Buses Are a Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider
About this audiobook
"Narrator Landon Woodson does a masterful job delivering Person's audiobook--which is both Person's own coming-of-age story and the story of a nation trying to reckon with racism...This important audiobook is shared exquisitely by Woodson." -- AudioFile Magazine
A firsthand exploration of the cost of boarding the bus of change to move America forward—written by one of the Civil Rights Movement's pioneers.
At 18, Charles Person was the youngest of the original Freedom Riders, key figures in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement who left Washington, D.C. by bus in 1961, headed for New Orleans. This purposeful mix of black and white, male and female activists—including future Congressman John Lewis, Congress of Racial Equality Director James Farmer, Reverend Benjamin Elton Cox, journalist and pacifist James Peck, and CORE field secretary Genevieve Hughes—set out to discover whether America would abide by a Supreme Court decision that ruled segregation unconstitutional in bus depots, waiting areas, restaurants, and restrooms nationwide.
Two buses proceeded through Virginia, North and South Carolina, to Georgia where they were greeted by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and finally to Alabama. There, the Freedom Riders found their answer: No. Southern states would continue to disregard federal law and use violence to enforce racial segregation. One bus was burned to a shell, its riders narrowly escaping; the second, which Charles rode, was set upon by a mob that beat several riders nearly to death.
Buses Are a Comin’ provides a front-row view of the struggle to belong in America, as Charles Person accompanies his colleagues off the bus, into the station, into the mob, and into history to help defeat segregation’s violent grip on African American lives. It is also a challenge from a teenager of a previous era to the young people of today: become agents of transformation. Stand firm. Create a more just and moral country where students have a voice, youth can make a difference, and everyone belongs.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press
"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.” -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A vital story, this memoir is also an instructive gift to future generations fighting for change.” -- Kirkus, starred review
About the author
Charles Person is one of two living Freedom Riders who remained with the original Ride from its start in Washington, DC to New Orleans. This historic event helped defeat Jim Crow laws in the US. A sought-after public speaker, Person maintains active contact with schools, museums and the activist community. He lives in Atlanta.
Richard Rooker is an English and history educator, writing coach, and longtime personal friend of Person. He is an active board member of the Indiana Historical Society.
