Film documents a Black/Jewish campaign to integrate an amusement park near Washington DC in 1960

In June 1960, five Howard University students were arrested for trespassing after sitting on the carousel at the segregated Glen Echo Amusement Park outside Washington, D.C.  For the next two months, activists picketed the amusement park.  The protesters included Black students, Jewish and other white neighbors, union organizers, and national civil rights leaders.  Members of the American Nazi Party staged counter-protests.  When the park reopened in 1961, it was open to everyone.

In June 1964, the Supreme Court ruled that the arrests at Echo Park violated the Fourteenth Amendment.  Two months later, Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act banning discrimination in public accommodations.

“Ain’t No Back To A Merry-Go-Round” is a film documenting the protests at Echo Park, among the first integrated civil rights protests in US history.  The film will be screened at New Rochelle High School’s Linda Kelly Theater on Tuesday, April 8, at 6:30 pm, followed by a discussion with the award-winning filmmaker Ilana Trachtman and other guests.  Admission is free, but pre-registration is required.

The screening is sponsored by Journeys to Change, the NRHS Chapter of the NAACP, Nonprofit Westchester, and New Rochelle Against Racism (New RoAR).