Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman (2 BK)

Freedman, Russell. (2006). Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. New York: Holiday House.

Grade Level:
I would recommend this book for students in grades 4-8.

Author Credibility:
Russell Freedman has written numerous nonfiction children’s books. Three sections at the end of the book are dedicated to listing his sources. These sections include: Chapter Notes, Selected Bibliography, and Acknowledgements. This book received several awards including: Orbis Pictus 2007, 2006 Cybil Award Winner, Bank Street College of Education Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and Sibert Informational Honor Book.

Summary:
Jo Ann Robinson boarded a bus just before Christmas. She sat down in the fifth seat. The bus driver made Robinson get up. Robinson left the bus upset. She joined the Women’s Political Council (WPC), and she vowed to do something about segregated busing.
White passengers entered the front of the bus and took a seat in one of the first five seats on the bus. Black passengers paid their fare then had to reenter through the rear of the bus, and sit in one of the last five seats on the bus. If the white section filled up black passengers had to give up their seats for the whites. Robinson became president of the WPC and she worked towards better seating on buses.
Claudette Colvin was asked to give up her seat as the all white section of the bus filled up. Claudette was sitting in the black section and felt it was her right to sit where she was. She did not give up her seat. She was arrest for this offense. E.D. Nixon wanted a case like Claudette’s to take the matter to the federal courts. Nixon felt Claudette was a little to young and prone to emotional outbursts to be this test case, so they waited.
Rosa Parks boarded a bus after a long day of work as a seamstress in 1955. Rosa refused to give up her seat in the black section of the bus to white people. She was arrested. They decided to make Rosa’s case the test case in the federal courts. Robinson and her friends met at the college, and they made fliers that encouraged blacks not to ride the buses on Monday, the day of Rosa’s trail.
Montgomery’s black leaders met after the trail to decide whether or not to continue the boycott. Martin Luther King, Jr. stepped up and said he wanted to do something. Before he knew it he was president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). King spoke at rallies that encouraged many African Americans in Montgomery. There were huge turn outs for these rallies. King always advocated nonviolence.
To help with the bus boycott a massive car pool was established. Also walkers were singled out at mass meetings and praised as boycott heroes. Boycotter’s demands were not met with the segregation laws of the South like they were. Soon the bus companies announced that they were losing money. The officials of Montgomery were doing everything they could to discourage the boycotters. Car pool drivers were targeted and given tickets on a regular basis. Many were arrested. The KKK also set out to discourage boycotters by using violent methods. They threw bombs into houses of high ranking black citizens. The black leaders were indicted for their role in the boycott. It was against the law to boycott “without a just cause or legal excuse.” These people turned up at the courthouse to turn themselves in. When they were released they found crowds of cheering people supporting them. Many blacks found it an honor to be arrested for the cause. Slowly Africans Americans started the legal battle. On June 4th segregation on city buses was found to be unconstitutional. The Supreme Court agreed. They walked for 5 more weeks until official paperwork reached Montgomery. Finally, they boarded the buses once again, able to sit wherever there was a free seat.
African Americans still faced discrimination. They were shot at. Bombs were set off. There was still work to be done.

Standards:
Social Studies:
*Time, Continuity, and Change
*People, Places, and Environments
*Individual Development and Identity
*Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
*Power, Authority, and Governance
*Civic Ideals and Practices

Illustrations:
The illustrations in this book consist of black and white photographs. These photographs correspond with the text. Captions accompany these photographs and explain what is happening in the picture.

Access Features:
*Table of Contents
*Map
*Introduction
*Photographs with Captions
*Chapter Notes
*Selected Bibliography
*Acknowledgements
*Index

How I would use the book in the classroom:
This book would be excellent to use in a study of the Civil Rights Movement. Books like this help the students to see that these are real people and not just old people in a book. I think a book like this would be great to use with a litature discussion group. It would provide so many topics to discuss.

My response to the book:
I really enjoyed reading this book. It really brought to life some of the people I had heard about, but didn’t really connect to. Also, I did not realize that there were others before Rosa Parks that would not give up their seat on a bus. I had never heard of Claudette Colvin before reading this book. It amazed me that they walked for over a year. They walked through both winter and summer. I can’t imagine walking everywhere I went in the summer heat we have in the south, not to mention the cold wind in winter. They stuck together though, and brought about change without violence.

Related Texts:
Any books relating to the civil rights movement would go along with this text. Some accompanying books include:
*The Walking City: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1956 by David J. Garrow
*The Walked to Freedom 1955-1956: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Kenneth M. Hare
*Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Lydia Bjornlund

Other:
This book has 114 pages with access features. It is divided into chapters. The chapter titles describe what will happen in that chapter. Freedman takes a neutral stance and tells the reader what happened during this time.