Raymond Arsenault

Raymond Arsenault is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History and Chairman of the Department of History and Politics at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. A frequent consultant for various civil rights museums and documentaries, he is the author or editor of nine books, including Crucible of Liberty: 200 Years of the Bill of Rights (1991), The Changing South of Gene Patterson: Journalism and Civil Rights, 1960-1968 (2002); Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (2006); and The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America (2009). The 2010 PBS American Experience documentary, Freedom Riders, based on his 2006 book, won three Emmys and a George Peabody Award. He is currently writing the first full-scale biography of the legendary tennis player and public intellectual Arthur Ashe.

AFFILIATION: University of South Florida, St. Petersburg