Wow - I knew this memoir would be impactful based on its topic but it's even greater than I hoped. I'm not normally a huge non-fiction reader but this one deserves to be read again and again.

I was given. An early copy from NetGalley

I have not done a lot of research on the Civil Rights Movement and the Freedom riders were always an interest of mine. This story kept my interest and made me want to look more into the subject matter.

Outstanding memoir written by one of the Freedom Riders. Learned a lot and enjoyed doing so. Admire the courage of these leaders standing up for civil rights and equality in a non-violent way.

In a world where teachers are getting in trouble for attempting to show kids that history isn't all sunshine and rainbows, books like this are even more important than they used to be. Charles Person's first-hand account tells of the abuses he and his fellow riders faced for simply sitting in a bus seat to which they had a legal right. He ends his memoir by saying that he loves America despite all of the hatred directed at him over the years, but he loves America even more for what it could be if everyone would truly set aside their prejudices and work together. Maybe through more books like this, and the teaching of history as it actually happened, his dream will one day be realized.

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.

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.

I partly read, partly listened to this one, and I highly recommend both. The audiobook is fantastic, and the book includes some amazing photos from the Freedom Rides. Buses Are a Comin’ should be required reading in the U.S. because this personal history of the Freedom Rides of 1961 is quite amazing story, but it is also truly horrifying. It often made me really mad and really sad. The bravery and strength of the individuals who participated in these rides to secure equal rights for all in the face of such pure hatred is truly mindboggling. The fact that some people were so upset by integration that they would wait for buses to arrive just to torment and attack the riders is crazy to me, but I also am so impressed by those who were willing to risk everything to secure the rights they should already have. I learned a ton about the build-up to these rides and the clever strategies used to prevail. I highly recommend this one – it is a fabulous history lesson as well as a good reminder about sticking up for what you believe and doing what is right.

Both empowering in its message for future generations but heartbreaking in its detailed brutality, this memoir is a must read.

While not one of the most well known names of this era, the author makes a name for himself with this book.

It details the suffering the Freedom Riders endured and mixes in advice and methods for young activists today.

This book should be a part of every high schools curriculum.

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.

Highly recommended. I'd have this to any teen learning about the civil rights era, or anyone working on anti-racism and social justice learning that's having a hard time with "all white people are horrible" thoughts.

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!

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.

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.

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

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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.

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.

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.

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.