Events - Event View

May 8 at 2:15 PM - Movie Group to See a Civil Rights Documentary About Desegregating Glen Echo Park in 1960 at the Avalon Theatre. Three years before the March on Washington, Americans demanding racial equality were marching in front of Glen Echo Park. While it was the Howard students who first challenged the whites only policy at the amusement park in 1960, they were soon joined on the picket line by white residents from a primarily Jewish community across the street. An extraordinary local interracial civil rights protest against segregation took root that evolved into a national movement that led to laws which many are working hard to unravel today.

Promo for the film: Five Howard students sat down on the gilded horses of whites-only carousel the summer of 1960. When the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students en masse and set up picket lines, an unprecedented collaboration was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressman, and a press avalanche. Picketing together led to partying together and union organizers mentored student activists, ultimately producing ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, and a Supreme Court case. With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman, four living protesters rescue this untold story, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism.

Watch trailer: https://www.aintnoback.com/

After the movie, the group will join the Happy Hour Group to have space to continue to reflect on the film and its implications for today. To reserve a ticket by Friday, May 2, please email Caryn McTighe Musil at cmusil@outlook.com.