On May 11, 2011, 40 students retracing the route of the original Freedom Ride arrived in Anniston as part of a promotion organized by WGBH/Boston to publicize the documentary Freedom Riders, which aired May 16, 2011 on American Experience. During a library program opening an exhibit of bus burning photos, original Freedom Rider Hank Thomas and Richard Couch, the son of one of the original attackers, met and embraced, and Richard apologized for his father's acts of violence. The program ended with a roomful of black, white, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American people singing “We Shall Overcome.” Student rider Francisco Diaz later reflected that Anniston had long represented angry mobs, violent intolerance, and the burning Greyhound image associated with the attacks on the original Freedom Riders in 1961, but that his visit changed his prejudicial view of the South. After meeting Richard Couch, whom he came to see as sincere and compassionate despite his father's past as a Klansman, Diaz regarded Couch's tearful welcome to Hank Thomas and their embrace as a powerful example of nonviolence and a glimpse of the beloved community the Freedom Riders sought, replacing his earlier image of hate with one of love, understanding, and hope.