Freedom Riders National Monument Bus Burning Site Master Plan

Freedom Riders National Monument has prepared a Master Plan and Environmental Assessment for the Bus Burning Site in Calhoun County, Alabama. The plan is open for public comment until September 24, 2025. The Bus Burning Site is the location where a violent mob set fire to a bus of Freedom Riders during the 1961 Freedom Rides, a movement to challenge discriminatory state laws and local customs that required racial segregation on buses and in bus station facilities. The bus burning site is one of two sites that comprise the national monument—the other being the Greyhound Bus Station in downtown Anniston, where the Freedom Riders initially encountered the mob and from which the bus departed. More information about Freedom Riders National Monument is available under the "Links" tab to the left.

The National Park Service is pleased to welcome public support and participation in this planning process that will provide management guidance, development concepts, and conceptual designs for commemoration of the Freedom Rides and Riders at the Bus Burning Site unit of the national monument. The National Park Service planning team would like to thank the public and park stakeholders for your comments and participation in public meetings and workshops held in March, September, and October of 2024; your feedback on initial preliminary management and design has been invaluable to the planning process. The planning team is currently seeking similar feedback on the alternatives and environmental impact analysis presented in the management plan and summary newsletter available under the 'Open for Comment' tab to the left.

Thank you for your interest in Freedom Riders National Monument and its future and for sharing your comments on the plan.