of shame and triumph."|archivedate=July 15, 2010|access-date=April 17, 2021}}</ref>

Anniston was a 1978 winner of the [[All-America City Award]], presented by the [[National Civic League]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Past Winners |url=https://www.nationalcivicleague.org/america-city-award/past-winners/ |access-date=2025-02-16 |website=National Civic League}}</ref>