Students at Warwick Academy have learned about the Freedom Riders who took a heroic stand against segregation and racist hatred.To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides, more than 100 students, parents and staff came together to learn what it was like to live in the southern United States when blacks were treated as second-class citizens.They watched the PBS documentary ‘Freedom Riders’ with the support of Bermuda Docs in Schools.The group also provides documentaries to support the curriculum in the Berkeley Institute, CedarBridge Academy, Bermuda High School for Girls and Mount Saint Agnes.Blacks faced brutal beatings until the group of protesters took a stand in 1961. They made history by sending small teams of black and white Americans on buses from Washington DC into the Deep South. As a direct result of these rides, the protesters put a stop to long-held practices that kept blacks and whites separate.Ernest ‘Rip’ Patton, now 71, was one of the protesters when he was a student at Tennessee State University. He risked his degree, his freedom and his life to ride from Nashville to Jackson for the liberty of others.His son Mike Patton, who lives in St George’s, introduced the film at Warwick Academy. Bermuda Docs director Duncan Hall discovered Mr Patton Jr was in Bermuda after doing a Google search.Anne Hyde, mother of Year 13 student Bryden Pedro, said: “This was such an important movie for people to watch. It seems almost unreal to watch man’s inhumanity to his fellow man and to witness the stark contrast between the open hatred in the Deep South and the poise and grace of the Freedom Riders. If only we could eradicate bigotry everywhere.”