Newsletter details two noteworthy discoveries

The current issue of the Spirit of Anniston newsletter features two articles of interest to me.

One article explains the discovery of the whereabouts of Ann Everett Sumners, director of the Anniston Public Library at the time of the "Library Incident" in 1963. The article further describes her recent return to Anniston for the purpose of being interviewed for an oral history of the momentous events of the early 1960s. The Spirit of Anniston newsletter includes a recent photo of Charlie Doster and Ms. Sumners. Doster has been referenced several times in this blog, especially of late. In his 2003 comments delivered on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the "Library Incident," Doster had noted that Ann Everett was nowhere to be found at that time, nor were any other members of the 1963 library staff.

The second discovery of note described in the newsletter comes in the article, "Civil Rights heritage key to economic revival." A group of California college students accompanied by a professor were traveling from Atlanta to Birmingham as part of a program focusing on the Freedom Riders of the early 1960s. The article explains how, with the help of Spirit of Anniston director Betsy Bean, the group stopped off in Anniston to visit the site of the Greyhound Bus station on Gurnee Ave just off of West 10th St., where a KKK-friendly mob first attacked the bus on Mother's Day, 1961. Ms. Bean then escorted the college students to the location on Highway 202 where the bus broke down and was attacked and burned by the trailing mob. While this discovery no doubt was important for the students who wanted to learn more about the 1961 incident, perhaps the more important discovery was the one pointed out the headline of the article. There's a market for this kind of educational opportunity. Anniston appears ready to take advantage of that discovery.