The NEH-funded film Freedom Riders won rare distinction among documentary films in September 2011 when it took home three coveted awards from the Creative Arts Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. This powerful film by Firelight Films, writer and director Stanley Nelson, and WGBH’s AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, tells the inspirational story of more than 400 black and white Americans who endured violence and imprisonment to challenge segregation in interstate transportation in the American South during the spring and summer of 1961. On the 50th anniversary of these historic events Freedom Riders won its Emmys in the categories of Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming; Exceptional Merit In Nonfiction Filmmaking; and Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming.
You can learn more about the Freedom Riders and view the film online at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/ [1]