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Elon Musk’s DOGE purge now includes the building housing the historic Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery.
The Montgomery Bus Station, the site where Freedom Riders were attacked by white supremacists in 1961, is owned by the federal government’s General Services Administration. As part of a nationwide cost cutting initiative undertaken by Musk and the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, a number of federally owned buildings have been listed for sale, including the bus terminal building.
An employee at the museum told APR on Wednesday that it wasn’t yet clear whether the building would be sold, and if so, what that meant for the museum, since no one from GSA had contacted the employees either before or after listing the property. The museum leases the building from GSA.
U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, whose district includes the historic station, said his office was actively working to get answers from GSA or other government officials on the status of the building.
“I know it is a building that absolutely should not be sold,” Figures said. “The historical significance of that building is a big reason I’m able to sit in this seat (in Congress). The Civil Right Movement was the greatest, most consequential social movement in the history of the country. These landmarks should be protected. That they’re not is very troubling.”
The actual status of the Bus Station building, along with pretty much all GSA-owned properties, is anyone’s guess at this point. It is assumed that the properties are for sale, because they appeared for a short time on a website listing created by GSA of federal properties for sale. That list was later cut down by GSA, and then it disappeared altogether on Wednesday.
A map of the GSA-listed properties was created by the online news site “Wired,” utilizing the lists that were published on the agency’s website and later removed. Those lists showed hundreds of government buildings for sale, including other historic and significant buildings, such as the J. Edgar Hoover Building, which houses the FBI. Wired reported earlier this year that employees within GSA were instructed by DOGE to sell off more than 500 total properties operated by the federal government.
The sell-offs are part of a massive slash-and-burn effort across the U.S. government, and particularly within GSA, where there are plans to cut more than 63 percent of jobs and sell off much of the property.
DOGE’s work, which is primarily conducted by untrained, unsupervised young workers brought over from one of Musk’s other companies, has been mostly poorly handled, creating mass confusion, safety concerns in vital areas, service interruptions and embarrassing outcomes. Figures said he and other Democrats have spent a remarkable amount of time simply trying to get basic answers about who is being cut or what buildings are being sold.
“(The potential sale of the bus terminal) is part of a string of actions that at best show a recklessness or at worst an intentional disregard for civil rights and African-American history,” Figures said, and he noted a string of decisions by the Trump administration and DOGE – from cutting funding to historically Black colleges but not predominantly white institutions to attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion programs – that raise those questions.
“At some point, someone should have the decency and wherewithal to review the list (of both cuts and properties for sale),” Figures continued. “It appears to me that the problem here is that we have a bunch of inexperienced people more worried about satisfying the ego of a president instead of doing things that make sense. That’s how you wind up with a building that’s the centerpiece of desegregation of interstate commerce listed for sale. And it’s a slap in the face.”
The Freedom Riders were a group of civil rights activists, including late Georgia congressman John Lewis, who rode buses across the deep South in an effort to desegregate interstate travel. The Riders were attacked numerous times, including in Montgomery at the Greyhound Bus Station, where a group of KKK members brutally attacked the Riders with baseball bats and clubs. Montgomery police stood nearby and watched.
The bus station was eventually purchased by the federal government and restored to its size and 1961 appearance, and the Freedom Riders Museum was opened inside. The bus station and museum are part of the National Parks Civil Rights Trail.
