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 just dragged;, at least the first 2/3 did. i can't remember when a book this size just a sliver over 300 pages took me so long to complete. The last third went quicker. Most of the action occurred between 66% AND 75%. I feel it should be rated 2.5 stars as the book was merely ok; I am raising it to 3 stars since one it's a memoir of this man's life, so who am I to judge his life. Two, there were no spelling or grammatical errors that I noted and I was reading the uncorrected ARC and three this is an important part of our country's history.

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.

I was immediately drawn in by this enlightening and riveting read. Charles Person, one of the first (and youngest) Freedom Riders, writes so fluidly and naturally about his experiences during the Civil Rights movement that I felt as if I was actually there, witnessing the events.

Buses Are a Comin' is a book that is open, honest, raw, and emotive. It is uplifting, in that it shows how an ordinary person can have a huge impact if they have the courage to stand up for what is right and fair; it also saddened, embarrassed, humbled, angered and horrified me. As a white person, it hurt my heart to read this first-hand account of the abominable treatment that persons of color have had to endure for too long.

It tells an important story and deserves to be read. It is especially relevant now when America is again very divided, and outcries and protests for equal rights and equal treatment for all continue to be heard across the nation.

"What are you going to do?" "What are YOU going to do?" When will we ever learn...

My thanks to the author for sharing his story with the world, and to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read a review copy of this memoir. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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.

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!

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.

“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.

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Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for gifting me with an ARC of The Buses Are A Comin’. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

This was an extremely thoughtful and timely memoir, written by Charles Person, the youngest member of the original Freedom Riders. He colorfully recalls his early life growing up poor in Atlanta, then the years leading to his becoming a peaceful social activist, his time on the Freedom Ride and then his years following the end of segregation, but unfortunately not racism. Mr. Person has lived an incredibly rich life and his story was fascinating. His story was simply written but so powerful in its scope. The message of “Do something”, echoed over and over in his life and I believe old & young, black & white can learn from his bravery and tenacity. This book should be introduced as part of middle school/ high school curriculum as Mr. Person has an important message to share with the youth of today. In recent months we have witnessed far to many violent forms of protest and while it’s easy to understand how frustration and anger can lead to violence, it’s also important to remember there are other ways to be heard.
I appreciated Mr. Person’s choice of highlighting each of the individuals who participated on the Freedom Ride, and sharing the spotlight with the others who stood up ( or perhaps sat down) to be seen.

I highly recommend this compelling story and front row experience to a historical event.

I received an ARC from NetGalley, and then it kept falling off the top of my too-read pile. This is a great book for understanding more of the pieces of the puzzle in regards to the Civil Rights movement in the USA, with this book focusing on 1960-61 but providing many lesser known examples from the years before. No matter how much I read, I still find myself shocked by the extreme cruelty and racism that others can exhibit, as well as by the exceptional bravery of those who peacefully stand against it. So, why three stars? For whatever reason, to me it felt verrrry long and took me much longer to read than most books.

This book should be required reading in High school. Most white folks in the US have no clue what is was like growing up and living in the South for a black person in the fifties and sixties. For a young person that might seem like centuries ago but it really wasn’t that long ago. Some of the people that have lived through that period of segregation are still alive today. Even when laws were made to enforce desegregation White folks ignored it and most Blacks where too afraid to enforce it. Thanks to some brave men and woman who risk bodily harm for them and their family that some of these changes have become part of our life. We no longer see signs defining certain areas for “Whites only” (Stores, Lunch counters, Toilet facilities, seats in busses on and on) but I’m afraid that even now in 2021 we still have a long way to go to be color blind to skin color and race. Charles Person was one of those people to take a stand and I’m so glad that he was willing to share with us his feelings and experiences from childhood to adult. Occasionally you might feel that the story gets repeated a bit but the book still deserves a solid five star. I want to thank Richard Rooker for getting Charles Memoir a reality for us to read. I think this story will not be forgotten by many that read it.

Charles Person documents his youth, college days and participation as one of the original Freedom Riders and member of the Movement for Change. "If the bus goes by, get on it," is a motto I myself have always lived by so I loved that he used this phrase in reference to change and life's growth opportunities. Many comparisons are made to current day and historical racisms and injustices suffered by African Americans. Not surprisingly, in sixty years we haven’t come all that far in the fight for equality. The book for me was very long and tediously drawn out. The author introduces us to many of the individual participants in the change movement. The writing itself was excellent.. I started out engrossed but had completely lost interest by the halfway point and struggled to finish. I may have done the book a disservice reading it at a point when I am tired of protests, violence, pilfering, unnecessary rioting, death and destruction. Although I’m empathetic, I really just didn’t want to hear anymore on the subject either way.

Charles Person was a bright and brave individual that deserves to be recognized and thanked for his contributions to the Change Movement in America.

Buses Are a Comin’ is an amazing memoir by Charles Person with Richard Rooker. Charles Person is the youngest of the original Freedom Riders who traveled on a Greyhound bus from Washington in 1961. Their destination was to be New Orleans, but they did not make it there.

I sure wish that I was still teaching. I particularly liked the easy, conversational tone of Person’s story and feel the book would be well received by students. I felt like I was sitting in his living room listening to his story. The reader gets to meet Charles as a child. He tells stories about growing up in his family...how hard his Dad and Mom had to work to provide for his family. I particularly enjoyed how he brought something home from the neighborhood store and how his mom marched them back to the store to confess. Then when his father, a WWII veteran came home……..His father worked two jobs and did not have a lot of time to spend with the kids but the time he had was used to teach his children.

The book is filled with stories. I think they helped the reader really feel connected so that when he actually leaves on that bus, this reader felt like I was on that bus too. Thank you so much Mr. Person for sharing your story. Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. The opinions in this review are my own.

This was my latest non-fiction and it is probably my favorite of 2021 thus far. Charles Person's account was something I've never really read about before and it was completely captivating. I can't recommend this enough. One you will definitely want to pick up.

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.

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.

A timely book about the persecution of Black Americans in the 1960's from someone who was there and experienced it first-hand. Unfortunately, for me, it just didn't gel. The writing style was stilted and awkward [and I never truly got a sense of who the author was] and a lot of it felt extremely repetitive. For a book that I was truly looking forward to, this was a major disappointment, and ultimately, I was unable to finish it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Charles Person, Richard Rooker, and St. Martin's Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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.

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.