Hundreds of thousands of Mexican-Americans fought in the US military in World War II. They suffered casualties and received honors disproportionate to their numbers, but came home to the same segregated country they had left.

Racist attitudes against Mexican-Americans intensified in the 20th Century. Of mixed Spanish and Indian ancestry, Mexican-Americans did not fit into iron-clad racial categories: black or white.

How and why did many Mexicans become US citizens in 1848?

In the 1950s life could be difficult for Latinos in the United States.

Watch a preview of The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Learn more about the filming of The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Before getting on the bus, Freedom Riders participated in CORE training sessions, which included a demonstration of nonviolence in volatile situations. Rev. James Lawson and Julian Bond discuss how nonviolence courted to violence in order to attract publicity for the cause.

Diane Nash and Charles Person discuss the difficulties for black people traveling in the segregated South.

Rioters turn violent against the Freedom Riders despite the presence of the media. The resulting photographs were "about as dramatic as anything I think anyone had ever seen coming out of the Civil Rights struggle," says Ray Arsenault. "The notion that just for the attempt to sit on the front of a bus, that you could risk your life, that people could try to burn you to death was incredible."

In a news report from Herb Kaplow, the reporter recounts his experience when covering a Freedom Ride. "The mob came out and went straight to the reporters, and started beating them and kicking them and throwing their cameras down, smashing them on the ground." After the reporters were forced away, the mob turned on the Freedom Riders.

Foreign newsreels contemplate the inequality between races in the United States.

Rabbi Dresser and Delore Boyd comment on the power of nonviolent methods. Boyd points out that the tenacity of white participants opened her eyes to the fact that white people were not all the same.

In his bid for the presidency, JFK had to tread carefully around the heart of the Democratic Party - the white voting south. John Patterson, Governor of Alabama from 1959 to 1963, speaks about his endorsement of Kennedy for president.

The segregation and disenfranchisement laws known as "Jim Crow" created a system of racial apartheid across the American South for more than 75 years. The laws affected almost every aspect of daily life, mandating segregation of schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, trains, and restaurants.

Ray Arsenault discusses the importance of Irene Morgan, who took her case to the Supreme Court with Morgan vs. Virginia. However, the subsequent Supreme Court ruling of the unconstitutionality of segregated interstate bus travel, Julian Bond points out, was largely ignored in the segregated South.

Glenda Gaither Davis is interviewed while riding on the bus toward Jackson, Mississippi.

On September 22, 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) orders all "colored only" and "whites only" signs to be taken down in all bus and rail stations across the country. "This was the first unambiguous victory in the long history of the civil rights movement," says Ray Arsenault. "It raised expectations across the board for greater victories in the future."

Jim Lawson speaks about why he chose nonviolence intervention.

Genevieve Hughes speaks about her disappointment at the lack of press coverage.

Genevieve Hughes speaks about Jim Farmer not wanting her on the Ride.