Twelve Days in May: Freedom Ride 1961

Brimner, Larry Dane. Twelve Days in May: Freedom Ride 1961. 2017. 111p. ISBN 978-1-62979-917-9. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

The dawn of the Civil Rights era was ushered by the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs. Board of Education to desegregate schools on the basis that separate but equal was nothing but. Further decision broadened the rights that African-Americans could in theory enjoy and benefit from. One of these decisions, Boynton vs. Virginia desegregated interstate busing services between states. In the South, however, these decisions were viewed with hostility in Southern states, who openly opposed these changes to their highly segregated society. Despite these decisions, things were very slow to change in the South, as laws were selectively enforced to keep African-Americans as second-class citizens.

To force the issues, an organization named the Congress of Racial Equality decided to promote a trip on buses through the South to commemorate a similar trip in 1947 called the Journey of Reconciliation and the 1954’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision. Using non-violence techniques learned from Gandhi, thirteen Black and White, men and women civil rights activists booked bus tickets from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans in May 1961, and headed out on May 4 to challenge the injustices they still saw taking place in the South in bus terminals and on buses, where Blacks were still expected to sit at the back of the bus.

Over the course of the next twelve days, these civil rights leaders confronted attitudes and tested local laws that defied Supreme Court decisions. Despite violent opposition and the destruction of one of the buses, the riders successfully reached New Orleans and spread an awareness of these issues throughout the United States.

Filled with pictures of the trip, this book retells what happened on each of the twelve days and present information on each of the riders. Readers who like history will appreciate the details provided on this stormy period in race relations in the United States. If you enjoy this book or would like to learn more about Civil Rights in the United States, take a look at A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riots of 1919.