Betsy Bean

Betsy Bean is the Executive Director of The Spirit of Anniston project, chaired by Ann Welch. The project will include the establishment of Anniston sites that will be a part of the new Alabama Civil Rights Trail, including the location of the 1961 Freedom Riders bus burning on Alabama Rte. 202, the former Greyhound bus station on Gurnee Avenue (where the Freedom Riders were initially attacked upon entering Anniston), and the Public Library of Anniston & Calhoun Counties. Anniston’s part in this history includes both the violence of Southern resistance to racial equality, and its place in the immediate efforts at reconciliation and the preservation of the archives, and stories of events which must be remembered for their redemptive value.