- This event has passed.
Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle
July 19, 2014 @ 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Kate Colquitt, (914) 721-8233
Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle ~ Program: Special Guest Freedom Rider Mr. Luvaghn Brown, to speak at the Greenburgh Public Library July 19, 2014 with excerpts from the documentary film Freedom Riders.
Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities that use the power of documentary films to encourage community discussion of America’s civil rights history. NEH has partnered with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to develop programmatic and support material for each site hosting programs throughout the year. The powerful documentaries, The Abolitionists, Slavery By Another Name, Freedom Riders, and The Loving Story, include dramatic scenes of incidents in the 150 year effort since the Emancipation Proclamation to achieve equal rights for all.
The Greenburgh Public Library, along with 473 collegiate, museum and public institutions across the country are presenting unique programs with local organizations to encourage community conversations. Throughout the year, the Library’s theme: “would you get on the bus?” invites participants to take a bus ticket for a chance to win a miniature 1960s Greyhound Bus as an invitation and symbol to tour these four important documentary programs.
The Greenburgh Library working with the Westchester Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Nonviolence has formed a dynamic screening of selections of the powerful documentary Freedom Riders, and has invited special guest speaker and former Freedom Rider, Mr. Luvaghn Brown. The program will take place at the Greenburgh Public Library on Saturday, July 19th from 2:00 – 4:30 p.m. This film showing is intended for high school students and adults in the community as an intergenerational conversation. Inquiries please contact Librarian, Kate Colquitt at 721-8233.
Since his days as a Freedom Rider, Mr. Luvaghn Brown has been active as a community leader, teacher and member of the organization: Facing History and Ourselves, which is a global organization that seeks to offer education toward the practices of civility and to preserve human rights. This is an extraordinary opportunity for all to hear and ask questions about Mr. Brown’s personal historical experience.
The film itself, Freedom Riders, a film by Stanley Nelson and a Firelight Media production for the American Experience c. 2011, is a powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives, many of them young college students, many from the CORE organization, many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South.
The Greenburgh Public Library
The Greenburgh Public Library was created to make available to its patrons access to a variety of print and media resources that will promote lifelong learning for all through information, inspiration and imagination. www.greenburghlibrary.org
About the Westchester Martin Luther King. Jr. Institute for Nonviolence
Founded in 1987, the Westchester Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Nonviolence supports the larger movement for social justice by creating safe spaces for people to think and talk about violence, nonviolence and reconciliation, with the goal of changing the way power and resources are distributed in our society. www.mlkwestchester.org
About the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization that promotes excellence in the teaching and learning of American history. Programs included publications, teacher seminars, a national Affiliate School Program, traveling exhibitions, and online materials for teachers, students, and the general public. www.gilderlehrman.org
About the National Endowment for the Humanities
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities. NEH grants enrich classroom learning, create and preserve knowledge, and bring ideas to life through public television, radio, museum exhibitions, and programs in libraries and other community places. wwww.nehgov
###
Nancy McCrory
Public Relations Librarian
Greenburgh Public Library
300 Tarrytown Road
Elmsford, NY 10523
(914) 721-8216