50 years later, youth and elders keep the spirit of the Freedom Rides alive
by Bridge the Gulf, southernstudies.org
June 20th 2011 11:05 AM By Rosana Cruz, Bridge the
Gulf
In the dim light of a projector, rapt faces took in the solemn image of a
bus in flames. On screen, a multiracial group of youth crawled in the grass,
coughing and choking from the smoke of the blaze behind them. This was just
the first in a series of attacks that the Freedom Riders of 1961 faced as
they made their way through the South. Fifty years later, at the RAE House
in New Orleans, the lessons and struggles of these youth came alive to a
multi-generational, multi-racial audience carrying on the current-day fight
for justice.
"Back then they would sic dogs on you and you couldn't ride on those buses
but today we have the school-to-prison pipeline," says Briana O'Neal after
the viewing of "Freedom Riders," a new Firelight Media documentary directed
by Stanley Nelson. The viewing was co-hosted by Voice of the Ex-offender
(VOTE, where I am associate director) and Fyre Youth Squad. VOTE and FYS
invited a multigenerational audience to share their reflections after the
viewing the powerful documentary. This dialogue was critical for us because
we wanted to go beyond remembering history, and explore how lessons from the
Freedom Rides inform our work today.
What were the Freedom Rides really?
The Freedom Rides of the Civil Rights Movement is a story that has survived
over the decades, but the details have faded with time. Many viewers, even
those alive at the time of the original Freedom Rides, said that they did
not know the true depth and scope and the extreme terror brought against
these brave young Riders.
The film describes the Freedom Rides as "six months in 1961 that changed
America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white
Americans risked their lives -- and many endured savage beatings and
imprisonment -- for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they
journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the
Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely
testing their belief in nonviolent activism."
The documentary details the planning and execution of the trips (which were
initially designed to last two weeks) and the ensuing campaign of terror
that white supremacists like the Ku Klux Klan and others, including
government officials, waged against the swelling movement of riders. The
original group was comprised of a few dozen youth from around the country.
The more violence the Freedom Riders faced, thwarting the buses progress,
the more young people put themselves in the line of fire. These youth took
on a strong leadership role and, by continuing on with the dangerous rides,
challenged the Kennedy brothers and even Rev. Dr. King himself, who urged a
more moderate strategy. It is a story filled with inspiring moments as well
as brilliant strategy.
"I'd heard the Freedom Rider story but never heard the story told this way,"
shared Fyre Youth Squad member Debbie Carey. "I appreciate this documentary
because I felt like I was told the truth about the movement, about young
people's contributions to the movement. I even experienced for the first
time Dr. King being presented as human as the rest of us. Everyone I know
made MLK seem like he was a supernatural hero, but in this documentary it
revealed his fear and young people's courage."
And what now?
Perhaps what resonated most for audience members, young and old alike, was
the sense that, especially in current day New Orleans, the need to stand up
for justice is still so urgent. "Back at the time of the Civil Rights
struggle, we did a lot of stuff in New Orleans. We walked on Canal Street.
We boycotted. We went into the white stores. Our teachers, our elders, they
encouraged us to see ourselves, even though we were young black men at the
time, just high school students, they taught us to see ourselves as full
citizens," remembers Mr. Erroll Lewis, a member of VOTE. "Young people are
still facing the challenge of discrimination. We have a responsibility to
make sure that message to stand up, to demand our rights, is alive today."
The Freedom Riders event was originally conceived to bring different age
groups of activists and community members together to commemorate and
discuss the historic rides. But "on a deeper level, we wanted to ask each
other, would you have gotten on that bus?" said Norris Henderson, director
of VOTE. "We didn't know where the conversation was going to take us."
Briana O'Neal responded, "I was asked at the end of the movie, 'Would I have
got back on the bus after all that had happened?' I would have to say that I
would have to have been there going through what they did to answer that,
but in today's world, in my city, I can say I'm on the bus and I'm not
getting off until we all are free and our children to come are also free."
* * *
Freedom Riders will be rescreened twice this summer in New Orleans, once at
the Treme Community Center and once at the Youth Empowerment Village. Watch
www.vote-nola.org for the exact date and time. Discussion and refreshments
will be included as part of each screening event.
Original Page:
http://www.southernstudies.org/2011/06/50-years-later-youth-and-elders-keep-t
he-spirit-of-the-freedom-rides-alive.html
Shared from Read It Later
Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Sixties-L" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
