The Freedom Ride Begins

Posted on 5.16.2011

As regular readers know, I've been planning, for a quite a few years now, to create a class at ACU that would be a bus tour through the Civil Rights south. Earlier this year I announced that the class had become a reality, thanks largely to the work of Dr. David Dillman, my ACU colleague in Political Science (as well as his wife Dr. Jennifer Dillman in Sociology, the three of us are leading/teaching the class).

Well, the class started yesterday! We left Abilene at 7:00 am, heading for Memphis via Little Rock. You can follow our adventures on our class blog here.

One fortuitous aspect of this trip is that this summer is the 50th Anniversary of the original freedom ride. More, that ride was on the road (getting off on May 14th, 1961) during the very week we are on the road. Given the anniversary, if you are in the US tonight (check local listings) American Experience is airing an original documentary about the Freedom Rides on PBS this evening. Even if you aren't in the US the American Experience website has lots of clips from the film that you can watch online.

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3 thoughts on “The Freedom Ride Begins”

  1. So cool that you are doing this, Dr. Beck! You inspired me to take my youth group on a similar trip this summer. We're headed to Memphis then Alabama. We also live north of Tulsa about 20 minutes and will spend some time before we go talking about the race riots on Greenwood Ave. in North Tulsa. It's been an incredible conversation so far. Thanks for keeping us updated about the trip. 

  2. This trip sounds awesome, Dr. Beck! I sent you an email last night, but it figures that I would send you one right as you're leaving for something like this.  If you can get to me whenever is most convenient then I'd appreciate it.  No doubt that trip sounds will be well worth it!

  3. i am interested in what feedback you might receive about your poster from a living freedom rider. 
     

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