In 1961, a small group of white and black volunteers rode public buses into the Deep South to demonstrate that interstate travel facilities remained segregated in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court. These Freedom Riders faced arrest and beatings in their efforts to compel the federal government to enforce the law.
Freedom Riders is the third in a series of films being shown by the Virginia Historical Society to encourage community conversations about the changing meaning of freedom and equality in contemporary American society. The film will be screened on Thursday, August 28, at 6:30 p.m. in the Robins Family Forum at the VHS. This event is free and open to the public.
Commentary by Oliver W. Hill, Jr., Professor of Psychology at Virginia State University and audience discussion to follow the screening.
Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle is made possible through a major 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. The series is being offered in partnership with the Richmond Peace Education Center and is supported in part by the Gay Community Center of Richmond’s VHS Guy Kinman Research Award.
VHS resources related to the civil rights movement:
- View the VHS online exhibition The Civil Rights Movement in Virginia
- Purchase a copy of The Big Bang: Brown v. Board of Education by Oliver W. Hill, Sr.
- Watch and listen to past VHS lectures related to African American history
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