Freedom Riders RLB: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement

Freedom Riders compares and contrasts the childhoods of John Lewis, growing up in black America, and Jim Zwerg, growing up in white America, in a way that helps young readers understand the segregated experience of our nation's past. It shows how a common interest in justice created the convergent path that enabled these young men to meet as Freedom Riders on a bus journey south.


No other book on the Freedom Riders has used such a personal perspective. These two young men, empowered by their successes in the Nashville student movement, were among those who volunteered to continue the Freedom Rides after violence in Anniston, Alabama, had left the original bus in flames with the riders injured and in retreat. Lewis and Zwerg joined the cause knowing their own fate could be equally harsh, if not worse.


The historic journey they shared as Freedom Riders through the Deep South changed not only their own lives but our nation's history.

Ann Bausum lives in Beloit, WI. Her most recent book with National Geographic, With Courage & Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman's Right to Vote, was given the 2005 Jane Addams Award, among many other honors.