Review: Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round (2024)

It's a story that hasn't been told nearly enough.

Ruby Pictures Inc.

There are certain places and locations that are used as short-hand for the Civil Rights movement: busses, lunch counters, bridges, water fountains, schools. Those stories have become so famous and synonymous, it is easy to forget that these protests, sit-ins, and boycotts took place all over the South in a variety of locations and businesses.

One such story is told in the new documentary Ain't No Back to A Merry-Go-Round. In 1960, Glen Echo Amusement Park, a park located in the Maryland suburbs of D.C., was segregated. This was not unusual for a business of any sort in that area at that time, but there seemed to be a conceptual sting regarding this place designed for nothing but unabashed fun. A sign promoting the park ironically read “Come One Come All.” A group of students from the local historically black Howard University took particular notice of the park and formed an extended civil rights campaign under the moniker "D.C. Non-Violent Action Group," which they much more charmingly referred to as NAG. And that's exactly what they planned on doing.

Pickets, signs, sure. But their tactics got creative. A couple of fellas who could speak French (well, one just spoke English with a French accent) tried convincing them that they weren't American. Needless to say, it didn't work.

The documentary is named after a line in the Langston Hughes poem "Merry-Go-Round", which partially reads "Where is the Jim Crow section / On this merry-go-round / On the bus we’re put in the back / But there ain’t no back / To a merry-go-round! / Where’s the horse / For a kid that’s black?" It's a powerful poem, one of youthfulness and innocence and vulnerability and the members of NAG found inspiration in its words. Five Black students performed a sit-in protest on the carousel, which resulted in their arrest. One particularly haunting image (seen above) shows a stare-down between one of the protesters and a police officer, neither willing to break this telepathic connection.

When it was made well-known that the owners of the park were Jewish, several members of the local Jewish community joined the protest, finding particular offense to the racism inherent in the park's segregation policies. With folks of all races joining the cause, the Washington Post ran the headline “Whites Join Negroes in Protest Against Glen Echo Park Segregation.”

The film is largely made up of talking head interviews with many of the folks who participated in the protests. They all came from different upbringings, backgrounds, and experiences, but found commonalities in the shared goal of societal progress. Hearing them tell their stories all these years later is invaluable. As we get farther and farther away from these nation-changing events, it becomes less and less likely we have the people still around to tell these on-the-ground stories. If they go, their stories go with them. Ain't No Back to A Merry-Go-Round preserves their stories.

The film is also supplemented with voiceover from a variety of actors, chiefly Jeffrey Wright and Mandy Patinkin as the Black and mainstream presses, respectively, to fill in the contextual gaps. Since a lot of the film consists of Ken Burns-effected still photographs, those performances breathe life into these moments.

History lessons don't need to be boring, but they do need to be heard loud and clear. There's no doubt that this documentary achieves that. It's a story that hasn't been told nearly enough and one that is both educational and inspiring.

Ain't No Back to A Merry-Go-Round plays this Sunday, June 16th at 6pm, at the appropriately local DC/DOX. Be on the look out for more screenings and a wider release.