Voice of Youth Advocates

According to Jim Zwerg, "I'm nothing special. I'm a dentist's kid from Wisconsin who happened to get on a bus with some friends who got the hell beat out of him." Zwerg and Lewis are expertly compared and contrasted throughout the piece as their completely different backgrounds come together in what is known as the Freedom Riders in 1961. Although Bausum leaves no stone unturned, she points out that the movement did not actually begin in 1961. "As far back as the nineteenth century, African Americans had challenged segregated seating on public transportation." Lewis and Zwerg met in Nashville where workshops were first held to contest segregated lunch counters and movie theatres. Up-close photographs of burning buses and beaten and bruised bodies, precise research, and plenty of quoted text from the Freedom Riders themselves catapult this story well off the page and long into readers' memories. Included at the end is a partial roster of the riders with their experiences and many with accompanying mug shot as they were jailed. A time line, thorough notes, and resources for further reading complete the text. It is a must-purchase for school and public libraries, especially because of the wider look at segregation during this time and the close attention to those who played pivotal roles in enforcing the law of the land that ruled against segregated seating during interstate travel.-Kelly Czarnecki.

Horn Book (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2006)

Bausum engagingly introduces the history of the Freedom Riders through the personal stories of two participants, Jim Zwerg, a young white man from Wisconsin, and (now Congressman) John Lewis, a young black man from Alabama. Attractively designed and carefully focused, the book is enlivened with well-chosen historical photos. Lewis and Zwerg both contribute forewords. Reading list, sources, timeline, websites. Bib., ind.

Starred Review ALA Booklist (Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2006)

Starred Review In another excellent work of nonfiction, the author of the acclaimed With Courage and Cloth (2004), covers a civil rights topic less frequently addressed than Brown v. Board of Education or the 1963 March on Washington. Eschewing a general overview of the 1961 Freedom Rides for specific, personal histories of real participants in the dangerous bus integration protests, Bausum focuses on two college students from strikingly different backgrounds: Jim Zwerg, a white Wisconsin native who became involved during an exchange visit to Nashville, and John Lewis, a black seminarian and student leader of the nonviolence movement. Zwerg became an inadvertent figurehead when he was branded "nigger-lover" and singled out for a particularly harsh beating, while Lewis parlayed leadership skills cultivated during the rides into political success as a Georgia congressman. Incisively illustrated with archival photos (one of which shows Zwerg and Lewis side-by-side in a jail cell, "bloodied together as brothers in a common cause"), this moving biographical diptych prompts careful thinking about race (Zwerg himself believed he received disproportionate fame because he was white), and delivers a galvanizing call to action, encapsulated in Lewis' stirring foreword: "You can change the world." Zwerg likewise contributes a foreword; exhaustive, useful end matter concludes, including resource listings, a bibliography, and citations for quotes.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-The incredible courage and determination of young people, black, white, male and female, who risked great personal danger and even death as they participated in the freedom rides during the Civil Rights Movement are the focus of this remarkable book. History is told through the experiences of two young men of disparate backgrounds, one black-John Lewis, the other white-Jim Zwerg. A foreword by each man precedes chapters that compare and contrast their families, childhoods, and teenage years, and the events leading up to, and their participation in, the historic rides of the early 1960s. Dramatic black-and-white photographs, accompanied by clear, engaging captions, support the text. Each of the seven chapters is preceded by a full-page photograph. Bausum's narrative style, fresh, engrossing, and at times heart-stopping, brings the story of the turbulent and often violent dismantling of segregated travel alive in vivid detail. The language, presentation of material, and pacing will draw readers in and keep them captivated. Final chapters reveal the paths Lewis's and Zwerg's lives took after the end of the rides, and both men reflect back on that period. A partial roster of riders with brief profiles, an illustrated time line of key moments in the Civil Rights Movement, a resource guide and notes, and a list of further reading conclude the book. A definite first purchase.-Mary N. Oluonye, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.