Center for American History brings James Farmer’s “Freedom Ride” film to the LBJ Library and Museum
Ramona Kelly, Associate Director
Center for American History
1 University Station D1100
Austin, Texas 78712-0335
Phone: (512) 495-4696
Fax: (512) 475-9468
ramonakelly@mail.utexas.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUSTIN, TEXAS – February 6, 2007 – In honor of Black History Month, the Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin and the LBJ Library and Museum present the documentary film, James Farmer’s “Freedom Ride,” free of charge each Saturday throughout the month of February. Showtimes are 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. in the third floor theater of the LBJ Library and Museum at 2313 Red River Street.
James Farmer, a native Texan and pioneering civil rights leader, was the grandson of a slave and founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Under Farmer’s direction, CORE organized and led the Freedom Ride, an interracial bus ride through the South designed to compel the federal government to enforce laws that prohibited segregated interstate buses and bus terminals. The Freedom Ride contributed directly to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The 22-minute black and white film, documents “an expedition into America’s conscience,” said Farmer, who narrates the film, and provides insights into a “breakthrough” in the civil rights movement.
James Farmer’s “Freedom Ride” is part of the James Farmer Papers, which the civil rights activist donated to the Center for American History in 1987. The collection, which consists of more than 47 linear feet of manuscripts, printed materials, and photographs, richly documents Farmer’s professional activities in the civil rights movement from 1942 to his death in 1999.
The James Farmer Papers are available for research in the Center for American History’s Research and Collections division, located in Sid Richardson Hall, Unit 2, on the UT Austin campus. A guide to the papers is available at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00004/cah-00004.html.
For more information, contact Alison Beck at (512) 495-4556 or al.beck@mail.utexas.edu.
