National Parks 2022: Freedom Riders NM

It’s time for the annual National Parks Club/KAL!

Every month from May-August, we’ll be releasing 4 new parks colorways. We have almost exhausted all of the traditional US National Parks, so this year, we’ll be showcasing other National Parks areas, such as National Recreation Areas, Heritage sites, etc. Featured parks will fall under one of 4 categories:

National History – Eastern USA
National History – Western USA
Indigenous Culture
Human Rights Leaders/notable people

Check out our Socks and Hats on Vacay/Staycay summertime KAL with our friend Shannon Squire, too: https://shannonsquire.com/socks-hats-on-vacay-2022/

Thanks for exploring parks and making socks with us once again this summer! To get your yarn, check out our list of LYS’s offering National Parks (Parks yarn will ONLY be available at our LYS partners through the summer): https://knittedwit.com/parks-2022/

And, to play our new-to-2022 Vacay Bingo game, head in to your participating LYS and grab a gameboard or download it here: https://knittedwit.com/parks-2022/

Where is it located?

In Anniston, Alabama, which is in East-Central Alabama, about 65 miles East of Birmingham.

Whose land does it reside upon?

The land where Alabama is located was the ancestral home of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek tribes.

When was it established?

January 2017

About this park:

This park was established by President Barack Obama in January 2017 to preserve and commemorate the Freedom Riders during the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1961, a small interracial band of “Freedom Riders” challenged discriminatory laws requiring separation of the races in interstate travel by boarding a bus together. They were attacked by white segregationists, who firebombed the bus. Images of the attack appeared in hundreds of newspapers, shocking the American public and spurring the Federal Government to issue regulations banning segregation in interstate travel.

Through the media, the nation and the world witnessed the violence. Images, like that of a firebombed bus burning outside Anniston, Alabama, shocked the American public and created political pressure, which forced the Federal Government to take steps to ban segregation in interstate bus travel.

Although only thirteen Freedom Riders started the journey, they inspired hundreds of others to join their cause. In the end there were over 400 Freedom Riders. They succeeded in pressing the federal government to act. On May 29, 1961, Attorney General Robert Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to issue regulations banning segregation, and the ICC subsequently decreed that by November 1, 1961, bus carriers and terminals serving interstate travel had to be integrated.

The Freedom Rides and Freedom Riders made substantial gains in the fight for equal access to public accommodations. Federal orders to remove Jim Crow signs on interstate facilities did not change social mores or political institutions overnight, but the Freedom Riders nonetheless struck a powerful blow to racial segregation.