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 OUTRIDERS tells a story that rips the mask off the myth of universal prosperity in America in the 1990s. As the new global economy booms and America rushes headlong toward the new millennium, the income gap between rich and poor widens dramatically. While headlines are dominated by a stratospheric Nasdaq and the national mania to cash in, millions of Americans disappear from the national dialogue, sliding into increased poverty, homelessness and hopelessness. |
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In June 1998 in Kensington, the poorest neighborhood in the state of Pennsylvania, fifty of these invisible people decide to make their voices heard. They organize the New Freedom Bus Tour, a month-long trip staffed by poor and homeless families to gather testimony from thousands of citizens across America about personal experiences of poverty. The New Freedom Bus Tour is a project of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU), a multiracial grassroots organization of poor and homeless citizens in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. KWRU was founded in 1991 by a group of mothers in response to welfare cuts which threatened the health and survival of their families. In city after city the New Freedom Bus Tour collects the stories of Americans who have been downsized, outsourced or terminated from welfare. The outriders believe that conditions for people at the bottom of the economic ladder constitute a violation of basic human rights, as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After thirty days of crisscrossing the country the New Freedom Bus trip culminates at the United Nations. The outriders testify before a United Nations committee and obtain a commitment from the High Commissioner on Human Rights to investigate the alleged violations. The journey isn't easy. On the bus are infants, kids, teenagers, adults, grandmothers and student supporters. Fifty people co-exist in close quarters for thirty days, sleeping on the bus or on the floors of host organizers, with showers few and far between. The outriders are prepared for roughing it physically. What they don't know is that this trip will have a profound effect on who they are. Some will fall in love, some will be thrown into turmoil and some will be set on a new life path, but no one will come away unchanged. As the outriders move through the country, we get snapshots of urban and rural poverty, and we get an intimate portrait of three of these travelers: Cheri, Jason and Margie.
Jason 16 years old and on the run from car theft charges in Philadelphia. At first he is moody and undirected, but soon becomes affected by the spirit of the trip. He overcomes deep shyness to become a dynamic speaker at rallies and community meetings. Addressing a crowd, he says, "We got to stop being quiet. We ain't roaches, we humans just like them. 'Cause I'm poor too, you know, and I'm gonna let them know the deal, I ain't shutting up for nobody." By the end of the trip Jason makes the difficult decision to turn himself in on the car theft charges, so that he can clear his name and continue to work for human rights. Margie is a 20-year-old black woman who grew up poor in Atlanta, Georgia. Blessed with a magnificent voice, her singing won her a scholarship to a prestigious prep school as a young girl. But when we meet Margie she has given up on a singing career, alienated by always having to sing for her supper. "I was just a poor black girl who could entertain them," she bitterly remembers about her relationship with her classmates. But Margie can't suppress her urge to sing. She begins by leading recreational singing on the bus to pass the time and lift spirits. Soon this blossoms into an organized choir, performing at each community stop. Margie becomes deeply affected by the spirit of the people on the bus and those she meets along the way. By the end of the trip she decides to return to her career in music, this time as a composer - saying that she wants to "write symphonies celebrating the people in this movement."
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