GPS City GuideMontgomeryFreedom Rides Museum

Stop 10 of 26 · Montgomery audio walking tour

Freedom Rides Museum

Montgomery · 1961 · Violent Freedom Ride attack

What you'll hear here: about 90 seconds on Freedom Rides Museum — how it came to be, who it mattered to, and what to look for while you're standing in front of it.

At 210 South Court Street you have reached the Freedom Rides Museum, once the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station. This building was the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station until 1995 and was the site of a violent attack on participants in the 1961 Freedom Ride during the Civil Rights Movement. In May 1961 a mob of white protesters assaulted the riders in events that "shocked the nation and led the Kennedy Administration to side with civil rights protesters for the first time.

The property is no longer used as a bus station, but the building was saved from demolition and its façade has been restored. The site was leased by the Alabama Historical Commission and a historical marker stands in front of the building. In 2011 a museum opened inside these walls, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; a year later the museum won a national preservation award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2012.

Look back to the building’s origin: in 1950 Greyhound Lines retained architect W.S. Arrasmith to build a new bus station to replace an earlier station on North Court Street, incorporating a streamlined style and the vertical "Greyhound" name. Notice the restored façade and the historical marker standing at the entrance.

Where it is

Coordinates
32.37472, -86.30917
Area
Montgomery
Era
1961 · Violent Freedom Ride attack
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.