The film is based in part on the book Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by historian Raymond Arsenault.

The film was also featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show program titled, Freedom Riders: 50th Anniversary.

[4] Nelson was helped in the making of the documentary by Arsenault and Derek Catsam, an associate professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

The activists traveled together in small interracial groups and sat wherever they chose on buses and trains to compel equal access to terminal restaurants and waiting rooms.

Freedom Riders has received generally positive reviews from television critics and parents of young children.