The UCF Public History Center in Sanford will host a screening of clips from the Emmy-winning documentary “Freedom Riders” as part of a Nov. 2 community discussion about equality under the law and the use of nonviolence to achieve change.
The program, from 1 to 4 p.m. at 301 W. 7th St., also will feature creative expressions from local artists.
The event is part of a nationwide, grant-funded program to promote conversations on America’s civil rights movement and its legacies. To mark the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History developed the initiative “Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle.”
The Public History Center is one of 473 institutions across the nation awarded a set of four films chronicling the history of the civil rights movement. The documentaries, “The Abolitionists,” “Slavery by Another Name,” “The Loving Story,” and “Freedom Riders,” include dramatic scenes from the 150-year effort to achieve equal rights. “Freedom Riders” received an Emmy in 2012, and “The Loving Story” and “The Abolitionists” have been nominated for Emmys this year.
“These films chronicle the long and sometimes violent effort to achieve the rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence—life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—for all Americans,” said UCF historian Scot French, an organizer of the event. “They are especially relevant to the mission of the Public History Center, which seeks to facilitate conversations around key issues, such as civil rights, linking past and present.”
The Created Equal programs were designed to bring communities together, revisit our shared history and help bridge racial and cultural divides in American civic life.