So, it’s been a minute since I blogged. I am at the wonderful and energizing Sundance Film Festival in cold Park City, UT. Every year thousands of filmmakers and film lovers come to this festival to share in the glow that comes from watching independent films.

Today is day two, but my first day of seeing films. I say two films today. But the one that really stood out to me was Freedom Riders, a documentary directed by Stanley Nelson (Wounded Knee, The Murder of Emmett Till). Nelson is a veteran doc filmmaker whose shown before at Sundance and after seeing this riveting film about young people, who began in May, 1961 a mission to desegregate inter-state bussing.

Ironically, although I am African-American, kids like me heard these stories from our parents, but we didn’t quite get the whole picture. I never knew that there was a different aspect of the Civil Rights movement that was not led by Dr. King. Founded by James L. Farmer, a group called CORE made up the original Freedom Riders . Incidentally, I learned that Farmer was a child prodigy, who at 14, participated in the debate team depicted in Denzel Washington’s movie, The Great Debaters.

The Freedom Riders (seven black, six white) left Washington, D.C. with a plan to ride Greyhound and Trailways buses all the way down through the deep south, including Alabama and Mississippi, to New Orleans, Louisiana. They were met with brutal violence. The Greyhound bus was set on fire in Anniston, AL. The first wave of riders we so brutalized that they did not return. However, a group of students from Fisk University (which happens to be my mother’s alma mater), led by Dianne Nash (founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)) picked up the charge and picked up where the CORE members left off.

Finally, Bobby Kennedy was forced to step in and US Marshall’s had to provide protection for them. In Mississippi, the Freedom Riders were arrested and put into jail. But new members continued to come, from many different races and religions, to continue to ride. They kept jailing them and eventually, the jail became full with up to 300 Freedom Riders incarcerated. Finally, in September 1961, bowing to pressure from the Attorney General movement, the ICC issued the necessary orders, and new policies went into effect on November 1, 1961– all “coloreds” and “white” signs for inter-state travel had to come down. They did and so history was made.

What I loved about this film was that it did not simply rehash information I already knew. It also illuminated for me that the Civil Rights movement occurred in different places and were led by different groups, each with their own separate initiative: i.e.: lunch counter sit ins, school desegregation, local bus desegregation, and inter-state bus desegregation. The interviews were poignant. The footage was haunting. The still photos gripping. I was particularly moved by never-seen-before footage of the burning of the bus in Anniston, AL. It was clear that the filmmakers scoured news archives to show a unique story.

It reminded me of when I was working with the youth at my church and we had a survivor of the Holocaust come and speak. After he spoke, I went up to get a close look at his prisoner # tattoo. It left am imprint on my mind. The image of the Freedom Riders laid out on the grass and street with flames billowing from the Greyhound bus they had just escaped from with their lives, their faces and bodies bloody and beaten, has left an imprint. I hope this imprint will be shared with a whole new generation who need to know where we came from and where we can go to.

Well, tomorrow I am going to see 4 films! More later…

Come check me out
www.thescriptrighter.com