The historic Montgomery Bus Station, home of the Freedom Rides Museum, will not be sold, Reps. Terri Sewell and Shomari Figures announced Wednesday.
After pressure from Figures, Sewell and a stream of high-profile Democratic lawmakers, the U.S. General Services Administration said that it has removed the historic bus station – the site where Freedom Riders were viciously attacked by white supremacists in 1961 – from its list of properties for sale.
Both Alabama lawmakers said they were pleased with the decision, but they also questioned why there seem to be so many “mistakes” involving decisions related to Black history.
“I’m glad that the Trump Administration has reversed course on this matter, but it never should have happened,” Figures said in a statement. “We should not have to continue to pressure this Administration to protect civil rights history, as we were forced to do when they pulled the Tuskegee Airmen from training curriculum and scholarships for students at historically Black land-grant institutions.”
Sewell echoed Figures’ comments and said the removal of the Bus Station from the for-sale list was yet another example of how effective public pressure and public outrage can be.
“I’m relieved that this important piece of our nation’s civil rights history will not be sold off to the highest bidder,” Sewell said. “The Trump administration should have never placed it on that list to begin with. Let this be an important lesson: when we use our voices to speak up and speak out, we can make a difference. We will continue to do what is necessary to preserve and protect the faces and places of the Civil Rights Movement.”
The GSA last week included the Montgomery Bus Station on a list of properties it planned to sell. The list appeared briefly on the GSA website, and then was later replaced with a parred down list. A day later the full list was removed from the website and officials refused to comment on the status of the properties.
However, the GSA had been ordered by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to sell off up to 500 properties. The agency also is being forced to lay off 63 percent of its staff.
Republican U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, who lives in Montgomery, also played a role in having the Montgomery Bus Station removed from the list. Britt told media outlets in the state that she was in contact with the Trump administration about the listing and later said she had been told it would not be sold.
She also was forced to step into the uproar over the Tuskegee Airmen being removed from an Air Force training program in response to Trump’s order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs. That decision also was reversed.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to stop $19 million in agricultural scholarship grants to HBCU students, including students at Alabama A&M and Tuskegee. The order from Trump did not stop similar agricultural scholarships to students at predominantly white universities.
