Stanley Nelson, producer, writer, and director (A Stanley Nelson Film, A Firelight Media Production for American Experience, 2010). Freedom Riders, an American Experience film, tells the powerful, harrowing, and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans deliberately challenged Jim Crow laws and risked their lives by traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. The film features testimony from a fascinating cast of central characters: the riders themselves, state and federal government officials, and journalists who witnessed the rides firsthand. The film will air on PBS in May 2011. The screening will follow a discussion of the film during session 95, "The Freedom Rides in History and Film: A 50-Year Retrospective." Ray Arsenault (University of South Florida), the author of the book that provides the historical foundation for the documentary, will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterward.