Book Club
Discussion Questions

1. Autobiography of a Freedom Rider vividly examines the cultural differences between the North and the South during the 1960s civil rights movement. What examples within the book do the authors provide to illustrate this divide? Does the divide still exist?

2. What does “freedom” mean to you in the context of a democracy? 3. Compare the various tactics used in the strategy of nonviolence employed during the civil rights movement. Do these tactics remain an effective tool of protest in the twenty-first century?

4. Were you aware of the Journey of Reconciliation? Why is it hardly spoken of today?

5. What does the term “foot soldier” mean to you? How can this term be interpreted today? Are there any modern-day foot soldiers? Who do you think they are, and what makes them foot soldiers?

6. In Chapter One, Thomas recounts how, as a child, he knew blacks and whites were treated differently, but he had been protected from the harsher realities of segregation until he attempted to buy ice cream alone at a Dairy King counter. How do you feel about his reaction? Had you been in his shoes in that place and time, do you think you would have reacted any differently?

7. Chapter Three examines voting inequities and the courage it took to challenge authorities for the right to vote. Do you believe the author’s descriptions of his experiences support his opinions about the importance of voter registration? If so, how? What instances or passages are most persuasive to you?

8. Tougaloo College plays a major role in Thomas’s civil rights involvement and that of the core of student activists who changed history with their commitment to the civil rights cause. Have you have heard of Tougaloo before? Do you think it is unusual for an historic black institution of higher learning to have a white president, a white chaplain, and faculty members from around the world on campus? What is the name of the reverend who was the target of a cross burning on the Tougaloo College Campus’s lawn?

9. In addition to the Freedom Rides, other daring attempts were made to protest segregation in the South, such as interracial group visits to “White Only” church services and sit-ins at Woolworth’s department store lunch counters. Compare the tactics used and the dangers involved.

10. Medgar Evers was a tremendous influence on Thomas and other key individuals in the civil rights movement. Do you believe progress may have occurred more slowly in Mississippi without leaders such as Evers to help guide those young people—or was this a movement whose time had come?

11. Discuss the Freedom Rides and the retaliation against the riders in Alabama and Mississippi. To what degree do you think the Ku Klux Klan, the White Citizens’ Council, and the police orchestrated the mob violence against the riders, and were they working together or as separate entities?

12. Black Power conflicted with some philosophies of nonviolence adopted by organizations such as the NAACP. Do you think it influenced the pace of the civil rights movement? Was the movement hurt by division within its ranks caused by philosophical differences, despite the desire to reach common goals? 13. In what ways is Thomas’s story most inspiring? Most troubling? What are your own hopes for the future of our country, and what can we learn from its segregated past?