(Madison County, NY – Sept. 2015) The film Freedom Riders is one of three documentaries that will be shown and discussed at four sites in Madison County on Thursdays Oct. 1, 8, and 15 at 6:30 p.m. as part of the Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle programs sponsored by the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum in Peterboro.
The Created Equal public programs have been made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Created Equal fosters dialogue about the changing meanings of freedom and equality in America within our local communities, schools, and colleges. (Image credit for Freedom Riders: Birmingham Civil Rights Institute/Mississippi Department of Archives & History.)
Freedom Riders tells the terrifying, moving, and suspenseful story of a time when white and black volunteers riding a bus into the Deep South risked being jailed, beaten, or killed, as white local and state authorities ignored or encouraged violent attacks. The film includes previously unseen amateur 8mm footage of the burning bus on which some Freedom Riders were temporarily trapped, taken by a local 12-old and held as evidence since 1961 by the FBI.
“The Freedom Riders’ strict adherence to non-violence—as both a tactical and philosophical matter—was an essential element of their success. When they were assaulted by angry white supremacists, their consistent refusal to strike back greatly enhanced the moral power of their arguments for change. Without this display of discipline and uncommon courage, the Riders’ challenge to racial discrimination might have failed, and their example of responsible activism would have had far less force.” (Raymond Arsenault, author of Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, which became the basis for the Freedom Riders documentary.)
The film includes dramatic scenes of incidents in the 150-year effort to achieve equal rights for all. Freedom Riders received an Emmy in 2012.
Freedom Riders will be shown and discussed by Timothy McLaughlin PhD at the Cazenovia Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 1, at the Hamilton Public Library Oct. 8, and at Madison Hall in Morrisville Oct. 15.
Dr. McLaughlin is retired from Cazenovia College and Vice-President of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF). McLaughlin is the NAHOF project coordinator for the Created Equal program, as well as for the 2016 Changing America exhibition also made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities and organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American history and Culture, the National Museum of American History, and the American Library Association.
Tom Bennett will show and discuss Freedom Riders at the Oneida Public Library Thursday Oct. 1. Bennett is a Social Studies Teacher at Jamesville-DeWitt High School, a member of the NAHOF Cabinet of Freedom, an officer with the New York State Council on Social Studies, and was a chaperone with high school students on trips to southern states during the years of NYS Senator Nancy Larraine Hoffmann’s Civil Rights Connection project.
The other powerful documentaries in the Created Equal series chronicling the history of the Civil Rights Movement are The Loving Story and Slavery by Another Name which will also be shown at the four sites Oct. 1, 8, and 15.
A fourth film, The Abolitionists will be shown in its three part series Sunday Oct. 25 at 11:30 a.m. (Part I),1 p.m. (Part II), and 2:30 p.m. (Part III), with a final discussion Where Are We as Abolitionists Today? at 4 p.m.
The Abolitionists films will be accompanied by abolition refreshments.
The free Oct. 25 programs at 5255 Pleasant Valley Road in Peterboro follow the Abraham Lincoln: The Great Emancipator programs held by NAHOF at Cazenovia College on Friday Oct. 23 and Saturday Oct. 24.
The public is encouraged to attend the free Created Equal programs at any times and at any sites. There are no registration needs.
For more information, the complete schedule, additional reading lists, and updates:
www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org, nahofm1835@gmail.com, and 315-280-8828.