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Freedom Riders : 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice
The relationship between blacks and whites in North America had been a profound moral problem for at least a century before the United States itself was established. Slavery and general denigration of the humanity of blacks were deeply embedded in the culture by the time Gen. Washington assumed command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass., in the late spring of 1775 and immediately issued an order to stop recruiting blacks. The problem was so thoroughly woven into the fabric of the nation that major advances in the fair treatment of blacks have occurred only once a century. The first period came in the 1780s and '90s, when northerners began applying revolutionary principle to daily life by abolishing slavery state by state. The second, of course, was the Civil War and Reconstruction period when the nation adopted the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments and Congress enacted strong civil rights legislation. The third period was the modern civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, and Raymond Arsenault's Freedom Riders focuses on one of its most pivotal struggles. The 18th- and 19th-century reform movements significantly improved the lives of many blacks and also wrought changes in the hearts of many white Americans. However, the pervasive sludge of racism and racial privilege was too ingrained for reformers to be able to eliminate or even substantially curtail the profound and often brutal unfairness heaped on black citizens. Many blacks born in the first third of the 20th century concluded that segregation, then the most widespread and humiliating aspect of the racism that dogged their days, would not be ended in their lifetimes or even in their century. But formal segregation was put to death by the civil rights movement between 1947 and 1972. There was no cataclysm on our soil comparable to the Revolution or the Civil War to spark the profound changes that occurred in the 1960s. What, then, set it off? In his dramatic and exhaustive account of the Freedom Riders, Arsenault makes a persuasive case that the idealism, faith, ingenuity and incredible courage of a relatively small group of Americans -- both white and black -- lit a fuse in 1961 that drew a reluctant federal government into the struggle -- and also enlarged, energized and solidified (more or less) the hitherto fragmented civil rights movement. During the spring and summer of that year, the Freedom Riders set out to challenge segregation in interstate transport by taking more than 60 bus rides through the American South. The stage was set for their campaign by the idealism and democratizing impulses generated by World War II, the emergence of the black and brown former colonies as nations on the world stage and the dramatic and enormously successful arrival of Jackie Robinson at first base in a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform in 1947. Their effort was also bolstered by the Supreme Court ruling against public school segregation in 1954, the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, and in the late '50s, a generally uncoordinated sprinkling of anti-segregation sit-ins across the South largely by students at black colleges and universities, particularly those conducted in Nashville by students at Tennessee State University. But the 1961 campaign did not spring full-blown from the the youthful activists involved, including Diane Nash, John Lewis, Ruby Doris Smith, Jim Zwerg and Bernard Lafayette, or even their inspired mentor in Gandhian resistance, the Rev. James Lawson. The roots of these rides extended from an earlier campaign conducted by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and its ally, the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Those groups were spurred by a 1946 case, Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, brought by the NAACP, in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in interstate travel was unconstitutional and -- in the same year -- by the brutal blinding by nightstick in Batesburg, S.C., of Isaac Woodard, a black World War II veteran, over a slight altercation with the driver of the bus that was taking him home from the war. They developed a plan for an interracial organized group-trip through the South to test compliance with the Supreme Court decision. The "Journey of Reconciliation" carried out in April 1947 through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia revealed a bit of change in border states, a great deal of resistance (including from some cautious blacks) and some real danger. Its major achievement was to create the template for what was to follow 14 years later, when the stakes would be far higher. By 1961 John F. Kennedy was in the White House, projecting youth, Cold War idealism, glamour and a can-do spirit. But for all of his élan, Kennedy was a cautious Boston pol, who, like his brother Robert, the attorney general, was raised with a rich kid's blissful ignorance of blacks, poverty or segregation. Much of black America was at least quietly aquiver with the steady news of the rough, sometimes violent resistance to efforts to desegregate schools and lunch counters in the South. The Kennedy style suggested the possibility for change, but blacks and their allies reluctantly came to the realization that the Kennedys regarded what the movement thought was a moral crusade for constitutional justice as nothing more than another set of political problems to be handled. As the Kennedys rose to power, the student movement began to cohere. It created its own umbrella group, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while CORE became more demonstrative and venturesome. CORE also gained a new leader; James Farmer, a founder of the organization who had gone on to work on the NAACP national staff, returned to CORE as executive secretary. Farmer was a tall, burly, idealistic man blessed with a deep and impressive voice that he used to great effect in his new role. Martin Luther King Jr. had become a national figure and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference a force in the civil rights movement. So, even though his former colleagues, Bayard Rustin and George Houser, major actors behind the 1947 Reconciliation Ride, had drifted away, Farmer and his associates decided to make bold forays into the Deep South -- Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana -- to test whether the constitutional rights of interstate travelers were being honored and if not, what the federal government should do to enforce the law. The first rides began in Washington on May 4, 1961, with Farmer and some of his top staffers on board a Trailways bus headed for New Orleans. "A proper test of the Morgan decision required a careful seating plan," Arsenault writes, "and Farmer left nothing to chance. Each group made sure that one black Freedom Rider sat in a seat normally reserved for whites, that at least one interracial pair of Riders sat in adjoining seats, and that the remaining Riders scattered throughout the bus." One Rider on each bus adhered to the conventions of Jim Crow travel, thus ensuring that at least one Rider could avoid arrest and contact supporters. Farmer later recalled that the Riders "were prepared for anything, even death." This started an intense period of approximately 16 months when Freedom Rides were at the center of the nation's civil rights struggle. There were iconic moments during those years: the burning of a Greyhound bus near Anniston, Ala., on May 14; the rampaging mob of racist thugs who, in the absence of any law enforcement restraint, beat Freedom Riders bloody in the Birmingham bus station the same day; the cracked skull of Attorney General Kennedy's personal assistant, John Seigenthaler, suffered as he gathered facts for his boss. But the larger story was harder to convey: Freedom Riders' dedication, raw courage and deep belief in constitutional idealism and the promises of America. Arsenault, the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at the University of South Florida, tells that story in wonderfully rich detail. He explains how young people, knowing the brutality and danger that others had faced, nevertheless came to replace them -- in wave after wave -- to ride dangerous roads, to face lawless lawmen, to withstand the fury of racist mobs, to endure the squalor and danger of Southern jails -- even the dreaded Parchman Farm in Mississippi. Some of this spirit was demonstrated by Diane Nash Bevel, one of the original leaders of the Nashville movement, who had become a national figure in her own right (and also the wife of Jim Bevel, who had also achieved fame as an outspoken aide to Martin Luther King Jr.), when she explained why she would go to jail for violating segregation laws even though she was pregnant. "Some people have asked me how I can do this when I am expecting my first child in September. I have searched my soul about this and considered it in prayer. I have reached the conclusion that in the long run this will be the best thing I can do for my child. Since my child will be a black child, born in Mississippi, whether I am in jail or not, he will be born in prison. I believe that if I go to jail now it may help hasten that day when my child and all children will be free, not only on the day of their birth but for all of their lives." The courage, power and moral elegance of that statement sums up how the Freedom Rides helped move the Kennedy administration into a more active civil rights role and inspired tens of thousands of formerly complacent citizens to become involved in the struggle. One brief, final personal note: Arsenault scrapes some bark off many of the major civil rights leaders, but none so roughly as the NAACP and its then-leader, Roy Wilkins, my late uncle. I can attest to the fact that my childless uncle did not understand young people very well and was leery of activities that were essentially uncontrollable, and so was not an ardent fan of direct action such as Freedom Rides. It is fair to point out, though, that the NAACP was then essentially a litigating and civil rights lobbying organization. It takes nothing away from the massive contributions made by the Freedom Riders and other direct-action organizations to recognize that battles waged in the courts also made substantial contributions during this period. As a member of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, I saw the thunder coming up out of the direct-action movement that the NAACP and others turned into legislative proposals that created the laws and executive orders that became the foundations for the civil rights movement's lasting achievements. Nonetheless, I entirely agree with a statement made by my former Justice Department colleague the late sociologist James Laue, and quoted by Arsenault: "The national mobilization of conscience which had begun in Montgomery and grown in 1960 reached full bloom with the Freedom Rides." To find out how that happened, one must read Arsenault's superb rendering of that great saga. For those interested in understanding 20th-century America, this is an essential book. Reviewed by Roger Wilkins Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. "A passionate, dazzlingly well written narrative account of the Freedom Rides, the dramatic direct actions that seemed to draw every great man (and woman) in the United States into their orbit."--Todd Moye, The Journal of Southern History "Surely the definitive study on the topic.... Arsenault skillfully brings to life these important historical figures, revealing their courage, fear, motivations, and conflicts--both internal and external."--J.E. Branscombe, Southern Historian "A meticulous, all-encompassing study of the 1961 Freedom Riders and their subsequent efforts. It is a must-read for all students of America's freedom movement."--Lee E. Williams II, The Alabama Review "Drawing on personal papers, F.B.I. files, and interviews with more than 200 participants in the rides, Arsenault brings vividly to life a defining moment in modern American history.... Rescues from obscurity the men and women who, at great personal risk, rode public buses into the South in order to challenge segregation in interstate travel.... Relates the story of the first Freedom Ride and the more than 60 that followed in dramatic, often moving detail."--Eric Foner, The New York Times Book Review "Authoritative, compelling history.... This is a story that only benefits from Mr. Arsenault's deliberately slowed-down narration. Moment by moment, he recreates the sense of crisis, and the terrifying threat of violence that haunted the first Freedom Riders, and their waves of successors, every mile of the way through the Deep South. He skillfully puts into order a bewildering series of events and leads the reader, painstakingly, through the political complexities of the time. Perhaps his greatest achievement is to show, through a wealth of detail, just how contested every inch of terrain was, and how uncertain the outcome, as the Freedom Riders pressed forward, hundreds of them filling Southern jails."--William Grimes, The New York Times "For those interested in understanding 20th-century America, this is an essential book.... In his dramatic and exhaustive account of the Freedom Riders, Arsenault makes a persuasive case that the idealism, faith, ingenuity and incredible courage of a relatively small group of Americans--both white and black--lit a fuse in 1961 that drew a reluctant federal government into the struggle--and also enlarged, energized and solidified (more or less) the hitherto fragmented civil rights movement.... Arsenault tells the story in wonderfully rich detail. He explains how young people, knowing the brutality and danger that others had faced, nevertheless came to replace them--in wave after wave--to ride dangerous roads, to face lawless lawmen, to withstand the fury of racist mobs, to endure the squalor and danger of Southern jails--even the dreaded Parchman Farm in Mississippi."--Roger Wilkins, Washington Post Book World "Compelling.... A complex, vivid and sympathetic history of a civil-rights milestone."--David Cohen, Philadelphia Inquirer "Arsenault has written what will surely become the definitive account of these nonviolent protests.... Arsenault's fine narrative shows how the Freedom Rides were important journeys on the long road to racial justice."-- Richmond Times-Dispatch "This is a thrilling book. It brings to life a crucial episode in the movement that ended racial brutality in the American south, giving us both the bloody drama of the Freedom Rides and the legal and political maneuvering behind the scenes."--Anthony Lewis "The Freedom Rides brought onto the national stage the civil rights struggle and those who would play leading roles in it.... Arsenault chronicles the Freedom Rides with a mosaic of what may appear daunting detail. But delving into Arsenault's account, it becomes clear that his record of strategy sessions, church vigils, bloody assaults, mass arrests, political maneuverings and personal anguish captures the mood and the turmoil, the excitement and the confusion of the movement and the time."--Michael Kenney, The Boston Globe "Arsenault deftly weaves an intricate narrative of the 1961 Freedom Rides.... Narrating the origins, the violent and turbulent rides themselves, the litigation, and the legacy, this work is similar, in its skillful crafting, to James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom on the Civil War."-- Library Journal " Freedom Riders is a gripping narrative of one of the most important and underappreciated chapters in the Civil Rights movement. Raymond Arsenault shows how, in the summer of 1961, some four hundred and fifty courageous men and women took the struggle for racial justice in this country to a new level. Using hundreds of interviews and relentless research, Arsenault shows what the Freedom Riders faced on those buses, in those jailhouses, and in the midst of frenzied mobs. Freedom Riders reminds us of the moral power of direct action in the face of hostility and, sometimes worse, complacency."--Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. "The Freedom Rides have long held an honored place in the pantheon of civil rights struggles. With this meticulous and moving book, Raymond Arsenault reminds us why. Freedom Riders is a classic American tale of courage, brutality, and the unquenchable desire for justice."--Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age , winner of the 2004 National Book Award "An exhaustively researched, gracefully written, dramatic and moving story of hundreds of dedicated men and women, black and white, who took their commitment to human rights seriously in the face of hateful, violent, and determined opposition. Raymond Arsenault has given us the gift of his humane sensitivity and his immense knowledge of the times and the lives of those whose ideals shaped late 20th century American society. On the canvas of 1960s America, he paints an unforgettable picture of young people and their elders who risked their lives for justice and offered an example to the world of humanitarian principles in action. Anyone seeking to understand the modern civil rights movement must read this book. They will be forever changed by the experience." --James Oliver Horton, Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History, George Washington University, and author of The Landmarks of African American History and co-author of Slavery and the Making of America "Raymond Arsenault's Freedom Riders is a major addition to the already vast literature on the American civil rights movement. More than simply a well-researched study of the 1961 freedom rides, the book is an insightful, thorough, and engaging narrative of an entire era of direct action protests to end segregation in interstate transportation. Filled with vivid portraits of courageous civil rights activists (as well as government officials and notable segregationists), Freedom Riders sheds new light on a nonviolent campaign that profoundly affected southern race relations and the nation as a whole during the decades after World War II." --Clayborne Carson, Director, Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, editor of The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. and author of In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s "They were the shock troops of the civil rights movement--and more. Freedom Riders tells the stories of the men and women whose bold incursions into the Jim Crow South disrupted the static culture of the Cold War fifties and did much to set the pace and course of what followed in the 1960s. At last we have a history that captures the drama and power of this moment, cast in the fullness of the struggle for racial justice in America. It is a brilliant achievement." --Patricia A. Sullivan, Associate Professor of History, University of South Carolina, and author of Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era " Freedom Riders is a beautifully written contribution to literature. Arsenault portrays his characters so vividly that they almost step from the page, and his rich narrative comes alive with a passion and a momentum that make it difficult to put down. Freedom Riders is also a magnificent work of history, sensitively interpreted, filled with brilliant insights, and rooted in an exceptional depth of research in archival, published, and oral sources. This book propels Raymond Arsenault into the front rank of Southern writers of fact and fiction." --Charles Joyner, Burroughs Distinguished Professor of History, Coastal Carolina University, and author of Down by the Riverside and Shared Traditions "Raymond Arsenault's compelling narrative pays homage to the hundreds of individuals, black and white, whose courage and conviction transformed the black freedom struggle at a critical moment in this nation's history. Not just the definitive history of the freedom rides, which it is, Freedom Riders demands a place on that short shelf of books that are required reading for students of the civil rights movement."--John Dittmer, Professor of History Emeritus at DePauw University, and author of the Bancroft Prize-winning Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi
(from Amazon.com)
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