For USFSP history professor Ray Arsenault, 2011 has had its ups and its major ups. He’s been on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and not just any episode. Oprah did a 50th Anniversary special on the Freedom Riders as one of her final episodes. He flies to the White House on Oct. 23.
His book “Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (Pivotal Moments in American History)” came out in its abridged form and is being used nationwide by teachers.
His book was made into a PBS American Experience documentary. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, forging a path all the way to the Emmys. The film won all three categories in which it was nominated.
“It was like prom on steroids,” Arsenault said of the gala at the Emmy Awards.
Arsenault was seated with PBS, whose difficulties with funding came under attack by conservatives. Funding for public broadcasting has been overwhelmingly slashed throughout the nation. In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott cut all $4.8 million in public broadcasting from the budget.
“It was a rough year for PBS, with their funding under attack by the conservatives, but they managed to win 10 Emmys still,” Arsenault said.
The Freedom Rides were a movement fueled by young people and direct-action non-violence. They tested interstate integration laws established by the Supreme Court and put the laws into action by riding buses throughout the South. Fourteen students at Tennessee State University in Nashville were expelled for their participation.
“This reawakening of interest is great—some are getting honorary degrees, some have been involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement,” Arsenault said. Freedom Riders are doing speaking engagements, sharing their stories of civil disobedience sometimes after years of silence. This summer, 40 college students from across the country were selected to recreate the Freedom Rides on a bus across the south. It isn’t just the book or the film. The story is being told on multiple platforms.
“It is a phenomena—the museum exhibit, the book, the website, the film, curriculum packets for classrooms,” Arsenault said. “It is a three-ring circus of information and you reach people any way you can.”
The story of college students that get on a bus to integrate bus stations and bathrooms has had an impact. They were beaten and mobbed, but no one was killed and they actually made the changes they wanted.
“Contemporary American democracy can be, and should be, in citizen politics,” Arsenault said.
In the midst of all the excitement, one of the fathers of the Freedom Riders movement passed away. Birmingham-based Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was at the forefront of the movement from the start, organizing his community and eventually having a hand in changing civil rights history in the country. He was 89. Arsenault says there is talk that President Barack Obama may attend the funeral of the civil rights activist in Birmingham.
Arsenault is currently working on his next book, a biography of the African-American tennis star Athur Ashe.
“I am deep in the information tunnel,” he said.
Arsenault will be speaking about his book on Oct. 22 at the Times Festival of Reading. Florida’s own Freedom Riders David and Winonah Myers and Freedom Rider Kredelle Petway will be part of the event as well. The talk is at the USFSP Campus Activities Center and begins at noon.
Photo courtesy of Ray Arsenault
