The Freedom Riders: A PBS Documentary

Watch  this powerful film about the perilous road traveled by the "freedom riders" 50 years ago.  It is based partly on historian Raymond Arsenault's book:"Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice".  It takes us to 1961, just after president Kennedy's election. It tells us about the continued segregation of the Deep South, even though the Supreme Court had mandated the integration of insterstate travel facilities.  And so the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) hit on a simple radical plan: It would send a small racially mixed group of Americans on buses from Washington, D.C., into the heart of the South, where these "freedom riders" would willfully but peacefully violate segregationist policies routinely still enforced in restaurants, bus depots and restroom facilities. (from Newsday, NY. Sun.May15)
Watch this  almost 2 hour documentary offered by PBS:

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.