I’ve read my share of Civil Rights memoirs, and this is one of the best. My thanks go to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

Charles Person grew up in an all-Black Atlanta neighborhood in the 1950s and 60s. At the story’s outset, he describes how sleeping arrangements were juggled inside their two-room apartment, with four family members sleeping in the front room, and three, himself among them, back in the kitchen. Since everyone in the neighborhood had roughly the same economic standing, it didn’t occur to Person that his family might be considered poor. He was at the top of his class academically, college-bound. His family were faithful church goers, and his father worked two-plus jobs to provide the bare necessities, but they never went hungry. It was only later, when his neighborhood was featured on a news program addressing “Urban blight,” that he learned that the place he loved and called home was part of a “tenement.” The overall tone of his home life is set at the beginning, when he describes an incident from childhood. He and another child stole peaches off of a neighbor’s tree, and his mother marches them to the door, makes them confess—which meant looking the owner in the eye and using the word “stole,” rather than a softer euphemism—and pay for the fruit they ate. Thus we know there’s a definite moral compass here.

It isn’t until he’s grown that Person learns about racism. He gets his first job at a bowling alley, and he learns what parts of that place and the surrounding businesses he is allowed to access, and which are for whites only. Later, he insists on sending his test scores and application to a Georgia university, knowing his marks are excellent, but is notified by mail that the school will not admit Negro (the accepted term at the time) students. As the lunch counter sit-ins in North Carolina draw headlines, Person becomes part of a local student effort to end segregation at the lunch counters in their area. Person is thrown in jail, and when he is released a short time later, he is experienced, primed, and ready for more.

The story of Person’s life, and of the Freedom Rides, which make up most of the memoir, is riveting. It’s told in first person, in a you-are-there kind of narrative that drew me in. I listened to part of this story using the audio book that I borrowed from Seattle Bibliocommons, but although the reader generally does a serviceable job with the text, I recommend the print version. I winced when the reader mispronounced “mimeograph”; there are no mimes in there, honey. But mostly, there are a lot of freedom songs interspersing the story, as the riders sing in jail, sing in the bus, sing, sing, and sing some more, and I don’t know about you, but it sets my teeth on edge when in the audio version the lyrics are simply read, with or without rhythm. Many of these are well-known songs, and if I see the words on the page, I will hear the music in my head. Listening to someone recite the words in a bloodless, wooden recitation is just sad.

For anyone that misses the connection, Person draws the connection between the Freedom Rides and the struggle of the present:

“It is sixty years later, and politicians do the same today when the devalue and disrespect important African-American societal concerns by turning Black Lives Matter into All Lives Matter. Of course, all lives matter. No one argues against that, but changing the issue from “Black” to “All” steals the legitimacy of a vital concern that needs political attention and a political solution. The intentional and insidious shifting on an issue through language is a calculated move. It was by [Georgia Governor] Vandiver in 1960, and it is today. It avoids and insults at the same time.”

There is no better time to learn the lessons of the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-1900s, and apply them to the struggle against racist cop brutality in the present. If this subject makes you sit up a little straighter, you need this book. Of course, it’s also great reading for anyone that likes a good memoir, but even so, read it actively. There’s so much more work to be done.

I was very excited to read this memoir. Growing up in the Deep South I don't think I ever learned about the Freedom Riders in school, aside from maybe a paragraph in the history books during the Civil Rights Movement section. It wasn't until college when I took a course that I learned more in depth about the Freedom Riders. I found this memoir to be an incredible exploration, explanation, and informative about the Freedom Ride movement and those involved.

A wonderful eye-opening book about racism and the power to persevere. I encourage everyone to read this book!

I loved the book Buses Are A Comin by Charles Person and Richard Rooker.It tells the story of the Freedom Riders both white and black who traveled by bus to Southern states in the early 60s to test the laws that had abolished segregated seating on buses.They also tried to see if they would be served in whites only dining sections, shoeshine stations and other white only section of bus terminals.As the bus leaves from Washington D.C. and travels south to it’s end in New Orleans, the riders are met with increasing protests and eventual violence.This is a rich and vibrant book with lots of backstory that will make you feel as if you are on the bus with these amazing , courageous people.This is a story that is hard to believe happened but it’s message still rings true today.A must read.

BUSES ARE A COMIN' by Charles Person with Richard Rooker is a memoir written by the youngest of the original Freedom Riders. Person joined future Congressman John Lewis and others in 1961 to test whether Southern cities would follow the Supreme Court ruling (Boynton v. Virginia) about desegregating bus depots, waiting areas, restaurants, and restrooms. Person was 18 at the time and, as the publishers point out, this text therefore provides a "challenge from a teenager of a previous era to the young people of today: Become agents of transformation." Of course, our students study and analyze the events from this time (several groups read March, Books 1 and 2) and primary sources, like these newspaper articles and archival video, are so key. I do wish that BUSES ARE A COMIN' contained more images (there are a few on the endpapers) because that really helps students to envision the conflict and tension that was pervasive. In one example Person contrasts the 1961 Masters Tournament in Augusta (won by Gary Player from apartheid South Africa) and the rules against Black players participating (Lee Elder was the first to play in 1975) with the surprisingly uneventful service that he and other Black riders received from the Post House restaurant in Augusta, Georgia. Of course, there is much more about Dr. King ("the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice"), motives and backstories for the other riders, and the violence with which they were often met. The details about the many kindnesses, many acts of courage, and many dangers, including graphic beatings, are vividly described. BUSES ARE A COMIN' received starred reviews from Kirkus ("a vital story") and Publishers Weekly ("inspirational account"). A copy will be on our shelves along with related texts on the Civil Rights Movement.

This book is so powerful and timely. It's hard to know what to write for a review. There's so much to take in, so much to still learn, and so much we can all do. I really enjoyed this book and may need to read it again. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

From the mind and memory of Charles Person comes this timely tale of his experiences as a young man growing up in the segregated south. Starting with his youth growing up in a poor neighborhood in Alabama known as “the bottom”, to his role as a Freedom Rider. There are few times that are notable in history for their impact on society and how the world worked. The decade of the 1960’s can definitely be defined as one of those times, and here we are given an insiders view of just what they may have been like and it’s fascinating. All the legendary figures of the civil rights movement like Martin Luther King Jr, and John Lewis are resurrected and become real again. We also learn of others who may not be well known, but who’s roles are equally important. This story also serves as a call to action to all of us to keep pushing, keep fighting against injustice, and to get on the bus when it comes for us. Definitely, the right time to be reading such a story and never a more important time to make people remember what we fought against and the sacrifices that were made to get us where we are. This also serves as a reminder of just how far we have to go still to become truly equal under the law. Review posted to Amazon, Goodreads, Litsy, Facebook, and LibraryThing.

I found this book to be highly engaging. There's a lot to learn and though it may be difficult to hear, it's so very important we listen.

this is definitely a go to for learning more about the history they didn’t teach you in school. it’s a first hand account from Charles Person himself during the original Freedom Rides. these rides were designed to investigate if the Supreme Court rulings that outlawed segregation on buses and in bus stations would be upheld

Person outlines his early life, giving readers an understanding as to how his own experience with discrimination and racism led him to become a civil rights activist. he details the entire journey the Freedom Riders undertook, recounting how close to death they often came. some names will be recognizable to most (i.e. John Lewis, MLK Jr) but there are many that may be unfamiliar, and that is an especially powerful part of this memoir

Person was denied entry to Georgia Tech because he is Black and his father asked him a question that became the philosophy of his life - “what are you going to do about it?” he did some things about it! i also really loved the connections Person made between the activism of the 60’s and of today. he challenges his readers by telling us there will always be a fight to be fought so what are we going to about it

An excellent book that captures both the events and the feelings of those days. Should be required reading for all

“We made a demand to be seen, acknowledged, heard, and affirmed as human beings. We sat in at restaurant, kneeled in at churches, and waded in at beaches where human beings who somehow thought they were more human than we met us with force, indignation, mockery, and arrest.”

In 1961 Charles Person was an 18 year old student at Morehouse College. He also became one of the original Freedom Riders who risked their lives to travel by bus from Washington D. C. to New Orleans to test whether the states along their route would comply with a Supreme Court desegregation opinion. The ride was sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality. Person is one of only 2 of the original 13 Freedom Riders alive today, so this first person account of these events is very important to preserve.

In this memoir, Person recounts how he was shaped by his parents and circumstances to take the bold step that he did when volunteering to be a Freedom Rider. The Freedom Riders were both black and white, with a wide age range and vastly different life experiences. The book describes the training that they received in non violent resistance from James Farmer. The riders worked in teams of two, one was an observer. The other was a tester who attempted to use the services reserved for the opposite race - including rest rooms, bus seats, shoe shine stands and lunch rooms. They were also accompanied by reporters and photographers.

All along the way the riders encountered difficulties, but the worst was in Birmingham, Alabama where they were severely beaten and a mob tried to burn them alive. They eventually had to abandon their plan to continue on to Montgomery, Alabama because no bus driver would take them. Their attempt to fly also had to be abandoned due to bomb threats. Although the original 13 didn’t get to complete the planned route, other Freedom Riders joined in and kept the Freedom Ride going.

This book was very well written and detailed. Person described this milestone in the civil rights struggle from a unique vantage point. I am glad that he wrote the book and that I got to read it.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy. I could not put this book down. It reads like a thriller but it's a true story of the Freedom Riders who fought, in a peaceful way, to end segregation in the South. There are too many statements I highlighted to mention, but this was particularly meaningful to me at this present time in our country, "Look around. What injustice do you see? What change needs to happen? Get on the bus. Make it happen."

I highly recommend reading this book, you won't regret it.

This is such an amazing book. everyone interested in civil, human and black rights should read this. It will change your life.

This is the single best coming-of-age memoir I have ever read. I have read and enjoyed many. It is 1961, and eighteen-year-old Charles Person needs his parents'' permission to become the youngest of the original Freedom Riders of 1961. James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) led up the plan to test the right of black and white people to use non-segregated interstate buses and use the facilities and amenities in the bus depots. The U.S. Supreme Court decided a pair of cases establishing these rights, but blatantly segregated buses, waiting rooms, depot restaurants, station restrooms, and even shoeshine stands remained the norm in the Jim Crow South. This was the freedom ride that led to the iconic photo of a Greyhound bus burning in a white mob's effort to stop the Freedom Riders from continuing on their journey - actually, to kill them if possible. Pearson was on the Trailways bus that Mother's Day, but his team was not spared. They were beaten to a pulp, enduring lifelong medical problems from their injuries, these black and white men and women fighting for equal rights for people of color. I was a seven-year-old white girl in a conservative city in Pennsylvania when they rode, with a mommy who was a civil rights activist and a daddy who supported her work. I heard about the burning Greyhound bus and had a rudimentary understanding of the lunch counter sit-ins and Jim Crow. Some years ago, I read the voluminous, amazing, and scholarly book on the 1961 Freedom Riders by Raymond Arsenault. I've read articles and interviews and thought I got it. And then I read Buses Are a Comin: Memoir of a Freedom Rider. I don't say this to make a point about me. I say this to remind us all that there is more to learn: There is always more to learn. Always more that can bring deeper understanding. This is an eloquent, beautifully written, and compelling book, with wonderful use of the protest/freedom songs of the era. It is a different telling of a well-known story. Its strength lies in illustrating this two weeks in May 1961 through the eyes of a very young man with a year of college and some protests and sit-ins under his belt. Person's voice is authentic. He shares enough to help us understand how he processed and experienced this journey: leaving Georgia on a bus for the first time, working with famous activists, training for nonviolent responses to violent treatment, breaking bread with supporters, befriending the older white riders on his team, and moving on, moving on until they were too battered to take one more bus. And when they could do no more, hundreds of others took up the job for the rest of that summer, riding buses all over the south in various groupings by race, sitting in the "wrong" seats, always an observer riding as a "regular" customer to help out if the others got arrested. We know that and certainly, I've tried to imagine what it was like to be part of this harrowing summer made up of many individual journeys. Person lets us in. He takes us on the bus and tells his very personal story and he does it engagingly and freshly.

Buses Are A’ Comin is the straight-forward and very inspiring account of the first Freedom Ride, by its youngest passenger, Charles Person. In 1961, Person was in his first year of college and not yet out of his teens. But he understood poverty and racism as lived experiences. He sensed the change that was unsettling the status quo. In college, he met the leaders that were organizing the sit-ins and marches; he became an active participant. When the call went out for volunteers for the Freedom Ride, he volunteered. He takes the reader on the journey with him. In this book, he engages the reader to understand why he risked his life and why others, black and white, did as well. We see what he saw in the terrible institution of Jim Crow. We feel his fear as he comes dangerously close to losing his life. We feel his determination as he learns, figuratively and literally, that when the “buses are a’comin” you need to decide to get on.

I highly recommend this book. It will challenge you to think about the values you live. It is also first-person history that will help us understand current challenges and issues. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read the digital ARC. It was my pleasure.

This book! I have been on the nonfiction bus a lot more than usual this month. My interest is constantly peaked whenever I have a chance to expand on an important piece of history. It just serves as a reminder that we can never stop learning. I was all too happy to do a deep dive into Buses Are a Comin’ which tells the story of Civil Rights pioneer Charles Person and his participation in the Freedom Ride of 1961. Reading this account was like being a fly on the wall during such an important time in point. Charles being 18 years old and all that he endured during this ride just shows hows brave he was in understanding how important it was for him to move things forward toward equality, All the details provided in this book were jaw-dropping and I would highly recommend this book!

Overall an inspiring memoir about Charles Person, the youngest participant who took part in the first Freedom Ride in 1961 - we learned about his story and what brought him onto the path of being a Freedom Rider.

I personally felt this book could've been shortened, as I found some parts dragged a little. Nevertheless, still a powerful read. Never heard of Freedom Rides until now. I found the part about the training that the riders had to go through was the most eye-opening. The brutality and harassment that they had to experience while on the buses were heart-breaking and painful to read.

Buses Are a Comin' is a memoir that I didn't regret reading. A must-read especially if you've never read about Freedom Ride before.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the invitation to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted this memoir of the first Freedom Ride in 1961 from one of the original Riders to be better.
The experience described was certainly incredible and awe-inspiring, but the telling of it was lacking for me. The writing just seemed so overwrought and obvious.
That being said, it’s still worth reading, if just to get a clear picture of the bravery and determination that was required in Jim Crow’s South to sit on a bus.
Thanks to #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this ARC of #busesareacomin in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.

Need some amazing non-fiction books on your reading shelf? How about in your classroom library? Written by the youngest member and one of the remaining survivors of the 1961 Freedom Rides, Charles Person offers a front seat view as his bus travels from Washington and heads into the Deep South where violence awaits.

What I ADORED about this memoir was pretty much everything written! Person's determination and details of the activism that came before, the activism that he participated in and what is happening in the world today. This is a must-read.

Publication Date 27/04/21
Goodreads review published 11/05/21

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Person was 18 years old when he asked permission from his father to join the CORE Freedom Ride. He was in the first group of riders who rode to challenge the implementation of the Supreme Court decision that removed segregation from buses and bus terminals. He tells the tale in a personable manner and from the perspective a young, somewhat naive man. The outcome was horrific, despite the intervention of the Justice Department and Martin Luther King. An important history that is, unfortunately, tremendously relevant today. It's a slow build to a horrific end and the price of bravery is high. A very worthwhile read.