Freedom Riders is a national traveling exhibit that tells the powerful, harrowing and inspirational civil rights story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. Organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and PBS’s flagship history series, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, this exhibit combines photography and news coverage of the Rides, as well as first-hand audio accounts of this dangerous experiment in the fight for civil rights.
From May to November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives – 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' belief in non-violent activism was tested as mob violence and bitter racism greeted them along the way. This exhibit examines the 1961 Freedom Rides and its legacy today.
- May 9 – The exhibit Freedom Riders opens at the LBJ Library. Open through June 6, 2011.
Freedom Riders in the Classroom
View Teacher's Study GuideAn Evening with Julian Bond
At the time of the Freedom Rides, civil rights leader Julian Bond was the Communications Director for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. On May 4, 2011, Bond visited the LBJ Library and had a conversation with Library Director Mark Updegrove about the Freedom Rides and civil rights issues today.
Video from The Event
May 4, 2011, LBJ Auditorium.
Images from The Event
