She was twelve years old.
On May 14, 1961, a Greyhound bus carrying civil rights activists known as the Freedom Riders was attacked outside Anniston, Alabama. The riders—Black and white Americans traveling together to challenge segregated interstate bus travel—were part of a campaign organized by the Congress of Racial Equality.
As the bus pulled onto Highway 202 near Anniston, a mob of roughly two hundred white men surrounded it. They slashed the tires, smashed windows, and threw a firebomb inside. Smoke quickly filled the bus as flames spread through the interior.
Among the witnesses that day was twelve-year-old Janie Forsyth McKinney, standing in the yard of her family’s home nearby.
When the fuel tank eventually exploded, the blast forced the crowd back just long enough for the passengers to escape the burning bus. Riders staggered out choking on smoke, some collapsing onto the roadside. Instead of receiving help, many were beaten by members of the mob.
Janie ran into her house, grabbed a bucket, filled it with water, and gathered cups. She pushed through the crowd and began helping the injured riders—washing soot and blood from their faces and giving them water to drink.
For a white child in Alabama in 1961, assisting both Black and white civil rights activists in front of an angry segregationist crowd was extraordinarily dangerous. Police officers present initially failed to intervene while the mob attacked the riders.
