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.

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.

Buses Are a Comin’ by Charles Person and with Richard Rooker is a brilliant and heart breaking memoir of Charles Person one of the first Freedom Riders of 1961.

The narrative recounts the discrimination, the bullying, and the outright hatred endured by blacks during the time period. It delves into the impact of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement.

Buses Are a Comin’ gives an unflinching and honest look at the events that took place during the late 50’s and early 60’s. Much of it remains relevant in today’s climate of political and racial unrest.

The first person narrative serves to enhance the recounting of Person’s experiences and one can easily imagine that he is recounting his life over drinks or coffee. The pain within is raw but necessary. Person never shies away from the issues or the horrors that continue even into today. Nor does he hesitate in his comparison of the Civil Rights Movement and the current Black Lives Matter movement.

Buses Are a Comin’ is a quick read that will hopefully elicit some thoughtfulness and continued change.

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.

"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.

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!

Heartbreaking but also very empowering. This book should be read. It was a very difficult read, I'll be honest, but it was so important as well.

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?

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.

"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!

Moving, challenging, inspiring, saddening. This memoir touches it all. The civil rights "era" of American history is frustrating and heavy, for sure. The courage, faith, and determination of men and women like the author is a testament to the strength of the human soul. Buses Are a Comin' is an important look at the past which inspires us to a better future.

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.

Charles Person grew up in Atlanta amidst the Civil Rights movement. As a young college man, he quickly joined those fighting and became one of the youngest of the original Freedom Riders.

I had a hard time getting into this book. The author continually foreshadowed and broke off in the middle of a story to relate something to the future. I just wanted to hear the stories without the foreshadowing and interruption. With some editing, I think this would be a much more readable book. Overall, 2 out of 5 stars.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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 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.