50 Years After Freedom Rides, a Stunning Film Revives the Heroism
by Jamilah King, colorlines.com
May 16th 2011 9:02 AM
Tuesday will mark 50 years ago since the first group of Freedom Riders boarded
a bus in Washington, D.C., and headed on their historic journey south. The
inaugural team had one ambitious goal: to help lead the charge against American
racial segregation. Their plan was to defy the South’s social order by brazenly
traveling as an interracial group through Southern cities before ending their
tour in New Orleans on May 17, 1961. History would take a different course,
however. Before the first group of riders could reach Louisiana, they were met
by angry mobs in Anniston, Birmingham, and Montgomery, Ala. Buses were set on
fire and the riders were beaten mercilessly, but they continued their journey
anyway, eventually making it to New Orleans on a plane that had to be chartered
by the federal government. The trip sparked a nationwide movement in which
hundreds of young activists joined the Freedom Rides and many were hauled off
to one of the nation’s most notorious prisons. The saga made international
headlines and turned the nation’s attention to the often brutal struggle
against racial inequality.
A stunning new documentary debuting tonight on PBS details the extraordinary
tale of the Freedom Riders and the activists who followed them. In “Freedom
Riders,” Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson uses masterful
storytelling and gripping interviews with key players of the era to document
what would eventually become one of the civil rights movement’s major
victories. But he also shows that those victories were deeply nuanced, as
younger activists fought for recognition from the president and, sometimes,
from older movement leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. Through it all, the
riders were an organized team of well-trained activists who committed
themselves to non-violence despite seemingly insurmountable odds.
On a recent celebration of the Freedom Riders on “Oprah”, movement leader Diane
Nash reiterated lessons from the era that are still applicable today:
“Voting is not enough. It’s important, but it’s not enough. That ten minutes
that you spend in the voting booth every 10 years is not enough to fulfill our
duty as American citizens. I think we need to begin seeing that all of
us—millions and millions of us—need to use non-violent direct action to bring
about the changes that need to be done in this country.”
I spoke with Nelson following a San Francisco screening of “Freedom Riders”
last week. He explained why the film is significant, and what young activists
can still learn from the movement.
On the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides:
I think that it’s a great story, it’s also a story about the very beginnings of
the civil rights movement. [It was] at a place where the civil rights movement
was really in jeopardy of failing. It’s a story that people don’t know, people
don’t know the outcome, people don’t know the ins and outs. So when you see it,
you kinda don’t know what’s gonna happen from place to place. It’s a story that
has great witnesses and characters who are still alive, who are still vibrant.
On the Kennedys’ role:
What was really surprising was the involvement—or non-involvement—of the
Kennedys. John Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy, they just wanted the Freedom Rides to
stop. They want it to go away. They don’t wanna become involved in it. They
don’t wanna be seen as in any way opposing the Southern political
establishment. So they’re not the kind of civil rights heroes so many times
we’ve come to expect or think they are.
On lessons for today’s young activists:
I think that it’s important that we understand that the Freedom Rides are a
great example of people taking a step and doing what they feel is right at
great personal risk with no guarantee of success, but they take a step out
there and they succeed. I think that’s the kind of political action that we
need now.
It’s great screening the film with young people because they’re always so
inspired by the Freedom Riders. The first group of Freedom Riders were 13
people who just got on a bus in Washington, D.C., and traveled to the South,
and ended up becoming a movement and ended up changing America.
Original Page: http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/05/freedom_riders.html
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