A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM

The film is principally illustrated with the photographs of Matt Herron, an award-winning photojournalist who covered the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s for Life, Time, Newsweek, and National Geographic magazines.

Excerpted from Educational Reviews Online:

Unlike many other programs on the civil rights movement this presentation includes a woman of Asian descent and a man of Latino descent. They are able to provide their points of view and in addition, the Latino gentleman talks about how he was able to take his experiences from working in the civil rights movement and use them in the fight to improve educational opportunities for Latino students in the California public schools, something that is rarely discussed in the literature of civil rights. It would have been wonderful to hear more about the Latino civil rights movement and show more of the linkages between that movement and the civil rights movement in the south.

The video is divided into eight chapters each focusing on a specific aspect of the civil rights experience. One section focuses on the role of women in the civil rights movement and how at the start of the movement they were considered second class citizens – the ones who typed the speeches the men gave. Women had to work to prove their worth and to show that there could be no discrimination in this movement if it was to succeed.

Another section of the video focuses on the music of the civil rights movement and viewers are able to see some performances and hear the students participate in some group sing-alongs. It is noted that the civil rights movement was a movement of song and participants learn how music helped keep spirits high and get through the tough and dangerous times.

The Long Walk to Freedom is an excellent presentation and overview of the civil rights movement that should be part of high school curriculum libraries and academic libraries with teacher education programs. It may also find a home in libraries with large African American history and oral history collections. 

RESOURCE:  DVD with Historical Background, Video Biographies, and Teacher’s Guide available from Bullfrog Films.