This is the history so many want to pretend doesn’t exist. As I write this in 2023 Charles Person is 80 years old. Something as basic as riding a bus and sitting in the station led to the attempted murders and brutal beatings of the members of the first Freedom Rides and those who took up the mantle after them. I learned a lot - the strategy and the training that went into preparing them for the rides especially. This memoir also does a great job of establishing the perspective of this young kid who has already been involved with the movement but is not at all prepared after his optimistic start for how they’ll be treated as they cross into Alabama. Despite knowing where it’s going, there’s this sense of dread as he talks about how well the first week went. 
A few notes:
The people who beat them slowed down when they were caught on camera, and despite being clearly visible, faced almost no consequences. 
They punctured bus tires to stop it from moving and set it on fire when it stopped. Destruction of company property meant nothing to them or to the police. 
The reason the folks on the bus survived is that the bus engine exploded and the perpetrators of the violence didn’t want to die in their own death trap. The family of a little girl who offered them water was forced to leave town.
The Attorney General of the United States had to get involved to get them safely to the airport to leave and at the airport they faced mobs and bomb threats. 
Through every instance of this, the cops did nothing to stop the violence against the Freedom Riders and in some cases actively conspired to allow them to be beaten.