Special Screening and Discussion of Freedom Riders March 2 at UNH Manchester

(February 17, 2011 - Durham, NH) – This year marks the 50th anniversary of the historic journey taken by more than 400 black and white Americans, the Freedom Riders, who risked their lives traveling together on buses through the Deep South. New Hampshire Public Television and UNH Manchester’s communication arts, history, and politics and society programs will mark this historic event with the screening of the documentary film FREEDOM RIDERS followed by a panel discussion on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at UNH Manchester in the third floor auditorium. Panelists will include Lew Feldstein, retired president and CEO of the NH Charitable Foundation who worked with the civil rights movement in Mississippi; Robert Macieski, associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire; JerriAnne Boggis, director of diversity programs and community outreach at the University of New Hampshire; and, David Jacobsen, a University of New Hampshire student studying political science and women’s studies.Free parking is available after 5:30 p.m. in Arm’s Lot located behind UNH Manchester at 400 Commercial Street. The event will be postponed until March 23 if the University’s Manchester campus is closed due to inclement weather. Call the snowline for closure information, 603-641-4100. Contact Kim Wall, Kim.Wall@unh.edu, (603) 641-4306, public relations program coordinator at UNH Manchester, for more information about the program.Watch a preview of FREEDOM RIDERS: http://video.nhptv.org/video/1574363015/ About the film:From May until December 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses as they journeyed through the Deep South. Determined to test and challenge segregated travel facilities, the Freedom Riders’ were greeted with mob violence and bitter racism, sorely testing their belief in non-violent activism. From award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson (The Murder of Emmett Till, Jonestown, Wounded Knee), Freedom Riders features testimony from a fascinating cast of central characters: the Riders themselves, state and federal government officials, and journalists who witnessed the rides firsthand. Based on Raymond Arsenault’s acclaimed book Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice, the two-hour documentary comes to NHPTV in May 2011, marking the 50th anniversary of the historic Rides. www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/ “I got up one morning in May and I said to my folks at home, I won’t be back today because I’m a Freedom Rider. It was like a wave or a wind that you didn’t know where it was coming from or where it was going, but you knew you were supposed to be there.” — Pauline Knight-Ofoso, Freedom RiderAbout AMERICAN EXPERIENCE On air and online, television's most-watched history series brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America's past and present. Acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentaries have been honored with every major broadcast award, including twenty-four Emmy Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards, and fourteen George Foster Peabody Awards, one most recently for Two Days in October. AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is produced for PBS by WGBH Boston.About UNH Manchester UNH Manchester, UNH's urban campus, offers liberal arts and applied majors in business, science, and technology, all with an urban focus. UNH Manchester is UNH. Learn more at www.unhm.unh.edu

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Carla Gordon Russell
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