Buses Are a Comin'
Memoir of a Freedom Rider
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A teenager's firsthand account of the 1961 Freedom Rides, a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement, and a resounding call to action for today's youth.
At 18, Charles Person became the youngest of the original Freedom Riders, a group of black and white activists who boarded buses to challenge segregation in the American South. Alongside future icons like John Lewis and James Farmer, Person embarked on a journey from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, testing the Supreme Court's ruling that declared segregation in bus depots, waiting areas, restaurants, and restrooms unconstitutional.
As the buses ventured through the Deep South, they were met with violence and resistance. In Alabama, one bus was firebombed, its passengers narrowly escaping. The other, carrying Person, was brutally attacked by a white mob that beat the riders nearly to death. Buses Are a Comin' offers an unflinching view of the battle against segregation, as Person and his fellow riders stepped off the buses and into history.
More than a memoir, this book is a rousing challenge to today's young people to become agents of change. With unwavering conviction, Person shows how students can make a difference, youth have a voice, and everyone has the power to create a more just society.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This unforgettable memoir comes at you straight from the deepest, bloodiest trenches of the civil rights movement. At 18, Charles Person was the youngest of the 13 Freedom Riders in the first group of 1961. These brave everyday people risked their safety by occupying interstate buses throughout the segregated South, forcing institutions to comply with the Supreme Court’s anti-segregation ruling. Person and the others—including another idealistic young man, future congressman John Lewis—endured verbal and physical attacks from garden-variety racists and Ku Klux Klansmen alike. But it’s not just about the Freedom Ride—Person tells us about his life growing up in Atlanta, as well as his political awakening as a student at Morehouse College, and how all of it prepared him to take that trip. We were simultaneously disgusted that so many people levied ugliness and hatred at Person and the Freedom Riders during their journey and inspired by their courage to look every one of them in the face. Person’s story is a reminder that sometimes the worst of humanity can bring out the best in others.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Civil rights activist Person debuts with a striking personal history of the 1961 Freedom Rides in protest of the nonenforcement of Supreme Court rulings banning racial segregation on interstate transportation. The youngest participant at just 18 years old, Person describes vicious attacks by white supremacist mobs against the first two Freedom Rides. In Anniston, Ala., attackers held the doors of a Greyhound bus shut as they tried to burn its passengers alive; in Birmingham, Ala., public safety commissioner Bull Connor gave the Ku Klux Klan "fifteen uninterrupted minutes... to do whatever they wanted to the unwanted black bus riders and their white compatriots." Person colorfully evokes his impoverished childhood in Atlanta's Buttermilk Bottom neighborhood, his introduction to the civil rights movement at Morehouse College, and his shading of the truth ("It's not going to be dangerous") in order to get his father to sign a permission slip so he could participate in the inaugural Freedom Ride from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans. He also offers intimate sketches of his fellow Riders, including future congressman John Lewis. Shot through with vivid details of beatdowns, arrests, and awe-inspiring bravery, this inspirational account captures the magnitude of what the early civil rights movement was up against.
