Viewing: January 19,2026
Join us Monday, January 19th at 1:00 p.m. to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Week with a special event screening of a fantastic documentary that tells the story of one of the first interracial civil rights protests in American history!
Free Admission – Tickets are required
About the film
One summer in 1960, five students from nearby HBCU Howard University in Washington, D.C. who were members of the Nonviolent Action Group opted to climb aboard the horses on the carousel at the Glen Echo Amusement Park — a carousel designated as “Whites Only” — in order to initiate a sit-in protest and gain recognition for the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. Soon thereafter, folks from the surrounding communities, including many from nearby Jewish neighborhoods, joined the students and formed a picket line in support of their cause. The courageous act prompted counter-protests from the American Nazi Party and other proponents of segregation, in addition to gaining national attention in the media at the time. This little-known and now-almost-forgotten event, which preceded the famous March on Washington by two years, resulted in a reversal of Glen Echo Park’s policy of segregation and ultimately helped set off a ripple effect through the rest of America’s Civil Rights Movement that has since impacted the lives of countless others.
Using archival footage and voice-over narration from notable Hollywood actors like Jeffery Wright, Mandy Patinkin, and Dominique Thorne, Ain’t No Back to A Merry-Go-Round brilliantly tells the story of some of the individuals who played a role in the protests and how their actions demonstrate that the power to make positive social change is immensely stronger when we all work together.
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