By Rosana Cruz, Bridge the Gulf

In the dim light of a projector, rapt faces took in the solemn image
of a bus in flames. On screen, a multiracial group of youth crawled in
the grass, coughing and choking from the smoke of the blaze behind them.
This was just the first in a series of attacks that the Freedom Riders
of 1961 faced as they made their way through the South. Fifty years
later, at the RAE House in New Orleans, the lessons and struggles of
these youth came alive to a multi-generational, multi-racial audience
carrying on the current-day fight for justice.

"Back then they would sic dogs on you and you couldn't ride on those
buses but today we have the school-to-prison pipeline," says Briana
O'Neal after the viewing of "Freedom Riders," a new Firelight Media documentary directed by Stanley Nelson. The viewing was co-hosted by Voice of the Ex-offender (VOTE, where I am associate director) and Fyre Youth Squad.
VOTE and FYS invited a multigenerational audience to share their
reflections after the viewing the powerful documentary. This dialogue
was critical for us because we wanted to go beyond remembering history,
and explore how lessons from the Freedom Rides inform our work today.
What were the Freedom Rides really?The Freedom
Rides of the Civil Rights Movement is a story that has survived over the
decades, but the details have faded with time. Many viewers, even those
alive at the time of the original Freedom Rides, said that they did not
know the true depth and scope and the extreme terror brought against
these brave young Riders.
The film describes the Freedom Rides as "six months in 1961 that
changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400
black and white Americans risked their lives -- and many endured savage
beatings and imprisonment -- for simply traveling together on buses and
trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating
Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob
violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent
activism."
The documentary details the planning and execution of the trips
(which were initially designed to last two weeks) and the ensuing
campaign of terror that white supremacists like the Ku Klux Klan and
others, including government officials, waged against the swelling
movement of riders. The original group was comprised of a few dozen
youth from around the country. The more violence the Freedom Riders
faced, thwarting the buses progress, the more young people put
themselves in the line of fire. These youth took on a strong leadership
role and, by continuing on with the dangerous rides, challenged the
Kennedy brothers and even Rev. Dr. King himself, who urged a more
moderate strategy. It is a story filled with inspiring moments as well
as brilliant strategy.
"I'd heard the Freedom Rider story but never heard the story told
this way," shared Fyre Youth Squad member Debbie Carey. "I appreciate
this documentary because I felt like I was told the truth about the
movement, about young people's contributions to the movement. I even
experienced for the first time Dr. King being presented as human as the
rest of us. Everyone I know made MLK seem like he was a supernatural
hero, but in this documentary it revealed his fear and young people's
courage."
And what now?
Perhaps what resonated most for audience members, young and old
alike, was the sense that, especially in current day New Orleans, the
need to stand up for justice is still so urgent. "Back at the time of
the Civil Rights struggle, we did a lot of stuff in New Orleans. We
walked on Canal Street. We boycotted. We went into the white stores. Our
teachers, our elders, they encouraged us to see ourselves, even though
we were young black men at the time, just high school students, they
taught us to see ourselves as full citizens," remembers Mr. Erroll Lewis,
a member of VOTE. "Young people are still facing the challenge of
discrimination. We have a responsibility to make sure that message to
stand up, to demand our rights, is alive today."
The Freedom Riders event was originally conceived to bring different
age groups of activists and community members together to commemorate
and discuss the historic rides. But "on a deeper level, we wanted to ask
each other, would you have gotten on that bus?" said Norris Henderson,
director of VOTE. "We didn't know where the conversation was going to
take us."

Briana O'Neal responded, "I was asked at the end of the movie, 'Would
I have got back on the bus after all that had happened?' I would have
to say that I would have to have been there going through what they did
to answer that, but in today's world, in my city, I can say I'm on the
bus and I'm not getting off until we all are free and our children to
come are also free."* * *
Freedom Riders will be rescreened twice this summer in New Orleans, once at the
Treme Community Center and once at the Youth Empowerment Village. Watch www.vote-nola.org for the exact date and time. Discussion and refreshments will be included as part of each screening event.