‘Freedom Riders’ rolls into cinema with creator

Documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson presented the U.S. theatrical premiere of his film “Freedom Riders” on Friday at the IU Cinema.

The film examines eight months in 1961 when more than 400 Americans — black and white, young and old — risked their lives by defying the segregation of buses in the deep south.

The riders refused to surrender their ideal of an integrated bus system despite beatings, bombs and the racial anger that pervaded the region.

The film, Nelson said, focuses on “uncommon
common people.”

Martin Luther King Jr. refused to join the riders twice and fearing for their safety, urged
them to disband.

President John F. Kennedy and his brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, did not want to involve themselves in the political backlash the riders caused.

Nevertheless, the Freedom Riders persevered, and in a few short months their ranks grew from the original 12 to more than 400.

Accompanying Nelson was one of the original Freedom Riders, Catherine Burks-Brooks.

“Ninety-nine percent of us were from the South,” Burks-Brooks said of the riders.
“What we had participated in life we didn’t like. What we had suffered we didn’t like.”

Nelson spoke about attempting to accurately portray the riders and
their story.

“Catherine and Diane (Nash, another rider) were incredibly beautiful,” he said. “If these
beautiful women are going to do this, we can do this too.”

The film premieres May 16 on PBS. For more information, visit www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders.

— John Seasly