Freedom Riders

The documentary takes up the year 1961. In that year more than four hundred Americans joined an action. Those who joined called themselves the Freedom Riders. The action rested on something simple. Black and white people sat side by side on the same bus. In doing so they tested the order that kept racial segregation in place. The journey started in Washington and went as far as New Orleans. They passed through the southern states. Their bus was burned along the way. They were attacked, beaten and jailed. The action went on from May to November. The film uses archive footage together with first-hand accounts. John Lewis and Diane Nash speak in Stanley Nelson’s American documentary of 2010.