Atlanta Jewish Film Festival to premiere “Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round” documenting desegregation of D.C. amusement park

Photo provided by Atlanta Jewish Film FestivalThe 2025 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is set to kick off from Feb. 19- March 16 with a slate of films that includes the documentary “Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round.” Inspired by the Langston Hughes poem “Merry-Go-Round,” the film documents the fight to desegregate Glen Echo Park, a popular amusement park in Maryland. What started as five Howard University students being arrested for riding the park’s merry-go-round in 1960 led to the first organized interracial civil rights protest in U.S. history as Howard University students and Jewish members of the Bannockburn community, a historic neighborhood just three miles north of D.C., worked together to integrate the park.& & The Atlanta Voice talked with Ilana Trachtman, the film’s director; Yvonne Thomas, wife of Hank Thomas, a freedom fighter featured in the film; and Lily A.C. Flores, Hank’s great-granddaughter and a contributor to the film.“Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round” will premiere at the festival on Sunday, March 2, at 4:15 PM at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center.The Atlanta Voice: The film’s title comes from the Langston Hughes poem “Merry-Go-Round,” which ends with the line, “Where’s the horse for a kid that’s Black?” Ilana,...