News Release

Former Freedom Riders Will Share Historic Journey

Date: June 20, 2011

Release date: June 20, 2011
Contact: Justin Sochacki
Phone number: [phone]

Topeka, KS - On June 26, Robert and Helen Singleton will recount the experience of participating in the Freedom Rides of 1961. They will be joined by writer and photographer Eric Etheridge and Topeka High graduate Will Dale, who recently participated in a re-creation of the historic Freedom Rides. The program is free and open to the public and will be at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 26 at Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site. Seating is limited and RSVPs are strongly recommended. Please RSVP to the Brown Foundation by June 24 by clicking here or call [phone].

Robert and Helen Singleton joined the Freedom Rides in the summer of 1961 to challenge segregation in the Deep South. This May, they participated in a multi-day re-creation of the Freedom Rides, helping forty students to understand the significance of the Freedom Rides. Will Dale, a Topeka High graduate and student at the University of Kansas, was one of the student participants and was selected from a pool of nearly one thousand national and international applicants. The event was sponsored by the PBS series American Experience, which released a documentary film titled "Freedom Riders."The June 26 program will feature clips of the "Freedom Riders" film, in addition to the featured speakers.

Breach of Peace, an exhibit featuring historic mug shots and modern portraits of 16 Freedom Riders will also open on June 26. The exhibit is free and will be open to the public daily through July 24. Photographer and writer Eric Etheridge is a native of Jackson, Mississippi and the author of Breach of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Freedom Riders. His book features the mug shots of over 80 Freedom Riders, who were arrested in Mississippi and imprisoned at the Parchman Farm in the summer of 1961, along with contemporary portraits of riders taken by Etheridge.

The photographic exhibition and program are co-sponsored by the National Park Service, Western National Parks Association, Kansas City Public Television, and the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research and is part of the 2010-2011 program series entitled Commemorating Our Nation's Struggle for Freedom: From Civil War to Civil Rights. For a list of all events and exhibits in the program series, please visit www.nps.gov/brvb and click on the Special Events link.

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site tells the story of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended legal segregation in public schools. The site is located at 1515 SE Monroe Street in Topeka, Kansas, and is open free of charge from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, with the exceptions of Thanksgiving, December 25, and January 1. For more information, visit www.nps.gov/brvb or call [phone].