"Freedom Waders" tells a long-forgotten chapter of the civil rights movement. In 1960, Velma Murphy, President of the South Side NAACP Youth Council, began dating Norman Hill, a prominent civil rights activist. Inspired by sit-in campaigns of the South, the young couple organized wade-ins at Chicago's Rainbow Beach, braving mob violence.

After over 60 years of marriage, the couple reflects on how the summer of 1960 forever changed their lives.