Media Release

February 3, 2009

4 p.m.

ALACHUA COUNTY, FL - Tonight, Tuesday February 3, 2009 at 7 p.m. on Community 12 TV, Alachua County presents "Freedom Ride 2008", an in depth look at the civil rights movement in Alachua County during the 1950s and 1960s.

The program covers the Freedom Ride 2008 (hosted by the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee), that led up to the recent re-naming of the new Gainesville Regional Transit System bus depot in honor of civil rights activist Rosa Parks. The program features talks with local community leaders who were on the front lines of the civil rights movement in Alachua County. Those interviewed include former County Commissioner and Alachua County School Board member Charles Chestnut III, Joel Buchannan (one of the three African- American students who first integrated Gainesville High School in 1964), J. Leslie Cosby (the first African-American teacher at GHS), University of Florida Student activist Dr. Dan Harmeling, civil rights leaders Vivian Filer and Doris Edwards, and Reverend Milford Griner, Chairman of the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee.

This special program will replace County Update for the month of February. It will air at 7 p.m. every night but Thursday and at 7 a.m. and midnight every day (all showings may be preempted by special or regular meetings, or other programming).

To view Freedom Ride 2008 immediately on Video on Demand, click here.

For more information, call the Alachua County Communications Office at 352-374-5226.

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