Bermuda will mark 55 years since citizens banded together to overcome segregation in the Theatre Boycott of 1959.

And the anniversary will be celebrated, in part, with a “high-five” event.

“The ‘high-five’ idea of everyone high-fiving each other is a symbol of what we have planned,” said Imagine Bermuda’s Glenn Fubler.

“We celebrate the anniversary of their success on July 2, that’s when the barriers came down and the playing field was opened substantially.”

In a racially segregated Bermuda, the Island’s cinemas saw “coloured” patrons separated from whites, an arrangement which gradually drew the ire of activists.

An early opponent of segregation in the theatres was Georgine Hill, who died on January 28 this year.

By the end of the 1950s a significant number of anti-segregationists joined together as the Progressive Group, and in June 1959 they launched a non-violent picketing of cinemas that swiftly drew wide support.

“We will recognise the fact that a community faced down challenges, and peacefully transformed what seemed like an impossible situation,” said Mr Fubler.

A variety of volunteers will join young students on their school bus rides throughout next week to discuss the boycotts.

“They’ll be engaging with them in talk about the significance of this anniversary, this was a case of ordinary people achieving change. It didn’t come from the top down.

“The other thing to this, in terms of a high-five, is it involves these personalities reaching out and building connections, asking our students for feedback and asking them to imagine what their own lives will be like in five years and ten years. We want them to have a one-on-one.”

The first volunteers, including former Cabinet Secretary Donald Scott, were chosen from the western half of the Island.

“It will include talking to middle school and senior school students about the circumstances of that time, and the changes that have been brought about,” Mr Scott said.

“Bermudians who considered Bermuda their home felt they had an equal right to partake in the different establishments.”

Football legend Clyde Best said: “I will be listening as well as speaking as we travel on the bus. I’m going to be talking about the importance of getting an education and making them understand the importance of being a good person. In these trying times, everybody is suffering, some more than others. It’s important the we make our young people understand that they have a part to play.”

Retired Transport Permanent Secretary Ellen-Kate Horton, who lived under segregation as a child, said she’d witnessed the power of activism firsthand.

“I was a student at the Berkeley Institute at the time. I clearly remember going to the theatre and ‘knowing my place’ — we had to sit at the bottom of the theatre,” Ms Horton said.

“We weren’t allowed to go upstairs and I can recall people throwing popcorn down at us. I can also recall sitting at the back of St James Church. My grandfather Warren Simmons ran a successful ice-cream business and had a few dollars, and he bought a family pew. It was at the back of the church.

“I even had a situation at the Perot Post Office, where the woman tried to serve all the others around us. We tried to go through the Walker Arcade and were told we were not allowed. I have lived the experience.

“So we will bring home to the children how what we have gone through has changed life for them, and get through to them that they have to take every single chance they can to educate themselves, stay on the right side of things and become better citizens to move Bermuda forward.”

The July 2 “culmination” of the 55th anniversary will be observed by Imagine Bermuda in conjunction with the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce, Mr Fubler said.