In Alabama, the summer of 1961 was dominated by discussion of the "Freedom Rides" and the growing national outcry over the mistreatment of civil rights activists who came south to protest continued segregation. Throughout the summer, over three hundred activists boarded buses and tested integration at terminals across the South, eventually convincing Attorney General Robert Kennedy to step up enforcement of the desegregation of interstate bus terminals across the region. As protests rippled through the Deep South, segregationists and supporters of civil rights recalled the events of late May, when the attention of the world had focused on Anniston, Birmingham, and Montgomery.
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Becoming Alabama:
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