Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (Pivotal Moments in American History) | 
 enlarge | Author: Raymond Arsenault
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 58046
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 704
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.9
ISBN: 0195327144
Dewey Decimal Number: 323.097509046
EAN: 9780195327144
ASIN: 0195327144
Publication Date: February 19, 2007
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Product Description
They were black and white, young and old, men and women. In the spring and summer of 1961, they put their lives on the line, riding buses through the American South to challenge segregation in interstate transport. Their story is one of the most celebrated episodes of the civil rights movement, yet a full-length history has never been written until now. In these pages, acclaimed historian Raymond Arsenault provides a gripping account of six pivotal months that jolted the consciousness of America.
The Freedom Riders were greeted with hostility, fear, and violence. They were jailed and beaten, their buses stoned and firebombed. In Alabama, police stood idly by as racist thugs battered them. When Martin Luther King met the Riders in Montgomery, a raging mob besieged them in a church. Arsenault recreates these moments with heart-stopping immediacy. His tightly braided narrative reaches from the White House--where the Kennedys were just awakening to the moral power of the civil rights struggle--to the cells of Mississippi's infamous Parchman Prison, where Riders tormented their jailers with rousing freedom anthems. Along the way, he offers vivid portraits of dynamic figures such as James Farmer, Diane Nash, John Lewis, and Fred Shuttlesworth, recapturing the drama of an improbable, almost unbelievable saga of heroic sacrifice and unexpected triumph.
The Riders were widely criticized as reckless provocateurs, or "outside agitators." But indelible images of their courage, broadcast to the world by a newly awakened press, galvanized the movement for racial justice across the nation. Freedom Riders is a stunning achievement, a masterpiece of storytelling that will stand alongside the finest works on the history of civil rights.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
History at its best July 19, 2008
This book is another great addition to the Pivotal moments in American history series. This series seeks to assess the events that led to a major paradigm shift in American history changing the country in some way. The argument here is that the Freedom Rides established a basis for social justice that had not been achieved previously. With this topic the author does an excellent job of putting a human face on the struggle the riders went through and you can feel the palpable hatred that the riders experienced and the racism is simply nauseating. It is unbelievable how clear the author captures it and not only for the hate towards the riders but the strict values that held this racism in place. What many people saw as right was the destruction of the freedom riders. The author does an excellent job at explaining the dichotomy in the country and showing how the Freedom Rides changed the perception of everyone towards social justice issues. For the first time white and black worked together not always seamlessly but with greater fervor than ever before. The direct action campaigns shifted focuses on what was happening the country creating new challenges. The book is extensively researched and relies not only on newspapers but countless interviews and the author should be commended for the work he put in. An excellent book to read and highly recommended.
What Color Code Was This Revolution? March 20, 2008
In the past ten years or so we've witnessed staged "revolutions" - Orange, Green, Rose, etc. - funded around the globe by Western NGOs, toppling the chosen tyrant and installing the pro-Western liberal reformer of the moment. When it came to democratic movements within the USA, of course, the enthusiasm at home was markedly lacking.
Thus, before the age of NED or Freedom House, those who challenged entrenched tyranny in America faced real risk to life and limb, with only scattered support from the media and none from either the State Department or NGO clones. Such were the Freedom Riders, who were armed with naught but the courage of their ideals, as they embarked cross-country for the lion's den to stick their heads in his jaws.
That they ultimately prevailed is a commendation of the "American Way"; but they did so only after considerable risk, repression, and one-sided bloodshed. The "flowering of democracy" in the American South was fertilized not by the blood of tyrants but those seeking freedom. Would that such cheap imitators in Serbia, Ukraine or Lebanon - basking in Western funding and media cheerleading - have had to endure a tenth of what these brave people had to risk in the US itself.
an important piece of history finally brought to light. May 31, 2007
I heard Mr. Arsenault speak recently and his love of this subject came through. I highly recommend this book.
Gripping, Fascinating and Required Reading July 1, 2006
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
The perfect follow up to "America in the King Years," (by
Taylor Branch) Arsenault focuses in on the single most important, ground breaking, and personally dangerous aspect of the civil rights movement.
This is a gripping story, and reads like a thriller. Truly, this is contemporary history that you can't put down.
Masterpiece of Exposition and Accuracy March 26, 2006
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
As a participant,I can vouch for all material that related to my experiences as a Freedom Rider in the book.The writing accurately descibes the atmosphere and conditions of my experiences in Jackson City Jail and Parchman Prison Farm's maximum security unit.I was amazed by the fidelity of the narrative,it was like being transfered back in time!The short but excellent telling of the Monroe Freedom Rider Project with Robert Williams in North Carolina was enlightning for me as a participant because of the dramatic events of that disastorous Sunday.I was one of five riders not on the picket line and never heard of the experiences of those arrested downtown.I cannot recommend this book more highly for anyone interested in the civil rights movement. It should be read by anyone who is politically active in order to understand the complexity of social movements and the responsibilty of the participant to their cause and the people they are attempting to help.
We shall overcome!
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