The Bus

This film is from the viewpoint of the grassroots people who came from all over the country to participate in the March on Washington in 1963. It rides "the bus" with a group from San Francisco and joins the people from everywhere as they arrive in D.C. and marches with them. The national celebrities are nowhere to be seen. The speakers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial are neither seen nor mentioned. The People made that march and it is The People that fill this film -- the people who were the real makers of "The Movement". See this film for a look at history's real protagonists.

O.K. The "schoolpaper" rules of this site want more lines. So, I'll tell you a few highlight scenes. Along the way the San Francisco people meet 2 southern activists also on their way to D.C. and get a first-hand account of what it's like to work for Civil Rights in Alabama. They also meet a local white resident in the rural midwest and have dialog with him. Their white bus driver is a typical decent but ill-informed worker of the time. One of the passengers tells of being segregated on the train home from his WWII discharge and of fleeing for his life from a race riot in D.C.

The only problem with this film is that you probably can't find a copy. It's high time a commercial DVD release was undertaken.