Mt. Laurel Library continues a series of film screenings and discussions with Freedom Riders on Saturday, May 31 at 2 p.m. and The Loving Story on Thursday, June 12 at 6:30 p.m. James Johnson from Atlantic Cape Community College will lead a discussion following “Freedom Riders” and Dolores Pfeuffer Scherer from Rutgers University will lead a discussion followed by “The Loving Story.” No registration needed. These film screenings and discussions are made possible because of a Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle grant.
Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities that uses the power of documentary films to encourage community discussion of America’s civil rights history. The NEH has partnered with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to develop programmatic and support materials for the sites. Mt. Laurel Library is one of 473 institutions across the country awarded a set of four films chronicling the history of the Civil Rights Movement. The powerful documentaries, “The Abolitionists”, “Slavery by Another Name”, “The Loving Story”, and “Freedom Riders”, include dramatic scenes of incidents in the 150-year effort to achieve equal rights for all. “Freedom Riders” received an Emmy in 2012, and “The Loving Story” and “The Abolitionists” have been nominated for Emmys in 2013.
Each of the films was produced with NEH support, and each tells remarkable stories of individuals who challenged the social and legal status quo of deeply rooted institutions, from slavery to segregation.
Created Equal programs bring communities together to revisit our shared history and help bridge deep racial and cultural divides in American civic life. Visit www.createdequal.neh.gov for more information.
The Created Equal film set and public programs have been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
