Based on experiences of Freedom Rider Joan Trumpauer Mulholland
KBYU-TV Channel Eleven is hosting a film screening of “An Ordinary Hero,” a documentary based on the experiences of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, an important member of the Civil Rights Movement and one of the original Freedom Riders during the 1960s.
Mulholland will be attending the screening Tuesday Sept.10, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the BYU Broadcasting Building. Admission is free, and the community is welcome to attend. To register, visit byutv.org/audience and submit your information.
The 30-minute screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Joan Mulholland and her son Loki Mullholland, who produced and directed the film.
The documentary film will be broadcast on KBYU Channel 11 Sunday, Sept. 15 at 9 p.m. and Monday, Sept. 23, at 8 p.m. Sept. 15 marks the 50th anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
"An Ordinary Hero" focuses on the white, southern, female civil rights icon who risked her life to help change the course of history. It is an award-winning film that the National Civil Rights Museum said "belongs alongside those of other freedom rights champions."
Mulholland participated in more than 50 sit-ins and protests by the time she was 23 years old. She was a Freedom Rider, a participant in the Jackson Woolworth Sit-in and helped plan and organize the March on Washington.
For her actions she was disowned by her family, attacked, shot at, cursed at, put on death row and hunted down by the Klan for execution. Her path has crossed with some of the biggest names in the Civil Rights Movement: Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Robert F. Kennedy, John Lewis, Diane Nash, John Salter and Harry Belafonte, to name a few.
For more information, contact Bobby Moulder, community engagement coordinator, KBYU-TV Eleven, (801) 422-2252, bobby.moulder@byu.edu.
Writer: Bobby Moulder
