Last night, I watched Freedom Riders, a remarkable and painful film by Stanley Nelson featured on the PBS series The American Experience. Voices of my childhood echoed in my dreams, among them one young man I saw following a Joan Baez concert about which I have previously blogged.
He stood on a street corner, shirtless, glistening with sweat, and laughed. "They got so many niggers in the Birmingham jail, they gonna have to put us in the Alabama Theatre!" (I hear his pronunciation "thee - ay - ter" as I write the word.)
photo from The Historic Alabama Theatre in Birmingham website
They -- those brave enough to stand in the face of hate and to withstand beating and worse -- made me proud to be American then and still do today, living in a changed and changing south.
photo from The Kwanzaa Guide website
Freedom Riders should be required watching for every American.
1 comment:
Beautiful piece, Robley! I look forward to watching the film.
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