"An Ordinary Hero" documentary

“An Ordinary Hero” Documentary Screening

Public invited for film and discussion with Freedom Riders

           The community is invited for a special event at Bullis School in Potomac on Friday evening, November 1, to view the award-winning documentary “An Ordinary Hero” about Joan Trumpauer Muholland, civil rights activist, Freedom Rider and participant in the lunch counter sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963.  

            Mulholland and fellow Freedom Riders Reverend Reginald Green and Dion Diamond are scheduled to attend the event and engage in a panel discussion after the film screening. “In this 50th anniversary year of the March on Washington, we are honored to be hosting this event here on the Bullis campus,” said Head of School Dr. Gerald L. Boarman. “It’s a privilege to share this wonderful film and provide an opportunity to talk in person with these heroes.”

            The documentary tells Mulholland’s story of a young Southern white girl who left Duke University as a 19-year-old to participate in the Freedom Rides of 1961. She was jailed for three months, became the first white woman to enroll in historically black Tougaloo College—where she also pledged Delta Sigma Theta—and two years later participated in the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in, where she and her fellow peaceful protesters endured the violent and infamous response from the crowd, which began with angry epithets and escalated to Mulholland having food dumped on her, then being dragged by her hair to the exit.

            Mulholland continued to participate in the civil rights moment until the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. The movie documents her belief that anyone can make a difference in their community. More information about Mulholland the documentary can be found at www.anordinaryhero.com/.

            The film will be shown at 6:30 p.m. in The Blair Family Center for the Arts on the Bullis campus at 10601 Falls Road in Potomac. The event is free and open to the public. The documentary is suitable for thoughtful middle and high school students; lower school students should attend with their parents, given some of the violence and language depicted in the film. Guests are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food donation for Manna, in keeping with the spirit of serving as “An Ordinary Hero.”   

Bullis School has 745 students in grades two through 12, and offers a college preparatory program that balances academics, arts and academics on a 102-acre campus in Potomac, Maryland. For more information, visit www.bullis.org.