JES & Co announced today that they are collaborating with WGBH to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Rides and support a special Oprah Winfrey show. Oprah will dedicate her entire show today to honoring the Riders and has invited all the living participants in the original Freedom Rides to Chicago for a taping of the show. The original Riders will be joined by five participants in the 2011 Student Freedom Ride, who will recreate the seminal 1961 civil rights milestone from 5/6 to 5/16.

Freedom Riders, a production of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, premiers on PBS May 16th at 9 EST. More than 400 Americans risked their lives as Freedom Riders in the summer of 1961, deliberately violating Jim Crow laws in the Deep South.

Pairing the award-winning WGBH programming with the Country's most popular educational digital library, The Gateway, creates a win-win situation for teachers and parents.

Popular PBS programs such as Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, Design Squad, Peep and the Big Wide World, Curious George, Masterpiece Theatre and Martha Speaks are now complemented with associated free lesson plans and activities that are easy to find on the National Education Association (www.nea.org ) sponsored Gateway to 21st Century Skills (www.thegateway.org). "We are looking forward to our partnership with the Gateway to 21st Century Skills." said Natalie Hebshie, WGBH Outreach Coordinator for PBS. "The Gateway makes it so easy to find exactly what a teacher or parent needs to engage learners."