The Freedom Riders
Many could have died when a bus was set afire.
Courtesy of Corbis
Many could have died when a bus was set afire.
Courtesy of Corbis
NEH funding has supported a multiplatform media project on the Freedom Riders, the hundreds of Civil Rights activists who challenged segregation in interstate transport in the American South during the spring and summer of 1961.
The project includes Freedom Riders, a special two-hour film presentation in PBS’s American Experience series that premiered in May of 2011, as well as an interactive website, on which the documentary is available as streaming video. Other resources include an extended series of podcasts featuring Riders and scholars; a series of panel discussions and screening events, hosted by universities, museums, and humanities councils around the country; and a traveling exhibit for libraries, created in association with the Gilder Lehrman Institute.
Stanley Nelson, Writer/Producer/Director