Raymond Arsenault's The Freedom Riders

In 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama on her way home from work Rosa Parks was asked to give up her seat on the bus so Caucasian passengers could sit down. She refused and was arrested. There was public backlash as some boycotted riding bus lines to show their support. Even though the incident with Rosa Parks took place way before The Freedom Riders were established she is thought by many to be the person that inspired The Freedom Riders. What or who exactly where The Freedom Riders? Raymond Arsenault in his book “Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice” sums them up perfectly in one paragraph. “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
It was mother’s day in Alabama. What’s usually thought of as a peaceful day across the country turned out to be an important day in American history. Thirteen African American and white civil rights activist traveled from Washington D.C. on two buses bound for the south. They established the Freedom Rides. There entire plan was to protest segregation on buses in the south. Marian Smith Holmes paints a vivid picture in his journal “The Freedom Riders”. “Angry white people blocked a Greyhound bus carrying black and white passengers through rural Alabama. The attackers pelted the vehicle with rocks and bricks, slashed tires, smashed windows with pipes and axes and lobbed a firebomb through a broken window. As smoke and flames filled the bus, the mob barricaded the door. "Burn them alive," somebody cried out” (Holmes 1). The public outrage was apparent. Cops had to keep civilians away from The Freedom Riders to ensure their