A rare intimate lens on one protest in the early Civil Rights Movement, screening for Black History Month.

In the summer of 1960, five Howard students sat down on the gilded horses of a whites-only carousel in Bethesda, Maryland. When members of the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students en masse and set up picket lines, an unprecedented collaboration was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressmen, and a press avalanche. Picketing together led to partying together, and union organizers mentored student activists, ultimately producing ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, and a Supreme Court case. With never-before-seen footage and immersive storytelling from Emmy®-award winning director Ilana Trachtman, this documentary features four living protesters who rescue this untold story, revealing the price—and the power—of heeding the call to activism.

Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round includes voiceover by noted actors Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, Alysia Reiner, and Tracie Thoms.