Freedom Riders Exhibition Tells Powerful Civil Rights Story

“Freedom Riders,” opening at the Fulton Holland Educational Services Center on Monday, May 2, 2011 is a national traveling exhibition that tells the powerful, harrowing and inspirational civil rights story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. It will be on display at the district office from May 2-27, 2011. Organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the PBS flagship history series American Experience, this exhibition combines powerful photography and news coverage of the Rides, as well as first-hand audio accounts of this dangerous experiment in the fight for civil rights.  A companion to the May 2011 PBS broadcast of the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE film Freedom Riders, the exhibition has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  

From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders’ belief in non-violent activism was sorely tested as mob violence and bitter racism greeted them along the way. “Freedom Riders” examines the 1961 Freedom Rides from many perspectives– that of the Riders themselves, the Kennedy administration, and the international community.  The School District of Palm Beach County invites members of the public to view the exhibition.

The School District took the lead in implementing an African and African American curriculum for all students and has trained teachers, staff and the community to insure this history contributes to higher student achievement. 

For details about the exhibition please call Laurie Cotton at (561) 357-1160 or visit www.palmbeachschools.org.