RT Book T1 Freedom riders: 1961 and the struggle for racial justice T2 Pivotal moments in American history A1 Arsenault, Raymond 1948- LA English PP Oxford u.a. PB Oxford University Press YR 2006 UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/491728808 AB They were black and white, young and old, men and women. In the spring and summer of 1961, they put their lives on the line, riding buses through the American South to challenge segregation in interstate transport. Their story is one of the most celebrated episodes of the civil rights movement, yet a full-length history has never been written until now. In these pages, acclaimed historian Raymond Arsenault provides a gripping account of six pivotal months that jolted the consciousness of America. Here is the definitive account of a dramatic and indeed pivotal moment in American history, a critical episode that transformed the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Raymond Arsenault offers a meticulously researched and grippingly written account of the Freedom Rides, one of the most compelling chapters in the history of civil rights. Arsenault recounts how in 1961, emboldened by federal rulings that declared segregated transit unconstitutional, a group of volunteers--blacks and whites--traveled together from Washington DC through the Deep South, defying Jim Crow laws in buses and terminals, putting their bodies and their lives on the line for racial justice. The book paints a harrowing account of the outpouring of hatred and violence that greeted the Freedom Riders in Alabama and Mississippi. One bus was disabled by Ku Klux Klansmen, then firebombed NO Includes bibliographical references (p. [653]-679) and index CN E185.61 SN 0195136748 SN 9780195136746 K1 African American civil rights workers : History : 20th century K1 Civil rights workers : United States : History : 20th century K1 African Americans : Segregation : Southern States : History : 20th century K1 Segregation in transportation : Southern States : History : 20th century K1 African Americans : Civil rights : Southern States : History : 20th century K1 Civil rights movements : Southern States : History : 20th century K1 Southern States : Race relations : History : 20th century