The Oprah Winfrey Show: The Podcast

Oprah Honors American Heroes: The Freedom Riders Reunite 50 Years Later

<p>From May 4, 2011: Oprah celebrates the 50-year anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Riders movement with 178 surviving Freedom Riders in the audience. The American heroes share their reasons for risking their lives to defy the segregation laws of the Deep South. Congressman John Lewis is reunited with Elwin Wilson, one of the men who beat him at a bus station in Rock Hill, South Carolina. They open up about the beating and Wilson’s subsequent apology in 2009. In 2013, Elwin Wilson died in a South Carolina hospital at the age of 76. </p>

Oprah is opening the vault of The Oprah Winfrey Show with 25 years of hand-picked legendary interviews, a-ha moments, ugly cries and unforgettable surprises. A lot has changed since she ended the show, but many of our personal struggles have stayed the same. We’re all still looking to connect, to be seen and to know that we’re not alone. We’re also looking for some joy, some laughs and some much-needed inspiration. As we head into this new decade, what better time to look back and reflect, to take stock of how we’ve grown and to be reminded that we’re all in this together. The Oprah Winfrey Show aired from September 8th, 1986 to May 25, 2011 with 4,561 episodes. The show remains the highest-rated daytime talk show in American television history, averaging between 10 to 20 million viewers a day.