March 11, 2025
Rep. Terri Sewell and Rep. Shomari Figures try to protect a landmark of the Civil Rights Motion.
Alabama Representatives are taking motion to stop the attainable sale of the Freedom Rides Museum after it was listed amongst non-core federal properties.
Alabama’s Freedom Rides Museum may very well be offloaded as a federal property after it was included in a listing of 440 federal properties the Trump administration deemed as “not core to authorities operations.”
The checklist was initially printed on the Normal Companies Administration (GSA) web site however has since been eliminated because the company identifies “buildings and services that aren’t core to authorities operations, or non-core properties, for disposal,” a message on the web site now reads.
“Promoting ensures that taxpayer {dollars} are not spent on vacant or underutilized federal areas,” the message continues. “Disposing of those property helps remove pricey upkeep and permits us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that help company missions.”
Two Alabama members of the Home of Representatives, Rep. Terri Sewell and Rep. Shomari Figures, despatched a letter to the Trump administration on March 5, urging the removing of the museum from the checklist of potential properties on the market.
“The historical past of Civil Rights in America and right here in Alabama is sacred, and it isn’t, not on the market,” Sewell advised WVTM13.
“We stand united in our efforts to guarantee that this landmark stays a museum for future generations to study from, for all of us to recollect, as a result of if we don’t know our historical past, we’re sure to repeat our historical past.”
If the Trump administration strikes ahead with the sale of the Freedom Rides Museum, it could imply shedding an important piece of American historical past. As soon as the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station, the positioning performed a pivotal function within the Freedom Rides motion.
On Could 20, 1961, a racially built-in group of younger protestors—many beneath the age of twenty-two—had been met with violence as they stopped there to problem segregation. The station closed in 1995 and was designated a historic landmark the next yr.
As of March 10, it stands as one in all over 130 websites on the U.S. Civil Rights Path, but its future stays unsure beneath the Trump administration.
“The chaos from the Trump administration should cease,” Sewell stated. “It’s inflicting pointless confusion and panic, and it continues to threaten the civil rights landmarks that we in Alabama cherish and that the world involves Alabama to look at and study from.”
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