Anniston, AL news and local guide

In 1917 the Army opened a training camp at Fort McClellan, and during World War II the Anniston Army Depot opened as a major weapons storage and maintenance site. Most of Fort McClellan became part of the city in the late 1990s, and the Army closed the fort in 1999. On Mother's Day, May 14, 1961, a mob attacked a bus carrying Freedom Riders testing the Supreme Court's ban on segregated interstate bus travel. After smashing windows and slashing tires in town, the attackers forced the bus to stop outside Anniston, in front of Forsyth and Sons grocery, threw a firebomb inside and held the doors shut. An exploding fuel tank drove the mob back, the riders escaped and were beaten, and warning shots by highway patrolmen kept them from being lynched. Twelve-year-old Janie Forsyth brought water to the injured. Sources Wikipedia: Anniston, Alabama