Monday, May 16, 2011

PBS Documentary on The Freedom Riders: Chronicling The Nonviolent Army






The Defender Online



NAACP LDF



Posted By The Editors May 13th, 2011
By Kenneth J. Cooper



“Freedom Riders” is a well-documented ride through history, back 50 years into another century, when America seemed like a different place. It is no joy ride.
In the public television documentary, which premieres May 16, MacArthur “Genius Award” winner Stanley Nelson tells the story of the cadres of 400 college students and clergymen, black and white, who dared challenge rock-solid segregation in the Deep South by…getting on buses together.
“Freedom Riders” conveys a foreboding sense of the danger and violence that awaited the courageous passengers along highways and at bus stations in Alabama and Mississippi. Watching evokes anxiousness about the safety of the young, idealistic riders who maintain their dignity and nonviolence even when attacked by unmerciful mobs of white segregationists. Period photos and film footage, some in slow motion, and all in black and white, heighten the feeling of being there just as disaster is about to happen.









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