Thirteen-year-old Billie Simms doesn't think her hometown of Anniston,
Alabama, should be segregated, but few of the town's residents share her
opinion. As equality spreads across the country and the Civil Rights
Movement gathers momentum, Billie can't help but feel stuck - and
helpless - in a stubborn town too set in its ways to realize that the
world is passing it by. So when Billie learns that the Freedom Riders, a
group of peace activists riding interstate buses to protest segregation,
will be traveling through Anniston on their way to Montgomery, she
thinks that maybe change is finally coming, and her quiet little town
will shed itself of its antiquated views. But what starts as a series of
angry grumbles soon turns to brutality as Anniston residents show just
how deep their racism runs.
The Freedom Riders will resume their ride to Montgomery, and Billie is
now faced with a choice: stand idly by in silence or take a stand for
what she believes in. Through her own decisions and actions and a few
unlikely friendships, Billie is about to come to grips with the
deep-seated prejudice of those she once thought she knew and with her
own inherent racism that she didn't even know she had.
