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‘Freedom Riders’ to be shown as part of MLK Day remembrance
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Posted on Jan 19 2014
Aside from a special presentation by visiting judge Helen Shores Lee tonight at the American Memorial Park Theater, the Northern Marianas Humanities Council will also be showing the PBS documentary Freedom Riders on Jan. 24, 5pm at the Northern Marianas College Room D-1.
The film discussion session is open to the public at no charge.
Freedom Riders tells the story of interracial volunteers who rode a bus together through the segregated south in the early 1960. From award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Wounded Knee, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, The Murder of Emmett Till), 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 two-hour documentary is based on Raymond Arsenault’s book Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice.
Meanwhile, Lee’s presentation tonight at the AMP Theater is titled “From Dynamite Hill to the Halls of Justice: Continuing the Legacy of Dr. King through Service.” This presentation will start at 5:30pm and is free of charge and open to the public.
Lee, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, is a circuit judge of the 10th Judicial Court of Alabama and is active in community affairs.
She co-authored a book, The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill, that documents her father’s struggle for civil rights in Birmingham in the years before the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.
While on Saipan, Lee will also make school presentations and give a Continuing Legal Education presentation to members of the CNMI Bar Association. Attorneys interested in attending the CLE presentation should contact the Bar Association for more details.
For more information on the film showing on Friday, Lee’s presentation tonight, and the CLE presentation, call the council staff at 235-4785.
