The Rev. Dr. James Lawson , helped coordinate the Freedom Rides, & played a major role in the Memphis sanitation workers strike. Diane Nash, field worker with SNCC participated in the Nashville Sitdowns and the Freedom Rides
The movement by African-Americans, in the 60âs to desegregate interstate travel facilities throughout the South was pivotal in challenging and ultimately eradicating the most onerous Jim Crow laws and breaking the back of what were the police states of the South. The Freedom Rides, along with efforts to integrate public accommodations, & educational institutions and the voter registration campaigns coalesced as a mass movement that triggered the conscience of a nation and spurred it to action. Risking life and limb to confront white supremacy, the civil rights activists forced major changes in the power relationships of the nation.
Fifty years after the freedom rides, on this anniversary Building Bridges looks back at and learns anew how the freedom riders organized and mobilized to dramatically alter the very functioning of the state and what we can emulate today in the face of increasing repression, by undemocratic forces who seek to unravel fifty years of gains, ushered in by the freedom riders.
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
please email us if you plan to broadcast this program - knash@igc.org
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