Rise Up: The Struggle of the Freedom Riders

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September 17 - October 20, 2019

Told from a modern-day perspective, four performers in 2019 tell the stories of the Freedom Riders – principled citizens riding buses across Alabama and Mississippi in 1961.

Read our KC Parent review.

The tide was turning – though many states in the South disagreed.  It would soon be illegal to segregate black Americans on public buses, in waiting rooms, or in restaurants. And yet, in the early 1960s, some cities and towns in America kept actively discriminating.  It was time to draw attention to illegal discrimination, and face terrifying violence with peaceful resistance.

This is a story of everyday people becoming a civil rights movement, taking on the establishment and changing the world.  What does it mean for people to come together and rise up?   And what do we think about segregation in relation to the present?