Could you get on the bus? \u00a0In 1961, a group of \u00a0people, both black and white, decided to travel through the segregated South on a Greyhound bus challenging Jim Crow laws prohibiting racial mixing.\u00a0 Their radical strategy? \u00a0Walk through the door of a \u201cwhite\u2019s-only\u201d establishment and sit together.<\/p>\n
Their fearless idealism and commitment to non-violence in the face of arrests, brutal mobs, and attempted murder challenged America to see the inhumanity of segregation and pushed the Civil Rights Movement to the forefront of national conversation.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, April 22nd<\/sup> at 7:00 p.m., join our conversation about the Civil Rights at the screening of the PBS documentary, The Freedom Riders. \u00a0Before the film, Barbara Lackey (Horace Mann HS-LittleRock ’60, ATU ’68) and Dr. V. Carole Smith (Russellville HS ’65), will also discuss their life experiences in the River Valley and beyond.<\/p>\n Even if you can\u2019t stay for the film, you won’t want to miss opening panel discussion for a once in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear history from the people who lived through it right here in the River Valley.\u00a0 There will be a short break after the discussion before the movie begins.\u00a0 You can also find the film at the library<\/a><\/strong> or online<\/a><\/strong> for viewing at home.<\/p>\n The film is the last of our Created Equal: America\u2019s Civil Rights Struggle<\/a><\/strong> series produced in partnership with the National Endowment for Humanities and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, created to encourage public conversations about the changing meanings of freedom and equality in America.<\/p>\n For more information about this film, the panel discussion, or the Civil Rights Movement, give us a ring at 479-964-0569 or send us an email at askalibrarian@atu.edu<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n