Raymond Arsenault

Raymond Ostby Arsenault (born January 6, 1948) is an American historian and academic in Florida, United States of America. He has taught at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus since 1980, co-founding the Florida Studies Program (with Gary Mormino). Arsenault is a specialist in the political, social, and environmental history of the American South.

Arsenault wrote about the 1961 Freedom Rides in a 2006 book, Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. His work on this critical period in the civil rights movement became the basis of a two-hour 2010 television documentary film, Freedom Riders. He appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in an episode dedicated to Freedom Riders. He has been awarded the Frank L. and Harriet C. Owsley Award of the Southern Historical Association and the 2006 PSP Award for Excellence Honorable Mention History & American Studies.

Early life and education Raymond Arsenault was born in Hyannis, Massachusetts, in 1948. He holds a B.A. degree in history from Princeton University (1969, magna cum laude), and an M.A. (1974) and PhD in American History from Brandeis University (1981). and the United States Information Agency.

He has taught at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus, since 1980 and is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History and was founding co-director of the Florida Studies Program (with Gary Mormino). - Wikipedia article on the book: Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice 2008: (Editor) The Third Space of Enunciation: Proceedings of the English Department Conference, 9–10 March 2006 (Gabes, Tunisia: High Institute of Languages, Gabes, 2008). 2009: The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America, New York: Bloomsbury Press. . 2011: Abridged version: Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, New York: Oxford University Press. 2013: (Co-editor with Vernon Burton) Dixie Redux: Essays in Honor of Sheldon Hackney. Montgomery: New South Books. 2018: Arthur Ashe: A Life. Simon & Schuster. 2024: John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community. Yale University Press,