Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round

<p><img alt="Laurel icon denoting the film is in competition for a Jury Prize." border="0" src="https://data.ajff.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/logo_2025%20Jury%20Award%20Nominee_02.png" style="width:20%; max-width:20%; margin-left:10px; float:right;" />A sit-in by Howard University students on a segregated carousel in Maryland sparks an unlikely Black-Jewish alliance, igniting national headlines and a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Following their act of defiance at Glen Echo Amusement Park in the summer of 1960, Black activists and descendants of Holocaust survivors marched side by side, picketing to confront discrimination. They faced arrests, violent counter-protesters, media scrutiny, and the American Nazi Party, drawing in congressmen and a Supreme Court challenge to the arrests. Vivid firsthand testimonies and historical footage contextualize the lasting impact of this transformative yet little-known moment—one of the nation’s first organized interracial protests in the fight for equality.