★ 01/11/2021
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. (Apr.)
03/01/2021
In May 1961, 18-year-old Person joined the first Freedom Riders. He boarded a Trailways bus in Washington, DC, with a handful of people headed to New Orleans for a Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)-sponsored test of the 1960 Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia, which reaffirmed that racial segregation on public transportation is illegal. His vivid memoir is a coming-of-age narrative of eye-opening experiences with Jim Crow, and his growing determination to do something about segregation. It carries readers from his 1942 birth in Atlanta's Buttermilk Bottom through his enrollment at Morehouse College, engaging in the Atlanta Student Movement's desegregation sit-ins, and then volunteering for the CORE "Ride." In almost diaristic style, he details the Riders' daily routine, personal misgivings, and the camaraderie and community that sustained them against such viciousness as the Mother's Day bus firebombing in Anniston, AL, as well as the mob onslaught that ended the first Ride. VERDICT Person's engagingly rendered, intimate testimony offers a look at the power of character and conviction among grassroots activists who paid the painful price of direct action to penetrate America's consciousness. His words call for continuing efforts to "do something."—Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe
★ 2021-01-22
A stirring memoir that offers a view of the legacy of the 1961 Freedom Rides on both micro and macro scales.
This dynamic narrative effectively demonstrates the circumstances that led to the Freedom Rides and serves as a reflection of what it means to belong in America, then and now. With the assistance of Rooker, Person (b. 1942) chronicles his journey in a way that testifies to the impressive character traits shared by the Freedom Riders, especially strength, determination, and unwavering dedication to equality. After enrolling at Morehouse College in 1960, Person became the youngest of the original 13 and the last to join the group. His perspective is that of an outsider becoming an insider, and he generously shares significant moments such as grappling with Klansmen in Atlanta and being attacked in Birmingham for sitting at a Whites-only counter. By recounting his inspiring youthful experiences, the author also creates a forceful call to action for readers to board their own literal or metaphorical buses: “The ride you accept, no matter the risk—in fact, because of the risk—may have the force to lift and uplift millions….Make the country better for those unborn who will never know the seat you took.” Person artfully weaves together the many characters and events of this tumultuous time, putting the pieces together for readers to fully understand the gravity of this “groundswell of change.” The depth with which the author examines not just his own story, but that of his fellow riders, gives a multifaceted perspective that clearly demonstrates why each was committed to the cause. The throughline for himself is clear, as he articulates early in the book his Papa’s advice to “do something.” By divulging the inner stories of his fellow riders, Person offers a unique and powerful aggregate view of events.
A vital story, this memoir is also an instructive gift to future generations fighting for change.
"Civil rights activist Person debuts with a striking personal history of the 1961 Freedom Rides...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
"This dynamic narrative…serves as a reflection of what it means to belong in America, then and now. The depth with which the author examines not just his own story, but that of his fellow riders, gives a multifaceted perspective that clearly demonstrates why each was committed to the cause. A vital story, this memoir is also an instructive gift to future generations fighting for change."
—Kirkus, starred review
"Buses Are a Comin’ chronicles Person’s political coming of age during the civil rights movement. [His] memoir is a sobering, first-person account of that historic bus ride."
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Person’s engagingly rendered, intimate testimony offers a look at the power of character and conviction among grassroots activists who paid the painful price of direct action to penetrate America’s consciousness."
—Library Journal
"Person’s searing, revelatory, and often-inspiring memoir provides a clear, vivid, and eloquent account of the first segment of the pivotal 1961 Freedom Rides."
—New York Journal of Books
"This is a book you hand to readers too young to remember the Civil Rights Movement. It honors and it sings out names. Read it; Buses Are A Comin' will keep you in your seat."
—Terri Schlichenmeyer
“An enthralling account of the American Civil Rights Movement and an impassioned call to action.”
—BookBrowse
"A compelling narrative, rich in its description of the searing brutality of white racists opposed to the Freedom Rides of 1961, powerful in its depiction of the courage of civil rights protestors."
—William H. Chafe, Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of History, emeritus, Duke University; former president, Organization of American Historians, author of Civilities and Civil Rights and The Rise and Fall of the American Century
"Charles Person's book is a very personal, poignant and political account of his life's evolution. It is especially revelatory for young males (of any ethnicity) in their sacred search for 'self, relevance and calling.' It is a vivid personal snapshot of his coming of age. He fully exposes his life's journey: genuinely and movingly. His legacy is well established in this writing. He reminds us of the debt that we owe for the life that we have been given; and that to whom much is given and entrusted, much more is required."
—Rev. Dr. Carolyn M McKinstry, author of While the World Watched
"Buses Are a Comin' is the most complete recounting we have of any of the Freedom Riders' experiences during those epochal days of 1961, and is at times lyrical, always insightful, and reveals a true American hero who is humble and appreciative. But Charles Person also subtly wants to exhort others, this and future generations, to 'get on the bus' and challenge inequality and injustice."
—Derek Catsam, Professor of History and Kathlyn Cosper Dunagan Professor in the Humanities, University of Texas-Permian Basin, and author of Freedom's Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides
"Charles Person’s searing memoir of the original May 1961 Freedom Ride organized by the Congress of Racial Equality is an extraordinary document of physical and moral courage. As the youngest of the original thirteen Freedom Riders, and as one of the Riders subjected to a savage beating by a group of white supremacist thugs at a Birmingham bus terminal, Person tells a tale both frightening and empowering. That he survived to relate this tale with his own powerful voice is a blessing for us all."
—Raymond Arsenault, author of Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice
Charles Person is the lone survivor of the 1961 Freedom Rides— perilous integrated bus journeys from Washington, DC, through the Deep South that were one of the pivotal tactics of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. 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. Woodson’s tone and cadence have listeners feeling as though they are accompanying the Freedom Riders, who included future Congressman John Lewis. Woodson also is empathetic in recounting details of Person’s youth—being raised in poverty, struggling to pay for school, and facing down racists intent on harming him—or worse. This important audiobook is shared exquisitely by Woodson. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Charles Person is the lone survivor of the 1961 Freedom Rides— perilous integrated bus journeys from Washington, DC, through the Deep South that were one of the pivotal tactics of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. 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. Woodson’s tone and cadence have listeners feeling as though they are accompanying the Freedom Riders, who included future Congressman John Lewis. Woodson also is empathetic in recounting details of Person’s youth—being raised in poverty, struggling to pay for school, and facing down racists intent on harming him—or worse. This important audiobook is shared exquisitely by Woodson. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine