Buses Are a Comin'

“Buses of change are always a comin’. Here is the story of the bus that I got on”.
Charles Person, along with Richard Rooker share the detailed events of the first Freedom Riders bus trip May 4, 1960 from Washington DC to Birmingham, Alabama.
This is the most emotional book I have ever read. The horror, The hate, The atrocities that have been done to humans because of the color of their skin.
This is the most emotional Book I have ever read . The Courage, The Strength, The Tenacity, The Endurance, The Love.
Reading this book encouraged me to delve even deeper in researching the lives, the stories, the faces of ALL who dared to make a difference without using violence.

Charles Person's riveting account of his being one of the first Freedom Riders in 1961 merits high praise for many reasons. The novel documents first-hand the hatred and brutality met by these "riders," young and old, black and white, who their lives in search of racial equality.
A very young man when he took the ride in 1961, Person "does something," and it shapes his whole life. In this novel, he throws down a gauntlet to young people, yes, but also to anyone of any age now, to "board the bus of change" in support of equality for everyone, no matter the race or the creed, in this country.
This is an important work, perhaps even great. A prediction can easily be made that it will be studied by teachers and used it schools. A masterpiece!

Written in a conversational tone, Buses Are a Comin’ is a historical, educational, and sometimes disturbing, look at the non-confrontational, peaceful fight for equal rights during the early Civil Rights Movement. The men and women at the center of this account are ordinary people, like you and me, striving to bring about change for the good of their race, for the good of the world. While they are non-violent, and stick to their vow of non-violence against all odds, those who they oppose peacefully don’t hold to the same creed. They torture and beat men and women, young and old alike, mercilessly for no other reason than the color of their skin. This is a well written account of what it was like for an innocent black person to go about their daily life while striving for equality in the Deep South. Horror and beatings awaited them just for their choice of a seat on the bus that should rightfully have been theirs all along. I think now is a good time for everyone to read this book and to realize what it was really like back then when brave heroes stood up, or sat down, peacefully in an effort to bring about change. I am so glad I read this book and I’m thankful to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

It's been well over 50 years since the 1961 Freedom Rides began, perilous journeys involving Black and white, male and female activists who set out from Washington D.C. to find out if America was ready to abide by a recent Supreme Court decision ruling segregation unconstitutional in bus depots, waiting areas, restaurants, and restrooms nationwide.

The answer, they would quickly learn, was "No." Southern states, in particular, would continue to disregard federal law and would often do so through the use of brutal violence.

18-year-old Charles Person was one of the first 13 Freedom Riders, the youngest one during that first trip that was scheduled to go from Washington D.C. to New Orleans but would eventually end in Birmingham, Alabama when one of their two buses was burned to a shell while the other bus was attacked by local Klansmen who'd been assured by the local sheriff that they had 15 minutes before police would arrive. By the time police arrived, the Freedom Riders, including Person, were nearly beaten to death and multiple Freedom Riders sustained life-changing injuries from the relatively brief yet brutal attack.

"Buses Are a Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider" is Person's story that he writes alongside Richard Rooker and it's a riveting testimony that jars, disturbs, and refuses to compromise the truths that, sadly, feel just as relevant today.

"Buses Are a Comin'" is written in first-person, an approach that amplifies Person's testimony and gives it all a remarkable sense of urgency. You can practically hear Person speaking the words that he writes, words of youthful enthusiasm and optimism replaced mile-by-mile by the awareness that comes from encountering verbal and physical abuse, relentless name-calling and the growing realization of a world from which his parents had hoped he could be protected.

Of course, such protection would have been impossible. It was made even more impossible by Person's drive to follow the command of his father to "Do Something!," a command given after Person had been denied admission to his college of choice despite meeting all criteria solely because of the color of his skin.

While Charles Person would relent and attend Morehouse College instead, the seeds were planted for a life of doin' something.

If you're anticipating something resembling a textbook accounting of the Freedom Rides, you'd best think again. If you're hoping for something like a greeting card shout of civil rights glee, you'd best think again. "Buses Are a Comin'" is a brutally honest, at times the emphasis is on brutal, testimony of Person's often vile experiences on that first Freedom Ride including the stop in Birmingham that nearly claimed his life along with the lives of those who had joined him.

Person, who had been one of three surviving Freedom Riders from that original trip until Congressman John Lewis recently passed, tells the story in a rather matter-of-fact way. There's certainly no excess drama here because, if we're being honest, the truth is about as dramatic as you can possibly get. That said, "Buses Are a Comin'" also captures the rich human experience that unfolded during the Freedom Ride including the relationships formed, those who provided support, those who risked their lives, and Person's own seeming befuddlement that white folks, in particular, would join in and risk their own lives for equality including one man, who would be left in a wheelchair from the trip, who'd made his fortunes and now made this trip because he wanted every American to have that same opportunity.

While in many ways "Buses Are a Comin'" is almost exactly the book you expect it to be, it's ultimately a far more engaging experience because Person himself is so open and engaging himself. Person has been quoted as saying that "the purpose of a protest is to get people angry" and, in this case, it's perhaps impossible to read "Buses Are a Comin'" without lamenting the hatred that Person and the other Riders encountered and the conflicts, divisions, labels, and hatred that continue to divide us to this day.

An absolute must-read for those engaged in social justice work or who wish to be better informed about the history of racial justice in the U.S., "Buses Are a Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider" is an unforgettable reading experience that we truly can't afford to forget if we aspire to a higher vision for America.

NetGalley Review for Buses Are A Comin’ by Charles Person with Richard Rooker, published by St. Martin’s Press

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this riveting autobiography of a Freedom Rider and civil rights activist.

Charles Person, born in Atlanta, GA in 1943, inspired by the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956 and the 1960 lunch counter sit-in’s in Greensboro, NC, dedicated his young life to full citizenship for black Americans. “Our parents in their time of awakening had handled race one way: Life is difficult, but it could be a whole lot worse. Get along. . . . We, the college-aged Negroes of America, believed our time was now. The day was upon us. I was awake and up for the day.” (page 87)

Charles was a brilliant math and science student but was denied entry into Georgia Tech because of the color of his skin. In 1960, he matriculated at Morehouse College, an historical black college in Atlanta. Influenced by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which was a student-driven organization based on100 percent consensus, giving everyone an equal voice. Charles immediately joined sit-ins at lunch counters, was arrested and even placed in solitary confinement because he sang protest songs too fervently for his racist white jailers' sensibilities.

Interstate transportation had been integrated in 1944 by Irene Morgan (Morgan v Virginia). In 1947 the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) tested the Supreme Court decision by sending riders on interstate buses. With a few exceptions, the ride, known as the Journey of Reconciliation was a success in the northern portion of the South. CORE chose to test it again in 1961 by sending a dozen riders (men and women, black and white, old and young) from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans. Thurgood Marshall said it would be liking leading “sheep to the slaughter.”
Here are those brave Americans:
James Farmer, head of CORE
John Lewis, Hank Thomas Genevieve, Al Bigelow, Ed Blankenheim, Jim Peck, Rev Elton Cox, Jimmy McDonald, Walter Bergman, Frances Bergman, Joe Perkins, Charles Person.

I encourage you to read their story and Charles Person’s. He is a remarkable man, the youngest of the Freedom Riders and a brave American. I believe this could easily become a classic of civil rights nonfiction.
I close with the words of Charles Person:

“Did we belong where we thought we belonged in 1961? Of course, we belonged. Do you belong where you think you belong today? Of course, you belong. But “Do I belong?” is a universal question asked in every generation by those who feel they do not. It is a question resisted by those who think others do not belong. . . . In every era, it takes a bus of change to lead the way to new sense of belonging. Thankfully, a change bus is always a comin’.” (page 563)

I did find this book surprisingly hard to get into at first, given that the subject is something that affected my own life. I understand that there is a lot of anger and pain behind Person’s memories, and I needed to make myself ‘see’ firsthand events that I was mercifully spared at the time.
But the story is slowed by long passages that pretty much make the same point over and over without adding any more to it. I felt like my head was being pounded on or preached at. And like any human, I couldn’t help resisting. Charles Person has every right to make this point with the book, but I wanted the story behind it, not the same anger over and over. I bookmarked pages and highlighted a lot, and I sincerely believe that if I took just my bookmarked pages and the highlighted passages and made a new book, I wouldn’t be leaving much out, and the horror of it all would still be there.
I believe the point he wants to make is not the buses or their riders, the point is what happened to those buses and riders, and the eternal question WHY? Why did such things have to happen? To any human being? And why are they happening still?
I was well over halfway into the book before we were actually on the buses. I began to learn about why the buses had to come, about what happened on them and the treatment of the people who volunteered to go on them. I learned about the hideousness and the inexplicable murderous hate. And the ability of so many to rise above it and carry on. And finally I was glad to have read this book, both for my own research and for my own humanity.
Then in the last chapter or so, it returned to being a polemic. This book is heartbreaking, and a necessary read for all who want to understand its truths. I’m glad for this bit of illumination into my own history. But trying to pound it into the reader over and over gets in the way and makes the book much less effective than it could have been. There is a reason the buses had to come and why they are still coming. And they will keep coming until we do understand and do something about it.

Buses Are a Comin' is a powerful memoir by Charles Person detailing his experiences as a Freedom Rider during the Civil Rights Movement. Not only is this book an important read in the current environment, but we could all learn a thing or two from Person. An engaging and often times heartbreaking narrator the story leaps off the pages and brings history to life.

I wasn’t planning to write a full review for this one, but as I finish it sitting here watching US election results slowly trickle in, it seems fitting to at least leave two quotes as a takeaway.

“Thankfully, a change bus is always a comin’.”
“Get on the bus. Make it happen.”

Don’t just stand by. It’s up to each of us to fight injustice. And look no further than this book if you need a bit of inspiration.

This book was emotional , inspirational and heroic . The activists on rights for a black culture to be treated the same as everyone else . A force to be reckoned with this book will show you the strength it takes to attain justice . Well written and detailed , an excellent part of history that will never be forgotten .

Wow. This is a timely, riveting account of one of the Freedom Riders who chose to ride interstate buses from Washington, DC to New Orleans in 1961 to test a 1960 Supreme Court decision that found segregated bus seating to be unconstitutional. Seven blacks and six whites tested that decision on Greyhound and Continental Trailways buses. Charles Person, at 19, was the youngest of the Riders. He shares his hopes and his fears and gives a spellbinding first person account of the journey.
This is not an easy read. This was not an easy time to be black in America, nor an easy time to be a white supporter of blacks in the South. Person does not pull any punches in this book. And yet it leaves the reader with hope for a better world.

Such an important book!

As a secondary ELA teacher, I can say my students will love this book. Charles Person, one of the 1961 Freedom Riders, tells his story in an easy to read, conversational tone. He tells the unvarnished, real narrative of his time with the Freedom Riders as both black and white boarded buses to test segregation across the South following two Supreme Court decisions that gave them the right to do so.

Person writes of his respect and admiration for his fellow riders, Jim Peck and John Lewis among them. He writes candidly about his childhood, his family's poverty, and their closeness. His story is sometimes uncomfortable, but it is a reality that everyone should know and a story that must be told. When Charles is denied acceptance to white universities, even though he had excellent scores and GPA, you have to feel his disillusion.

His resolve and determination are inspirational. This is a must-read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This memoir left me speechless. I also couldn't stop the tears and rage that overtook me while reading this effort.

I think of all the brave Black men and women and their allies who stood up and said, no more, riding buses right into the mouth of the hatred of the deep south. Charles Person and his comrades James Farmer, Hank Thomas, Genevieve, Al Bigelow, Ed Blankenheim, Jim Peck, Rev Elton Cox, Jimmy McDonald, Walter & Frances Bergman and Joe Perkins changed and shaped history. Including all Freedom Fighters and Freedom Riders who came before and after them.

The bravery one needs to participate in this specific call to action for civil rights, knowing it could lead to your untimely demise is staggering. The bravery that it took to stand, non-violently, against these crazy fucking, evil, vile, demonic white people who threatened to kill them, whom needed racism so badly, and for what purpose? To stand, with your head high not knowing what could happen, but being fully aware of lynchings and people before you being beaten to death. It's wild. I felt so much pain and anguish in my heart.

I keep reflecting on the pictures we've all seen of these sick and depraved white mobs raging on students, children, teachers, pastors, everyone -- those working towards integration. Grown men and women screaming at little children and teenagers, who equally want to go to school and get a substantial education or to get a burger not through a hole in a wall on the back/side of a building. I think of these evil white people burning neighborhoods and setting fire to buses trying to kill innocent people! The fact that society has integrated and hid these monsters! As Charles Person lives and breathes is also as the people who beat him, these people's living grandparents, or great grandparents who have lynched people, they live and breathe! It's a critical reminder, that evil is something that needs to be fought every day and that yes, people my age have grandparents and great grandparents who would rather see me live as a second class citizen. Microaggressions, they're not just in your mind. Your open for 60 year businesses, bosses and business owners, what!! That ideology hasn't gone anywhere but into hiding and it's barely hiding. My mind sometimes felt like it would explode reading this, and I'm Canadian. I don't give Canada a pass either at its racism, similar to the US, almost worse, considering the effects of residential schools and the Canadian government ripping Indigenous children away from their families, sowing discord and genocide up until the goddamned late 80s, early 90s. Up until right now, in reality.

My blood boiled reading this book, my heart hurt reading about the types of violence, unnecessary violence, that the white "majority" exacted against Black people and their white allies just trying to obtain the same rights as any one else. On top of that, these Americans have tried to "liberate" other countries while so many have suffered and continue to suffer in their own country. As we watch how COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted black and brown communities in the US, and their government has been unable to help the Americans who need it most past a one-time $1200 stimulus check, it's a fucking wreck to see how insane things still are. This book got me so fighted.

I thank Charles Person for passing the torch to us young readers telling us to do something and to get on the bus when our moment comes. I'm inspired by the turnout, work, activism and public discourse that I see around me every day. I'm also severely disappointed by the lack of reform we've seen regarding gun violence, police brutality, discrimination and white nationalist violence.

Charles Person was the youngest freedom rider to ride the bus from D.C. to Alabama examining and challenging whether or not newly passed laws by the Supreme Court calling for nationwide desegregation would be upheld in various states where racism and violence was fully living, breathing and engulfing everything around it. It was no easy feat and this story, this first hand account, jumped into the preparation that went into those trips fighting segregation. Charles Person talked about his experiencing growing up, the aftermath of the freedom rides, the hospitality and fear of parishonners in the communities they visited, the constant fear that black people were living and struggling under and the emotional, mental and physical turmoil that these brave folks encountered standing up against racial injustice.

The way Mr. Person was able to juxtapose his era against the current era and the action that is currently taking place in terms of Black Lives Matter, March for Our Lives, the #MeToo movement, etc - makes this extremely current and relatable and a very critical read in understanding the shoulders that we stand on.

Thank you so much NetGalley for letting me read a copy before its release! I can't wait to purchase a copy in the future.

"Buses Are a Comin'" by Charles Person and Richard Rooker is the true story of Person's life and participation in the Freedom Rides in the early 1960s. While there are many books about this period in American in American history, this is the only book I can recall reading that is a first-person account of the Freedom Rides and other actions taken to combat segregation and racism in the South. It's a really fascinating book in which Person describes the development of and training for events that defined the Civil Rights Movement. This is definitely worth reading!

Fury reared it’s ugly head right at the first sentence, and it wasn’t tamed much as I continued to read.

These statements from the summary of this novel are so powerful and moving: “It is also a challenge from a teenager of a previous era to the young people of today: become agents of transformation. Stand firm. Create a more just and moral country where students have a voice, youth can make a difference, and everyone belongs.” So much movement and change has occurred over the years, and so much more will happen in the future, it HAS to! Memoirs such as this one are so important to help remind people where we came from and where we need to be. My heart aches for all of those who have experienced such hatred, such violence, such racism; and it infuriates me. What I truly appreciated while reading this was mostly the personalized first hand experience of someone who lived this, but also the background and history about the Freedom Riders. I hadn’t heard of them before and it was intriguing. This memoir was incredibly moving and important.

I really don't even have words for this book. It is absolutely incredible. I think everyone, no matter your nationality, should read this. As a Canadian, I learned about a part of history that I only vaguely knew about. Of course I had heard about the civil rights movement of the 60s, but Freedom Rides weren't a part I was overly familiar with.

This book is heartbreaking in its history as well as its relevance. As well as telling his story of fighting racism and segregation in the 1960s, he brings up the recent cases of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor as examples of how far we still have to go.

But the biggest thing that will stick with me from this book is Charles' call to action. He got on a bus, even though he was scared. There's always "a bus a comin'." His question to us is: are we brave enough to get on?

Buses Are a Comin’ by Charles Person and with Richard Rooker is a stunning memoir and personal account of a brave and honorable young man, Charles Person whom joined and participated in a peaceful quest and journey within the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

This young man was a part of the Original Freedom Riders group that selflessly placed themselves into the spotlight of the unjust segregation and disgusting practice of racism that was heavy and thick during this pivotal time. Shedding light on these practices in a peaceful and nonviolent manner, this young man was respectful and brave in what he did. It was awe inspiring and humbling to see what was done, not only to him and the above-mentioned group, but also to so many that were truly only asking for equal rights. I cannot imagine the inner fear and the outer struggles that he experienced and overcame during this time. His stories and experiences are laid out in this stunning memior and reflection of how far we have come, and yet how far we still have to go to achieve equality for every person.

I will forever remember and be changed from his story. A must read for every human being.

5/5 stars enthusiastically

Thank you NG and St Martin’s Press for this stunning ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication.

One of the ways I determine if a book I am reading is a 5-star book is if I want to tell the world about it. I wanted to tell the world about this book from the first few pages. I really wanted to tell the world about it when I finished it at 3:00am. It was shocking to me that this happened in my lifetime. The story was often not pleasant to read, despite the author‘s very good writing, but It is an important page of history I knew I had to urge the world to read.
At 88, Charles Person wrote his story. “At 18, Charles Person was the youngest of the original Freedom Riders, key figures in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement who left Washington, D.C. by bus in 1961, headed for New Orleans. This purposeful mix of black and white, male and female activists” wore their Sunday best clothes and manners and vowed to respond to horrific threats and assaults with non-violence. “They set out to discover whether America would abide by a Supreme Court decision that ruled segregation unconstitutional in bus depots, waiting areas, restaurants, and restrooms nationwide.
The Freedom Riders found their answer. No. Southern states would continue to disregard federal law and use violence to enforce racial segregation. One bus was burned to a shell; the second, which Charles rode, was set upon by a mob that beat the Riders nearly to death.
Buses Are a Comin’ provides a front-row view of the struggle to belong in America, as Charles leads his colleagues off the bus, into the station, into the mob, and into history to help defeat segregation’s violent grip on African American lives.”
I read a pre-release copy but it will be officially released on April 27th and ... well.... you should read it!

"We intended to be the change," Charles Person writes in the prologue of his memoir Buses are a Comin'.

Sixty years ago, Person walked away from a college education, walked away from the safety of his family's love, and boarded a bus headed for the deep south. He and his companions, black and white, old and young, male and female, were determined to challenge the illegal practice of segregation on the buses.

Person wanted the dignity, respect, and the privileges that whites took for granted. He could have chosen safety. But he heard the call to "do something" and answered it.

He was eighteen when he donned his Sunday suit and joined the Freedom Riders. Over the summer of 1961, four hundred Americans participated in sixty-three Freedom Rides. The Supreme Court had ruled against segregation on the buses, but Jim Crow ruled the south. Four hundred Americans put themselves into harm's way because they believed that "all men are created equal."

Person mentions the well-remembered leaders of the Civil Rights movement, but they are not the only heroes. This is the story of the people who did the hard work. Those whose names are not on street signs across the cities. The students, ministers, homemakers, writers, social workers, people from across the country who believed in E pluribus unum.

One of the heroes in the book is Jim Peck, a wealthy, white man who was severely beaten by white supremacists, and still got back on the bus. It baffled Person how a man with everything would give so much for the rights of another.

Person's voice and personality come through the memoir. It is the story of a young man finding his purpose, committing himself to endure jail and beatings and near death.

I had seen the documentaries and I had read the history. But a memoir brings something new to the story. Person's first hand account is moving, his words have rhythm and lyricism, his story takes us into hell, and finally, into hope.

If they could stand up to power, we can, too. Every generation has its purpose.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

I really enjoyed reading this book & learning through the experiences of Charles Person, one of the original Freedom Riders. I knew a little about the Freedom Riders' role in advancing the Civil Rights movement prior to reading this, but my knowledge about the topic has been greatly expanded! I found the tone of Person's book to be very easy to read and found out so much about other activists' roles in the movement as well. I highly recommend this book to others interested in learning more about a very important topic in American history.

Buses Are A Comin by Charles Person with Richard Rooker

9781250274199

304 Pages
Publisher: St. martin’s Press
Release Date: April 27, 2021

Nonfiction (Adult), Biographies, Memoirs, Black History, Civil Rights

Charles Person is troubled. He is smart and wants to be a scientist. He is accepted to MIT, but his family cannot afford to pay for it. He wants to go to Georgia Tech but in 1960, they are not accepting Blacks. His only option is to attend Morehouse College, a historic Black college and university, in Atlanta Georgia. He walks the few miles every day to attend classes. There he meets Lonnie King and Julian Bond with the rest of the Atlanta Student Movement.

After a sit-in at lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, local sit-ins were held. This wasn’t enough of an action, so the Freedom Ride bus trip was planned. Not everyone that applied was accepted which surprised Charles why he was selected. At only 18, he was the youngest rider.

This is an amazing story told in the first person. Charles does a great job recalling the experiences before, during, and after the Freedom Ride. I learned so much of this event that took place the year before I was born. If you are interested in the Civil Rights Movement, this is definitely a book to read.

Gripping first-person narrative of the youngest member of the original Freedom Ride, scheduled from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans in Spring, 1961. The story paces itself along, neither lingering too long nor racing through. The author's eyewitness to the challenges faced by those who sought to bring about desegregation, and the actions of those (all too) violently opposed, is quite literally breathtaking.

In 2021 and beyond, as we continue to struggle with racial disparity in the U.S., this book can offer perspective on how it was done 60 years ago, and encouragement to the next generations picking up the mantle.

This first-person account of the initial Freedom Ride of 1961 is heartbreaking, infuriating, and inspiring. It is evidence of how far our country has come in the fight for racial equality, yet reminds us we still have so far to go. It is everyone's responsibility to "get on the bus."

This book left me speechless.
To be honest, this is a part of history that I knew very little about. I was glad that Charles Person was the person to educate me on the Freedom Rides. This book, told in the first person, was like having a conversation in my living room. Mr. Person went into horrifying detail of his account of his involvement during this time. While at times this book was difficult to read, it is a very important book. It should be a part of U.S. history courses in high school and college.

5 stars.

5 out of 5 Stars

***ARC received from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley in exchange for honest review, opinions are all my own. Thank you!***

Sixty years ago Black men and women and their white allies old and young, boarded buses wanting nothing more than to be treated as equals. Some had been in the fight for years while Charles Person took up the call at 18 the youngest of the Freedom Riders of 1961. Reading his account of the ease of the first few days of the ride to the attacks that nearly cost him his and his fellow passengers their lives in harrowing. Its building up to the tension and attacks you know come and yet still caught me off guard.

The book is told in a first person narrative, allowing you as the reader to follow along with Mr. Person and his thoughts. The first half of the book Mr. Person’s young life growing up in Georgia much of it just a normal life. There not much discussion of more overt racism in these chapters in fact there is a scene when the family is traveling home that they come near a caravan of the Ku Klux Klan seeing protection in the porches of strangers that Mr. Person’s describes the scene of the burning crosses driving by as almost beautiful. It is hate viewed through the eyes of a young child and hearing him talk about seeing beauty in something that comes from a place of so much hate. But as Mr. Person’s grows older he sees the racism rearing its ugly head from the language used to not being able to sit at a counter to order a meal.

But times are changing and Mr. Person’s feels that change. He is inspired by not only his own experiences with systemic racism but the experiences and words of others. He draws on their strength that when the time comes to do something, he answers the call to board the buses. There are many times as he is introduced to many of his fellow riders that he wonders what could have brought such an interesting group of people together at times not understanding why an older white retired couple like Mr and Mrs. Bergman or a man of wealth like Jim Peck would want to take the ride with him. While this is a memoir of a man written when he is well into his 70s it reads like you are taking the words straight from 18 y/o Mr. Persons mouth experiencing it for the first time with him.

Which can make it difficult to read, particularly when they reach Alabama greeted by true anger. It is not easy to read and Mr. Person does not shy away from laying everything that happened out there. I have seen the videos and images of the beatings that civil rights activist faced but to be in that moment with him, the fear of being trapped on a bus as a mob sets in to attack him, watching his fellows riders be beaten taking a beating himself to the heart wrenching moment when he is separated from Mr. Peck in the train station and feared for both their lives. Its a memoir, you know the outcome but in that moment he portrays everything so vividly I was truly afraid that they would both be killed.

While they did not finish their ride, these brave men and women set a movement into action that would in many ways still be a movement that goes on to this day as Mr. Person points out. Drawing comparisons to modern day movements from struggles for equality and the end of police brutality led by Black Lives Matter marches and protests, a call for the end to gun violence with the March For Our Lives and the fight against sexual violence with Me Too that while times change the fight never does.

In 1961, a small group of people, both black and white and of a variety of ages from the author at 18 years old up to a retired white couple, got on a variety of buses, planning to head from Washington, DC to New Orleans. The idea was to test what would happen when they sat at various places on the bus, front or back, regardless of their colour. They also (black and white), in some cases, sat together. Supreme Court Decisions in the 1940s (before Rosa Parks) and the 1950s said that anyone should be able to sit anywhere on interstate buses, and that anyone should be able to sit anywhere, use any washroom, order from any food place, etc. inside the depots.

Wow… what an amazing group of very brave people! Granted, some of them didn’t realize how bad it would get (including Charles, though he had grown up in Georgia… but Georgia wasn’t the worst), but this was the first group of “Freedom Riders” that set off a chain of others to continue when they were unable to finish their trips. It’s crazy to me how the KKK was still alive and well in the deep South, and even police were involved. Obviously, this book includes violence (though the Riders themselves had vowed to be nonviolent), and some awful subject matter. It was heart-wrenching at times.

The first chapter tells of the climax of the trip, but then backs up to tell us about Charles’ life growing up. In May 1961 for those two weeks that the first Freedom Ride was happening, he was at the tail end of his first year of college. He had previously been involved in some protests in Atlanta with other college students regarding the segregation of blacks and whites in restaurants and cafes. But this was something else. When I finished, I “had” to check a few videos on youtube.

A great first hand account of the 1961 Freedom Rides in protest of the nonenforcement of Supreme Court rulings banning racial segregation on interstate transportation. I've read a lot about that era but never a first-hand account of what it was like to actually be on the bus. Unfortunately it still is very timely today.

This book was a magical and bittersweet experience. It added a rich layer to the Civil Rights Movement and told what really happened that the history books get wrong. It was a moving and horrifying story and brought me to tears several times to read what had happened in the course of fighting for their rights and lives. This should be required reading for all Americans, a dark and hopeful story of our shameful and uplifting past. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc in exchange for my honest opinion. This book changed me and I’m so grateful for that!

For me, true heroes aren’t celebrities or athletes who get paid a ton of money to do their jobs. Heroes are people like Charles Person, a man who stood up for his rights despite the threat to his safety, remained peaceful in the face of aggression, and showed love in the face of hate.

This memoir is beautiful, heartbreaking, fascinating, inspiring, and hopeful.

The writing style is conversational, as if we’re sitting down with Charles Person as he tells us about his life and, most prominently, his experience as a Freedom Rider during the early sixties. He writes with rich detail, allowing me to understand, in at least a small way, what it was like to be a Black man living in the south during this tumultuous era.

I don’t have appropriate words for how I feel about this book and all it represents. So read this book. Learn. Grow. Be part of the change.

This is a phenomenal book that finely balances our troubled, heartbreaking history, along with the inspiring story of fighting for racial equality. Person takes us into what it was like and to be a part of history that is still unfolding, decades later.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy in exchanged for my honest review.

50 years ago Charles Person got on a bus with the intent to travel through the deep south from Washington DC all the way to New Orleans, testing to see if states were abiding by the Supreme Court decision that rendered segregation unconstitutional. Despite this federal ruling removing segregation in buses, bus depots, restaurants, schools, etc, southern states were not following these rulings, and instead were often fighting against them. Charles Person was the youngest member to join what became the original Freedom Ride that year, and Buses Are A Comin’ contains his recollections of what led up to his joining the movement, and how it played out for him and the other members.

This memoir is an absolutely gripping read. We learn about Charles Person’s childhood in Atlanta, how he comes of age in an era where people around him are standing up against the status quo, and how he joins the movement himself. I loved the tone of this book, Person’s voice draws you in and provides such a detailed view of not only the Freedom Ride itself but also the people he traveled with, even all these years later. I also really appreciated the parallels that he draws between then and now. In the grand scheme of things 50 years is not that long ago, and while we may seem to have come a long way since the days of visible segregation in the south, the policies and actions of the law and the general public have not really changed very much, and we should all still be jumping on buses as soon as we see them coming. We can all be as brave as Charles Person and everyone else he jumped on those buses with.

Highly recommended read, this is one that I will be reading to my kids in a couple of years. It contains a lot of important history and lessons that we all need to understand and remember and pass on.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a heartbreaking but necessary memoir about resilience and courage in the face of treacherous adversity and racism. Pearson, a young man standing up for rights that should be naturally given to all, was focused and brave for the pursuit of happiness, equality, and freedom. It is beautifully written by Pearson with Rooker and leaves me more appreciative of those that stood for civil rights during that time against their opposers. Thank you to St. Martin's Press for an a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I had heard of the Freedom Riders, but didn’t realize that it was both black people and white people riding the buses, testing the systems. Buses Are A Comin’ by Charles Person, along with Richard Rooker, is an absolutely fascinating book. Written in a conversational style, I felt like we were having coffee, with Mr. Person telling me his stories from the past. The horrible way he and the others were treated in Alabama by white people for just sitting in any seat on the bus sickened me. It did not surprise me, because we see now 60 years later how some people are reacting to the BLM movement. When the buses come, it is up to all of us to get on them. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

My feelings swelled and burst in this remarkably optimistic memoir of the 1961 Freedom Ride (y'know, the one that ended in a bus burning on the side of the road and attempted lynchings...). Person really calls up every strong leader of the time in a way that makes you want to know more about everyone he encounters.

5 stars
Buses Are Coming by Charles Person and Richard Rooker
This needs to be required reading in every school across the globe. This book is beyond incredible. It truly hurt my heart to read this and the horror this man and his fellow freedom riders had to deal with to just be treated as a human being with rights and dignity. Enlightening, heartbreaking and motivating all at the same time. 60 years have passed and so much has changed and yet it seems as nothing has, it is more than a tad discouraging. I am so impressed by Charles Person, he is not just a bitter man filled with hate. He is truly an inspiration..
If you only read one book this year, it needs to be this one.




I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.

I received a widget from the publisher to read this book early. Honestly, I hesitated because it’s just not my type of book (a memoir). But I ultimately thought if they want me to read it, it must be good.

I’m glad I decided to read it! This is such a beautifully written account of one of the Freedom Riders’s perspective on the ride, plus everything leading up to it.

I learned things from this book that no one will ever teach in a history class (in fact Person said he never learned it in history, either). He only learned it while training to become a Freedom Rider - and I only know because of him. I had never even heard of Lonnie King or Irene Morgan before, but they were major contributors to the way our lives are today. They pushed for a better America and they are true unsung heroes.

I knew very little about the Freedom Riders before this book, but now that I can truly understand, I think this is a must-read for everyone.

Person’s parallelism and his extended metaphors are major contributors to this piece of literature. He tells us (in much more eloquent words) that change is only made when people get on the bus. In order to make change, you need to get people on board.

Evocative, painful and inspiring, Charles Person tells us about the innocence of his childhood that morphed into a compelling call to stand up for change. In BUSES ARE A COMING, he describes the call for change that ranged from conditions in the South to President Kennedy’s inauguration. It’s hard to imagine now, with all we’ve recently been through politically, that a President’s call would be to fix the world by individual action. It would come at considerable cost to those that answered.

“For in 1961, we, the students, represented the inch that, if given in to, would lead to the mile white Southerners had no intention of yielding.“

Person challenges readers to stand up to injustice now, as he and other did in the Civil Rights Movement. This book is a necessary addition to our national conversation; it should be widely read. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

“In every era, it takes a bus of change to lead the way to new senses of belonging. Thankfully, a change bus is always a comin’.”

This book really surprised me. I wasn’t expecting to be so easily pulled into this memoir. Charles Person was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders during the summer of 1961. This group sought to challenge resistance to desegregating interstate bus travel in the United States.

Mr. Person starts his memoir giving the reader a glimpse into his upbringing in the bottoms of Atlanta. One of the experiences he recounts is a visit his family made to relatives in the country and encountering the Klan on the trip back to Atlanta. His description of the event is from the standpoint of a child and is one of the most vivid encounters I have read.

He then moves to describing his days at Morehouse and how he was active in the Student Nonviolent movement at the Atlanta University Center. This would be his first taste of protest and activism. It also was preparation for the Freedom Ride ahead.

By the times Mr. Person begins recalling the Freedom Ride days, I was on the edge of my seat. He perfectly describes the tension, the smells, the anger, the words he and his fellow riders encountered.

Parts of the book read like a rousing speech Mr. Person must have given before. I am sure he has recounted his story many times over the last 60 years and finally penned into a moving memoir with the assistance of his friend, Richard Rooker.

The points Mr. Person makes in the memoir about the effects of systematic racism on American society are still valid today. This book will appeal to those who seek to learn more about systematic racism in the United States, those who are interested in the nonviolent student movements of the 1960’s and those who enjoy a well written memoir.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for providing a review copy of this book via Netgalley.

This is timely and compelling memoir by the youngest of the Freedom Riders should be more widely read than I suspect it will. Person has a fascinating story to tell and he's done it, in conjunction with Booker, in a manner than pulls the reader in. You might know the outlines of what happened in 1961 but this first person account is especially valuable for its insights into others on the Ride, some of whom became towering figures in the civil rights movement and others of whom might be less familiar. it's filled with grace, even as Person details the horrible abuse the group suffered. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. An important and worthy read.

What a great memoir! It follows the life story of Charles Person, one of the original Freedom Riders who challenged racial segregation in interstate travel in the Deep South during the 1960s. This will be great for someone who’s looking to learn more about civil rights history. They’ll learn the basics but they’re also learn about a lot of unsung heroes who history has neglected to remember. I found the writing engaging and easy to follow. The memoir is also relatively short but a lot of information is packed in. I also enjoyed learning more Georgia history as a fellow Georgian myself. I also appreciate this book as a professional historian. When training to become a historian you discuss who the target audience books are written for and this book was written for the people. It left you feeling inspiring and wanting to take action. Many things have changed in America in the 60 years since the events of this memoir, but many things have not. The fight against racial injustice continues and this book will be a tool in that fight,

There are many unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Charles Person, the author of Buses Are A Comin’, is one of them. Person is one of two original Freedom Riders that are still living today (alongside Hank Thomas). He was the youngest member of this group of activists who rode buses from Washington, D.C. to the Deep South to test whether two Supreme Court cases that outlawed segregation on buses and bus stations were going to be enforced. Person’s memoir is coming out at the just the right time for the 60th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides and at another time of strong civil rights activism.

Person’s book is a memoir covering his early life to his involvement in the Freedom Rides. It begins with his upbringing on Bradley Street in the Bottoms neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia. He had his first encounter with the KKK when he was a child. He describes it in vivid detail, it would not be his last run-in with the Klan. His memoir continues through his school days and to the time he was considering colleges. His first choice MIT was too expensive to attend and his second choice Georgia Tech would not admit him because of his skin color. Feeling down, his grandfather picks him back up by telling him to “do something”. Readers will find that this mantra is important later on in Person’s life. He ultimately decides to attend Morehouse College. It was at Morehouse that he meets Lonnie King and Julian Bond who get him involved in the Atlanta Student Movement, where they protested segregated lunch counters and succeed in integrating them.

The rest of the book chronicles Person’s experience on the Freedom Rides. He writes about each member who was involved, White and Black, with particular focus on the White members and their motivations for getting involved. This is especially the case for Jim Peck who was a White millionaire who participated in the Freedom Rides. Person does a good job telling what it was like to participate in this movement. Specifically how the Riders did not face a lot of opposition in the earlier stops, but trouble and violence occurred as soon as they arrived in the Deep South. It would be this violence by racist Whites and Klan members that would end their Freedom Ride early. Person gives a brief summary of the other Freedom Rides that picked up where his group left off, but leaves it to those participants to tell their side of the story.

He ends this memoir by covering his life post-Freedom Ride, his service in the military in Cuba (during the Cuban Missile Crisis) and Vietnam. Both experiences could be books of their own. Person is particularly strong when he discusses the cost of his service in the Civil Rights Movement and the military. As a result he suffered injuries and physical issues that continue to effect him to this day. White members of the Freedom Rides also suffered a cost, their families disinherited them and others either currently live or died in poverty. This was good to mention because sometimes we see activists who end up living a lavish lifestyle, but that is usually just the ones who became famous post-movement. Others who tend to be unsung live normal or dismal lives, never really appreciated for the service they did for our country.

Throughout the book Person explicitly makes connections between his activism and the young activists who are involved in various social movements today. Our modern day activists stand on the shoulders of people like Charles Person and the other lesser known activists of the 1950s and 1960s. This will be a great book for young activists to read, to learn they are not alone, that someone has been in their shoes. Students of history and the Civil Rights Movement will enjoy reading this beautifully written book.

Reading this book evoked so many emotions: sadness, shame, anger, admiration, disgust. Charles Person recalls his innocent childhood, before he knew that he lived on a street literally used as the textbook example of poverty, before he knew that segregation and racism exist, when he had no reason to doubt what his parents taught him: that he was a loved and worthy of respect. Then he walks the reader through the steps that cracked and eventually shattered that innocence, culminating in his inability to attend his college of choice because of his race. Next, he tells us what he stood up and did about it: how he joined student movements, participated in sit-ins, was jailed and put in solitary confinement - and finally, how he applied to join the first Freedom Ride.

I'm embarrassed to say I'd never heard of the Freedom Rides. I'd never heard that it was necessary for people to get on buses and test out whether Supreme Court decisions dismantling segregation were being followed, to demonstrate for the nation that they WERE NOT BEING FOLLOWED. Like Charles, the reader is lulled into a false sense of security as the buses start out; things go fairly uneventfully in Virginia. But the further south they go, the worse the treatment gets. At one point, Martin Luther King, Jr., refuses to join them and advises them to stop their ride. It was THAT dangerous. The treatment these brave men and women received in Georgia, and finally, Alabama, is horrific.

If the book had ended with the end of Charles Person's Freedom Ride, I would've thought it an excellent, eye-opening book. But the authors conclude the book by connecting the original Freedom Rides to the present day, naming names and calling on us to board our own buses and fight the injustices that have become so painfully visible over the last few years. More than just a timely and relevant read, it is a call to action; let us be brave enough to ride for equality and justice like Charles Person.

Such a relevant read for everyone, this memoir evoked such powerful feelings as I read of Charles Person’s experiences before, during, and after his participation as the youngest member in the Freedom Riders.
Though I was a young child during the Civil Rights movement in the early 60’s some of the names were familiar to me but Charles memoir brought the absolute horror of it to life. These unsung heroes did so much for the movement, remaining peaceful in spite of the numerous hate filled attacks on them. So appreciated his insights of Black Lives Matter and the Me Too movements occurring 60 years later. Although there has been change there is still a long ways to go. Many many thanks to Charles Person, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read this memoir, soon to be published on April 27.

“No one has any control over the color of their skin, but everyone has control over how they treat others.”

Compelling, vivid and brutal.
I have no words, I read about this before but reading this memoir my emotions were all over the place. This story is moving, raw and inspiring. An educational and necessary read.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this eARC.

http://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeepleasemx

4.25 stars Thanks to Marketing at St Martins for the option to read this book and NetGalley for the download of this ARC. Publishes on April 27, 2021.

Sixty years ago, almost to the week, the Freedom Riders started in DC on a trip to New Orleans. Their goal was to test the new laws that applied to African Americans, in a non-violent unassuming protest below the Mason Dixon Line and deep into the South. Charles Person, the author, was the youngest of the original Freedom Riders. He was 18 years old, but was not foreign to civil right protests. He had organized and attended sit-ins in Atlanta, his home town, at local dinners. Person and one other man are the only remaining living participants of the original Freedom Riders. However many more people, both black and white, took up the cause and laid their lives on the line for desegregation.

Laws had passed allowing the Black population to ride in any seat on Interstate travel and also to be admitted to any section of a depot or depot restaurant area. Blacks were no longer to be segregated. However the deep south was not so accommodating.

This happens to be a protest that John Lewis, the well know Civil Rights Legislator was also on. There were both white and black people participating in this protest. They were doing it in a non violent way, but in a way to see if things were actually changing. Whites went to the back of the bus, Blacks took a front seat. Whites ordered dinners through Black Only cubby holes and Blacks sat at White Only counters. They showed Black and White intermingling. All went well until they hit Alabama - then all hell broke loose.

This memoir is a very good portrayal of the hard fought path that was taken in 1960's to end segregation. In many ways this was the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement - the involvement of the Kennedy's - the rise of John Lewis - the battle of those who believed in equality.

Having lived in some of the southern states as a child, I saw a lot of the signs and treatments of the Black population. Black men stepping off the sidewalk to let my mother and I pass. Black men lowering their heads and eyes when speaking to my father. Sign posted designated drinking fountains and restrooms. I was fairly young, under 10 years of age, so did not understand everything I witnessed then. I had not grown up in the south, so was not indoctrinated to their beliefs and way of life. My time spent in the Southeast was luckily short lived, as my father traveled as an iron worker and we always reassimilated to the Midwest. Even as young as I was I do have memories of that time - a taste and feel of the segregated south.

Charles Person was the youngest person aboard the Freedom Ride. I really enjoyed hearing the story of what lead him to be on the bus. I liked the casual conversational tone of the book and how the theme of buses was used throughout the book! However, I could have done without the heavy foreshadowing. I would assume that while most readers might not know the details of that summer, they would at least have a general enough idea that the hints of what to come would be unnecessary. This isn't a domestic thriller hinting at a twist! As it was, I could feel myself tense up as the story progressed and the buses entered Alabama. I can't say this was all due to strong writing, but it was still impactful. A sad note, this book was written before the passing of John Lewis. Mr. Person is one of two, or perhaps the sole member of the Freedom Ride alive today. His actions and those of his fellow riders make me question how far I am willing to go to support the causes I believe in. I'm wondering about my bus!

This is one of the most emotional books I have ever read. The first-person account of being a Freedom Rider is incredible and everyone should read this book.

Charles Person was one of the first 13 Freedom Riders, at the age of 18 he was the youngest one during that first trip. One of their two buses was burned completely while the other bus was attacked by local Klansmen who were egged on by local sheriffs who promised to turn a blind eye. By the time police arrived, the Freedom Riders were beaten nearly to death and multiple Freedom Riders were permanently injured from the brutal attack. This is just one of the many examples of the horrific things these people went through while seeking justice.

This book is incredibly honest in every way, there is absolutely no sugarcoating, and it is told like an oral history from a relative. If you are in any way interested in the Civil Rights movement and social justice this is a must-read.

Review posted at BookBrowse: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/pr272576

Charles Person was just 18 years old in 1961 when he became the youngest of the first wave of "Freedom Riders" – men and women who boarded interstate buses in America's South with the intent of challenging segregationist policies and practices. His memoir, Buses Are a Comin', is a chronicle of the events in his life that led up to his participation in the Civil Rights Movement as well as his experiences on the trip. Along the way he draws parallels to today's Black Lives Matter movement, and ends his account with a call for readers to continue the fight for racial equity.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1942, Person was a happy child with a loving and supportive family who gradually became aware of how racism was impacting him and those around him. The turning point came in 1960, when he decided he wanted to become an engineer, and with exemplary grades and SAT scores applied to Georgia Tech; he was refused admittance based solely on his race. He vented his rage at his grandfather, who replied with words that changed his life, first asking what the young man's next move would be. "I did not have an answer," Person writes. "Self-pity immobilized me. Dejection depressed me." That angered his grandfather, who demanded, "What are you going to do about it! Do something. Do. Something!" Person responded by applying to Morehouse College, an HBCU (see Beyond the Book) in Atlanta just three miles from his house.

The author goes on to relate how at Morehouse he became friends with others who felt they could no longer tolerate the racial status quo. Together, the group staged protests and acts of civil disobedience such as sit-ins, where Black people demanded to be served at whites-only establishments and refused to leave until they were treated the same as the white patrons. These actions often resulted in arrests for "trespassing" or "disturbing the peace." Person himself was thrown in jail for trying to eat at an upscale restaurant and incarcerated for ten days (without charge), much of it in solitary confinement for singing protest songs too enthusiastically with his fellow jailed protestors.

These acts of civil disobedience culminated in the Freedom Rides that started on May 4, 1961. The idea behind the rides was to test two landmark Supreme Court cases, one of which stated segregation of bus riders was unconstitutional; the other applied the same criteria to transit stations serving interstate travel. As Person points out, "Winning in the US Supreme Court does not mean that people will accept the decision. Or that states will abide by the decision. Or that government will enforce the decision." Sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Person and 12 other individuals (seven Black, six white) boarded two buses (one a Trailways, the other a Greyhound) in Washington, DC, planning to ride them through the Deep South to New Orleans. Although the trip started out peacefully enough, the riders experienced increasing hostility until the violence became so extreme the group abandoned the effort in Alabama; half the riders were almost burned to death when a group of Klansmen trapped them in their bus and set the vehicle on fire, and others were beaten with bats and bike chains.

The lion's share of the narrative concerns the Freedom Rides, but every chapter is peppered with references to other important moments and people in the Civil Rights Movement, as well as ties to current events such as the murder of George Floyd and Colin Kaepernick's taking a knee at NFL games. As such, the book is not only a memoir and a snapshot of a critical juncture in America's history, but extremely relevant to our current state of affairs. Person's prose flows smoothly between these subjects in a conversational tone; the fact that his account is so evidently personal heightens its impact on the audience. And the author's description of the rides is intense.

I'm a white woman who was born after the events Person narrates. As such, my experience of the book may well be different than that of others who are more knowledgeable about the early Civil Rights Movement. I personally found Person's recollections eye-opening. Sure, I'd heard about Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat, and the Greensboro Four's sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter. But Person writes about many important people and events in the Civil Rights Movement that I was completely unfamiliar with. Perhaps more importantly, reading his memoir gave me a new understanding of the risks people took in the name of merely being permitted to do everyday things white individuals could do without even thinking about it. My ignorance of exactly how dangerous these seemingly mundane actions were underscores my lack of understanding of the challenges faced by Black people and other people of color today; the book was a true wake-up call.

Buses Are a Comin' takes its title from one of the movement's protest songs. Throughout the work, Person uses the bus as a metaphor for an opportunity to stand up for what's right, a chance to get involved rather than simply accept injustice. The author urges his audience to follow his example. "Board the bus," he tells us. "Take the seat denied you. Make the country better for those yet unborn who will never know the seat you took, the ride you rode, the risk you accepted, the fare you paid, the change you made. Buses of change are always a comin'." I have no doubt that this memoir will inspire many readers to get on their own figurative buses. I recommend it highly for all audiences, and book groups in particular will find it a great one for sparking discussion.

5 stars.

What an amazing memoir from the Freedom Ride of 1961. An incredible retelling of first hand experiences to the courage and fortitude it took for those Riders. Very poignant and relevant to current day.

This book is the account of Charles Person, who took part in the first Freedom Ride in 1961 and was the youngest participant. It is a valuable story that everyone should read. The bravery and determination of the Freedom Riders should be remembered, as should the hatred and violence that met them on their journey. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc, and thanks to Mr. Person for sharing his story.

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.

Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a heartfelt memoir of a young man's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. At a time when citizens were forced to endure unequal rights because of the color of their skin. A hundred years after the civil war and this was still how a entire group of people lived their lives, in terror and under the heels of people who believed they were better.
Definitely a book to be read by everyone.

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

Also reviewed on Instagram and Facebook

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.

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.

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!

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

“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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Charles Person's biography of how he came to be one of the original Freedom Riders--men and women, black and white--who boarded busses from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, LA in 1961. Though segregation on buses was no longer de jure, the realities and policies of segregation of the U.S. south continued. As the team left Atlanta, GA and entered Alabama with rightful trepidation, they encountered the first-hand violence from mobs of white citizens. Told from Person's memories--his journal having been lost after a bus was mobbed--this is a relatively short recounting of an important time in American history and the fight for Civil Rights.

I have been looking forward to this book since attending a webinar in the Winter of 2020 and having the privilege of hearing Charles Person himself promote his book. The narrative is linear, beginning with his earliest memories of living in Atlanta to when he was 18 on the Freedom Ride. As this is a memoir, it is not an extensive detail of Person's life. He makes connections to activism in the early 50s to present-day. Person is relatable and empathetic, and his first-hand account makes it easy for any reader to dive into the story without holding it at arm's length as a recounting of historical events.

In 2021, this book was particularly impactful and resonant in the aftermath of BLM protests. Bigotry may have a different face and use different methods, but it still exists today. Person allows readers to reflect the small steps we can take when facing or witnessing injustice and instructions to "Do something" and ponders what people will think when they reflect upon some of the unjust and oppressive laws we have in place today. This is a great addition to any high school library or classroom and should be required reading.

Wow! Charles Person and his co-writer, Richard Rooker, amazed me in their retelling of the Freedom Rides. What started with 13 riders in 1961 turned into more than 400. These brave agents of change put their lives on the line in the 1960s. And civil rights activists are driving change 60 years later in the protesting of Black Lives Matter movement.

This is an emotional ride. What I found most moving is the Epilogue where Person shared this call to action: when the buses start a comin (and they will), and the doors open, we need to get on the bus, to make change. To be the change.

This is an extremely well-written account of Black history along with Person's first-person accounting of what it was like to work alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis and other leaders. I highly recommend this book -- especially in junior high/high school curriculum. We need to learn about history from those who've experienced it . . . without it being whitewashed.

Special thanks for the advanced reader copy via the NetGalley app. I also purchased the audiobook to have as a future reference.

What an important memoir. The true story and indepth background of the Freedom Rider experience was something I've never researched before. Freedom Riders were a quick note in US History classes. This memoir gives such an emotional and honest look at the time period, preparation of the ride and the riders' experiences themselves. I would suggest everyone read/listen to this important memoir.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. This is a very well written book that makes you think I highly recommend.

Charles Pearson did something in his youth not everyone was able to do during the 1960's. He was one of the brave individuals that purposely rode buses in the south and was apart of the freedom rider movement. The story in itself can be triggering while reading, but i applaud and appreciate these great men and women for putting themselves in harms way to right a wrong that has been done to African Descendants Of Slaves. Although this is apart of our recent past, our fight is not over. This was such a powerful book and a very important part of our history.

Buses Are a Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider was a good read by Charles Person and Richard Rooker. Charles Person was the youngest of the original Freedom Riders at the age of 18. Freedom Riders were key U.S. Civil Rights Movement figures, that left Washington D.C. by bus in 1961. They were headed to New Orleans. There was a purposeful mix of black and white, male and female activists that were set out to discover whether America would abide by the ruling that segregation is unconstitutional in bus depots. I enjoyed reading this book and can't wait to read more by the author.

An amazing story! Charles Person was only 18 when he joined the first group of people in the Freedom rides challenging the segregation of buses, bus depots and restaurants in many states, from the South to Washington D.C. He was with a small group of people, black and white that would sit where there were generally not allowed. Of course, they encountered bigotry and hatred, but occasionally kindness as well. Person was awestruck that one of the men (Jim Peck) who joined them was not only white, but a rich man as well. He did not need to do this, where Person felt he must.

This was an engaging story, well, told. We hear how Person joined, you had to apply and he didn’t have much experience fighting for justice, but he had joined a protest that landed him in jail and solitary confinement for singing for freedom a bit too enthusiastically for the jailors. Once picked, he had to convince his parents he could go, as he needed a signature from one of them. This was his first year in college, and his family had their sights on him being one of the first to graduate, so it wasn’t an easy thing asking for a few weeks from college during finals.

Anyway, this review is turning into my telling of the story and it’s better left from the man himself. An excellent book!

A lot of times the celebrity names from the Civil Rights era take on a larger-than-life quality. I think it's easy to get in the mindset well I couldn't do with someone like John Lewis or doctor King did. They were destined for something greater. That's why I enjoyed this memoir showed how an everyday teenager could risk his life for basic freedom.

Title: Buses Are A Comin'
Author: Charles Person
Release Date: April 27th, 2021
Page Count: 304
Start Date: February 2nd, 2022
Finish Date: February 4th, 2022

Review:
As this is a nonfiction book, I will not review it the way I review other books. I will say that I am very impressed with the book. I learned so much of this horrific event. Learning history from historical books is one thing. Hearing it from somebody who was actually there and experienced it all… well that's a whole other thing. I think all history books should be written like that if possible. I mean I'm aware that there are some time periods that we don't have anybody left from that time, but still. I'm sure there are documents that can be used.

I listened to this in audiobook. I was a little worried that audiobook would take away from the meaning of the book. I was wrong. I'm so glad I was wrong. I still plan to buy the book. I plan to reread this book a few times. Do some research on things referenced in the book. It's very captivating, and I'm so glad I got the opportunity to read it.

Absolutely riveting. I can not emphasize how important this book is to read, especially in today’s political climate. While there are several parts that are difficult to read (emotionally - the writing is fantastic) it is so important for us to continue reading these events and discussing these societal issues. I will recommend this book to everyone.