FREEDOM RIDERS by Raymond Arsenault
In the spring and summer of 1961, fifty years ago exactly, four hundred and fifty people -- old and young, black and white, Northern and Southern -- came together to travel from Washington, D.C., through the Deep South, defying Jim Crow laws and putting their beliefs, even their very lives, on the line in defense of racial justice. In this new version of his encyclopedic and award-winning Freedom Riders, Raymond Arsenault recounts their harrowing, horrifying, and ultimately heroic story -- a tale of sacrifice, high drama, and unexpected triumph. This book shows how a disparate band of volunteers expanded the realm of the possible in American politics, redefining the limits of dissent and setting the stage for the civil rights movement: all by taking a ride on a bus.