Freedom Riders again ride in 'Breach of Peace'

They were mostly college students from across the USA. About half were white, half were black.

All risked their lives by riding interstate buses to challenge segregation laws and to force a reluctant Kennedy administration to act.

They were the Freedom Riders, or the "so-called Freedom Riders," as Mississippi's largest newspaper called them in 1961.

Many were beaten up. One of their buses was set on fire.

All were arrested, convicted and jailed, for a month or more, for "breach of peace."

That's the title of Eric Etheridge's new book (Atlas, $45), which tells their stories through photographs -- then and now.

Etheridge, who is white, was 4 years old and living in Carthage, Miss., when the Freedom Riders rode south. Later, he moved to New York to become a magazine editor and photographer.

In 2004, he was visiting Mississippi when he came ...