I will never forget the day in sixth grade that I learned about the sit-ins. i literally cried in class, and this took me back to that. what a moment in time you captured. the respect i have for those students is immeasurable. thank you for sharing.

Stoic and brave individuals. Standing up for their rights - to be treated like human beings. Their courage made a difference.

I call them " THE GAME CHANGER'S!! " What I admire most about them , is there strength!!! And what they sacrificed, " THERE IS NO GREATER LOVE THAN ONE WHO LAY'S DOWN HIS LIFE FOR A FRIEND, " ....... ❤️❤️

What powerful images of young people doing what needed to be done to change unjust laws. My mother was born in Alabama in the 1930’s. She would tell me stories of how life was for her as a black woman during the Jim Crow era.

A striking moment to me was when they were in the police transport and still sat on opposite sides.

As a southern boy...your story touched me.

Thanks for sharing your memories of these times. I'm 50 and British , so segregation & Jim Crow was something I learned a little about at school and then some more in later years trying to decipher the lyrics on depression era blues records. I'm still amazed that America was still like this shortly before I was born .

I am a black person and I don't remember to much of those days but my parents do. They are dead now but when they were alive wow were they hurt you could see it in there face. I just didn't know what to say I was speechless totally!!🤷

You're everything a Boomer should be, David. You help kids, like me, connect with our history. Thanks.

I love your videos - I've always been a geek for historic films. I watch these for hours on end!

How could we have been so cruel? Those activists were brave heroes. So sad.

This society needs so many more people with your sense of reflection. I find myself often pondering (these days) if more Americans, particularly White Americans, could be more self-reflective on various societal issues, how many could be solved quicker than our logical minds would allow us to believe. You are an inspiration to a new generation Sir, please keep posting. May God Bless you and may peace be upon you, your home and your works.

Thank you, sir, for this video and for reading this. I know you have read all of my earlier comments. It makes a difference in my choice of words here. You provide a good example of attempting to see things from others' points of view while retaining and acknowledging your own. As other commenters have mentioned, you simplify your Northern attitude about the Southern, big city events. We rural Kentuckians, seen from both extremes as belonging to the other, have a unique vantage point for those of us who are able to look beyond our next paycheck. For many of us, social change did not require such drastic measures. There are good and bad consequences to chaotic change as well as stagnant stability. There are good and bad individuals who each do both good and bad things throughout their lives. It is such a relief not to be the judge who decides which category to put them in. I want people who need help to be able to get it and am willing to pay taxes toward that help. I am not a freedom hating socialist. I want my country to be great and recognize that, in many ways, we have been. I think much that was good has been thrown out with the bad. That does not mean I wish for a return to that time when both existed. Most of all, I am proud to be able to balance my bad and good personal experiences well enough to treat every individual I interact with as just that, an individual regardless of color. Thank you for providing yet more evidence that it is possible for us older white men to deny the charge of racism.

As a gen z seeing this is both powerful and inspiring. Thank you for putting this together so us younger generations have something to look up to and say “wow they did that really well I bet something like that would work when it comes to police brutality”.

Amazing people they all were. “Fighting” against heinous injustices without hurting a single soul. Those whites who were beating them and spitting on them and calling them racial slurs were like Antifa and Black Lives Matter of today. Fighting on the wrong side for evil things. I grew up in the late 60’s - 70’s and was raised to accept and befriend people for who they were not for the color of their skin, but I remember neighbors calling us names and some who stopped talking to us because we invited black friends from school overs to our house. I grew up in Long Island, NY. And even at that young age I realized I didn’t want those type of people in my life. So filled with hate. I hope many of the young of today see this video! I wish I was still teaching because I would be showing this video to them. Loved this!

Great Story, all brothers and sisters, Thank you David ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Just thought I’d let you know i used one your videos in my WWII for evidence (gave you credit of course :)) Thanks for all you do and a great video once again

If you haven't done so already, you must see the film Green Book. It covers a lot of this. It's an excellent film. I have it in my collection.

Thank you again David for a very interesting, powerful and historic film. I was a child when these things occurred, it brought back many vivid memories . My father, a college professor, openly supported the black students at this time and spoke often to me about the mistreatment of black Americans. I grew up with the understanding of how unfair this was and how things must change. Despite my decades-old beliefs, because I am a political and fiscal conservative there are those who insist on labeling me and others “racist” without knowing, or desiring to know, anything about me. I resent this immensely. How is this not also a form of prejudice? Pre-judgment seems to be a persistent human flaw.

These films need to be watched in public schools to remind and learn how it really was. So when certain individuals chant MAGA and the good old days, is this what is being referred to as the good old days?? Powerful images. We cannot forget or erase the past or we will be condemned to repeat it.

Mr. Hoffman, you’re my favorite documentary filmmaker. I think you’ve done more for the genre than anyone else. Thank you for your work. I’ve thanked you before, but I don’t think that David Hoffman can be praised enough.

We think this happened ages ago until u hear someone today recall that. Its really a shame for human beeings. How could a human treat another human like this?

You have seen some much Mr Hoffman, or as we say it in Australia. "Stick it right up em Davo" I'm amaze of how things have change, for the better. Simply astonishing.

Thank you for sharing this footage and the context along with it. This is something that is missing from the history that is Revisited from time to time. This is much more objective than the varying opinions that people Express today. Thank you!

The 60's is not long ago. Some of those people of all parties are still alive today.

Thank you for sharing this important piece of footage. It is amazing that this was happening in the U.S. after slavery ended one would imagine that life would become easier for African Americans, unfortunately, they had to continue to fight for their real freedom.

I always hear this stuff about people in the north being upset as Im sure many were. At the same time they didn't seem too upset about Levittown with its segregation policies. And as soon as blacks began mass migration north to work there sure was a lot of commotion when they moved into all white areas. NY, PA, OH, MI, WI and MN all had bad race riots in the 60s. And how about that Boston busing stuff in the 70s? I'm not defending any part of legal segregation, it just seems history is a bit skewed when it comes to the telling of these events on a national level.

Thank you so much for sharing this and all the work you do. In my opinion, these people are also American Veterans for their sacrifice for our freedoms today. And that last clip of all of them smiling from jail...wow...

I don't acknowledge Ken Burns, only David Hoffman.

Very powerful thank you so much for sharing...

These are all unsung heros... Powerfull stuff David :)

Still hurts seeing this. As a white Canadian 8 year old girl travelling each summer to Wisconsin by train, passing through Sarnia, Chicago, Green Bay, Milwaukee, I saw and questioned things I couldn't believe I was seeing. I got in trouble drinking from a water fountain that I shouldn't have...they yelled at my dad...figuring he should know better. Our sweet Pullman, spoke kindly to me on the Canadian side, but once we passed into the states he wouldn't acknowledge me as there were Americans on board then. Those brave srudents. Each February as we honour black history month, we use mostly black Canadians that are recognized for their gifts that have enriched our society in their special fields...well I always started out with Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King ......etc. Honour those that made the movement successful and possible. Years later, travelled to South Carolina, stunned that students were separated by the colour of their skin...shameful. Still makes me tearful and sad and angry at the hate I still see in my late 60s. Imagine: John Lennon

Bass Reeves needs a full length film about his life.

David, I hate to hear you condeming the South. My South. I currently live near Greensboro, NC and moved here from Savannah in 1984. Grew up in rural Florida. Most of the South was dealing with and doing away with segregation in the early 1960's, I am old enough to have been around during that time. I quote from a PBS New Hour article: A UCLA study of public schools found in 2014 - and again this year (my note this is 2019) - that New York remains the most segregated state for African American students with 65% of them in intensely segregated schools. The study found it was the 2nd most segregated state for Latino students. Boston and Chicago were still segregated in the mid 1980's. There is a 1974 newspaper article: "Busing Begins In Detroit Will Statewide Desegregation Be Next?" 1974 and the discussion is if the entire state of Michigan will start desegregating schools? Yes, the South has its sins but it also recognized and started correcting them far eariler than our northern neighbors did.

Great video. This is why I subscribe.

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

It’s easy to say your upset in the north. But reality is otherwise. I know a German nanny who works for a white family with adopted black children just outside of Boston. It’s incredible the discrimination the family has experienced from their previously friendly wealthy white neighbors. It’s just disgusting.

The sign, "We only serve White trade", says it all. In 1967, more than 90 per cent of Australian voters, mostly white of course, choose to count Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the census and for Indigenous people to be subject to Commonwealth laws, rather than just state laws.

This is the history I like to hear and learn and appreciate and definitely do not agree with It eats at me how poeple was done back then over a skin color but it also eats at me how things are now on all sides makes one wonder if things will ever rise above all this ignorants

I was born in '66 in mid-rural Ohio, already having a black uncle (still with us, Bless it), and three black cousins came a few years later (all still with us, too- good kids). So, it seemed to me like this issue was all resolved in our neck of the woods. Then came the LA Riots (Rodney King) in '91, which was so far removed from how it was in our area- we couldn't relate. We just figured Commiefornia was full of racist cops.. Now, I've been a 40+ year resident of Florida- and I *still* can't relate. I've still never seen IRL 'systemic racism', to this day.. Guess I was lucky, my parents picked the cool places in which to live..

The first photo (with the kids at the counter that had flour dumped on them), all I could think was where is Billy Jack? I'm certainly not trying to diminish this to a scene from a movie, but I was so moved by that movie when I was 12ish, in '72 or '73. He protected the discriminated, the weak, and even the horses and he was my hero! "One Tin Soldier"

When God chooses someone like that he wanted them here in this earth to stay so that they can stand and to stand for what is right thank God for their boldness and their braveness to be courageous... Thank you for sharing...... For someone like me... It touched me

HEROES!

I couldn't look at the hitting/kicking! It is to me they same as the Jewish had been treated...how can we (anyone) keep doing this? I'm ashamed of "my people" for ever (and still) doing this! You rock. ✌💓🙏

More like equality than freedom.

I didn't know Bernie Sanders was a filmmaker, Rock on!

To my knowledge I have never met or known any of my black friends that went to prison that were able to be trained to work on computers or anything mechanical you know the things they train people on in prison you can go to prison and come out with degrees and technical trainnings. The white men beat women for having a black friend STILL TODAY

Nothing really changed Except you can sit in A restaurant and eat Logged in a hotel but it’s still the same...

At 1:05, there is an African American to the far left that looks like an employee. I am a Baby Boomer, and even I had to take a second look. Maybe this pic was taken in the north.

Absolutely shameful.

My grandpa told me when he was a kid in 1930 he watched his grandpa lynch a black man and the police did nothing to stop him

It's a total shame after all that's been done in the name of what you just listen to & watched. Right now in present time. The underbelly of what you just listen & watched is trying go back to those times. Lead by Republican Radical Right Leadership.

On the very hateful Black channels, the Black people there claim that integration was a mistake. 🎅🏿 This is from the Black perspective. One reason - Black areas lost almost all of their pre-segregation local Black-owned commerce. Now, almost all of their local stores are owned by non-Black people. Often from new immigrant groups. Black customers will actually support a non-Black owned business over a Black-owned one. Why? They don't want to see another Black person do better than themselves.

I AM A REGULAR LISTENER/VIEWER OF KZfaq and I feel youtube MUST be fair to ALL RACE not just being fair to BLACKS, there are other race who were treated bias by BLACKS and youtube needs to be fair to those WHO SPEAK UP

fun fact i bet those same people who dumped stuff on those black students now have black grandkids it is hilarious to see peoples whose parents ik were racist refused to let me come in the house now have black grandkids ...

Thankfully it's all changed now 😊