The Freedom Rides and Alabama: A Guide to Key Events and Places, Context, and Impact

by Noelle Matteson, Arlam Carr Jr. (Foreword)

This concise guidebook gives a brief overview of the 1961 Freedom Rides, a crucial moment in American history in which an interracial group traveled across the South to protest segregated transportation. The Freedom Rides and Alabama focuses on the Freedom Riders' experiences in Alabama, from the firebombing of their bus in Anniston to surviving beatings in Birmingham. A large portion of this book describes the riders' arrival in Montgomery, including the violent white mob that greeted them and the ensuing mass meeting at First Baptist Church, where leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Shuttlesworth spoke. This volume puts the Freedom Rides in historical context and is published in conjunction with the Alabama Historical Commission to celebrate the opening of a Montgomery museum at the site of the Greyhound station where the Freedom Riders arrived on their journey south, dedicated to the history of the Freedom Rides on the occasion of their fiftieth anniversary.

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ashlee Lassiter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just read this one for work (I work at the Freedom Rides Museum). It is not as detailed as Arsenault's Freedom Rides, but you shouldn't expect it to be since it is only about 80 pgs. This book is good if you are looking for a quick, factual, overview and can be read in a few hours at most. You'll get some pretty good details on the Alabama portion of the Freedom Rides, but very little other information or first hand stories. It is exactly what it says it is: a guide to the key events in Alabama.