September 16, 2021

Play Reading Honoring the Freedom Rides on Zoom

6:30pm, Thursday, September 23, 2021

Join us at 6:30 Thursday, September 23, for a Zoom staged reading of an "in the works" two-act play honoring the 60th Anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Rides--Journey to Justice: Stories from Freedom's Main Line

Join this Zoom Perfomance
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Meeting ID: 894 1505 2567
Passcode: 244245
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Written by Kristy Meanor and Doug Segrest, commissioned by the Friends of the Freedom Rides Museum in partnership with the Freedom Rides Museum with funding from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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September 13, 2021

Dallas County Courthouse Annex Renamed

J.L. Chestnut, Jr. and Bruce C. Boynton Judicial Building to be dedicated in Selma, September 14, 2021

This panel hangs in the Dallas County judicial building renamed for Bruce C. Boynton and fellow Selma native and civil rights icon J.L. Chestnut, Jr.

Attorney Bruce Carver Boynton’s story is elemental, so simple that a five-year-old can grasp it. Because he was black, he was jailed for wanting to eat a cheeseburger in the wrong place. He fought back with the tools our constitution gives each of us. The U.S. Supreme Court decision that bears his name won justice not only for him, but for all of us. Boynton paid a price for his lawsuit—for decades he was shut out of jobs he was eminently qualified for.  

In 2018, the Friends of the Freedom Rides Museum, the Freedom Rides Museum, and the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama celebrated his life in a public event in the courtroom where Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. once presided. Boynton told his story and was honored by many of the groups that had wronged him.

Alabama Middle District Judge Myron Thompson organized the taping of Boynton’s story for the court archives. Friends board member Jared Morris conducted the two-part interview, one in public and one in private.

Click here to listen to this essential American story. It is worth hearing and sharing.

Valda Harris Montgomery, President, Friends of the Freedom Rides Museum presents the Boynton history panel at the dedication of the building on September 14.

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The Legacy of Good Trouble

A 60th Anniversary Art Exhibit

Bluebird by Ashley Mendez

These works explore the people, places, ideas, and legacies of the 1961 Freedom Rides as interpreted by young artists from Booker T. Washington Magnet High School in Montgomery, Alabama.

Learn how students see the Freedom Rides in our new Instagram Account. In Instagram, click on each photo to see the entire image and to read the students' essays.

Click to see The Legacy of Good Trouble on Instagram