Today in history: JFK sends federal marshals to Montgomery

Their mission was to keep order after race riots broke out

An unidentified young black 'Freedom Rider' is told to leave a segregated white waiting room at a bus depot in Jackson, Miss., May 26, 1961.
(Image credit: Express Newspapers/Getty Images)

May 21, 1961: After race riots broke out in Montgomery, Alabama, President John F. Kennedy sent 300 federal marshals into the city to keep order. JFK sent the marshals in after Alabama Gov. John Patterson said he could not guarantee that law and order would be maintained. The Montgomery riots were connected to the Freedom Rides, in which civil rights activists traveled the south by bus challenging segregation.

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