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Welcome to Breach of Peace

Breach of Peace is a book about the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders, a photo-history told in images old and new. The book features new portraits of 80 Riders and the mug shots of all 328 Riders arrested in Jackson that year, along with excerpts of interviews with the featured Riders.

The book is available for pre-order at Amazon and elsewhere online. It will be in stores soon.

In talking to the Freedom Riders and doing research, I collected a great deal of material that did not fit in the book — excerpts from interviews with Riders, documents they saved, government memos, archival newspaper coverage. I am going to be publishing all that on this site, in an ongoing effort to document this remarkable episode in American history.

Read more about the book, the mug shots, the Freedom Rides and me on this page.


1 Comment

Thank you for this site. I look forward to reading your book. In 1961 I was a graduate student at Cornell University, part of a group of students working on civil rights. Some of our group went to the Freedom Rides — Charles Haynie, Dave Kotelchuk, and a few others. As I was just married, they insisted I stay behind in Ithaca, where I was in touch with them and part of the group that was urging Robert Kennedy’s Department of Justice to offer protection. Our friends went through Jackson, were arrested, and spent time in Parchman State Penitentiary.

I college at Hamilton (1954-58) I knew Bob Moses (I don’t think he knew who I was). He was making a difference at Hamilton before he led the voter registration project in Mississippi Freedom Summer.

http://sensesofrhetoric.blogspot.com/
http://politicaldocumentary.blogspot.com/

Posted by Tom Benson on 3 May 2008 @ 8pm