# Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice

Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial JusticeAlternate capitalization: Freedom riders : 1961 and the struggle for racial justice and Freedom riders: 1961 and the struggle for racial justice is a 2006 non-fiction book by Raymond Arsenault, published by Oxford University Press.
The scope of the book ranges from the Irene Morgan case and the Journey of Reconciliation. The ending of the book refers to Irene Morgan.
According to David Hackett Fischer and James M. McPherson, this is the first book on the topic, written by someone who adopted being a historian as a career, that is "full-scale". Todd Moye of the University of North Texas described the work as "a travelogue of the modern civil rights movement".
An abridged version was released in 2011.

## Background

The author used scholarly works that were recent and that were older, as well as handwritten or typed documents from archives within the District of Columbia and eleven states. These archives had over 41 collections of such. The author also used interviews of more than 200 people, documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), historical books written for the general public, legal documents, memoirs, newspapers, documents held by individual people, and works that synthesized other works.

## Contents

John Hope Franklin is the person the book is dedicated to.
Arsenault makes it clear that the Freedom Rides were a process that spanned multiple decades, versus the public perception of them taking place only in 1961. Additionally, the work notes that 24% of respondents of a Gallup Poll conducted in 1961 were in favor of the Freedom Rides, while 66% of the respondents of the same poll believed that racial segregation in bus transportation should be abolished; by the time the book was published, reception was highly positive to the Freedom Rides.
The ending gives honor to Irene Morgan Kirkaldy.
The book has an appendix that documents the people who participated in the Freedom Rides, numbering 436 in total.
The abridged version has ten chapters.

## Reception
### Original version

Eric Foner stated that the book "brings vividly to life" the subject, and that it uses "dramatic, often moving detail." Foner wished that the author had done more analyses of the demographics of the Freedom Riders.
Kenneth T. Andrews of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill described the work as "definitive history of" the subject and that it is "finely crafted".
Nicky Cashman of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (now Aberystwyth University) described the book as "exceptionally well-documented and annotated", and that reading the book makes one feel they took "a personal journey" in the historical era.
David J. Garrow of Homerton College, Cambridge University, described the book as "excellent", as well as "authoritative, perceptive, and well-written", citing how the author accomplished a "superb job of" explaining the developments, as well as "capturing the striking diversity of the later groups of Freedom Riders."
Stephen Goldfarb, in the magazine Alabama Heritage, stated that the book "should stand for many years as the definitive study of its subject."
Jim Hahn of Harper College's library, in Library Journal, wrote that the book is "justified" and was "deftly" written.
George Houser, in Fellowship magazine, wrote that the author "faithfully records" the historical events.
Moye wrote that the book is "excellent", as well as "passionate, dazzlingly well written", and that it "may very well be the best book yet written on the civil rights movement." According to Moye, much of the content about James Farmer relies on the man's memoirs, which Moye described as "self-serving and bombastic".
Lee E. Williams II of the University of Alabama in Huntsville wrote that book was "voluminous". He argued that the histories of the participants were "skillfully interwoven" in the book, and that the book is "a must-read" for people studying the topic.
Eugene Winkler, in The Christian Century described the book as "well-researched, provocative".

### Abridged version

Reviewer Jo Manby stated that the abridged version "retains an encyclopedic quality." She stated that "At times the book reads like a written version of an action film or documentary".

## Adaptations

The film Freedom Riders was adapted from this book.