- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of Montgomery, Alabama. At 8:00, Judge Dolores R. Boyd interview begins at her home in Montgomery. Part two. Judge Boyd offers opinions on the so-called New South, desegregation versus integration, the still-unrealized aspects of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, and accessing the civil rights movement via churches. Part three. Judge Boyd discusses her childhood role models, her school experiences, and the need for appreciation of African American culture. Part four. Ms. Boyd believes African Americans are struggling to keep what they have earned over past few decades. She says there is racism, especially because of economic disparity, and the law is critical to determining society's values. At 9:28, footage of Boyd at her office.
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- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney Donald Watkins talks about Montgomery’s challenges, like the Confederate Flag flying on the Alabama Capitol. He also covers George Wallace, the continuing fight for civil rights, the teacher accreditation exam case, and achieving parity in society via the law. He remembers an African American custodian at the University of Alabama law school, Remus Rhodes, who taught the first African American students there how to use the library and how to form study groups. Part two. Watkins continues discussing Remus Rhodes, the custodian who became mentor to the first African American students at University of Alabama law school, as well as civil rights law history. At 11:30 minutes, footage of rural road and neighborhood.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Drewary Brown talks about social and economic life in Charlottesville during the civil rights era and in 1987. Mr. Brown walks down the Mall in Charlottesville. At 12:37, interview with Florence Bryant in front of Jefferson School in Charlottesville. Ms. Bryant discusses the work of the NAACP on behalf of teachers. She mentions J. Rupert Picott, Aline Black, and Melvin Austin as instrumental in helping African American teachers get equal pay in Virginia in 1940. See also reports her involvement in desegregating schools in Charlottesville. She regards Charlottesville as a leader in desegregation.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Florence Bryant advocates the teaching of African American history. She tells about her own life. At 7:49 interview with Mr. Williams begins. Mr. Williams discusses the historical importance of the Charlottesville street on which he stands during the interview. He offers his views on public housing and his promotion of scattered housing for low income families.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Drewary Brown talks about social and economic life in Charlottesville during the civil rights era and in 1987. Mr. Brown walks down the Mall in Charlottesville. At 12:37, interview with Florence Bryant in front of Jefferson School in Charlottesville. Ms. Bryant discusses the work of the NAACP on behalf of teachers. She mentions J. Rupert Picott, Aline Black, and Melvin Austin as instrumental in helping African American teachers get equal pay in Virginia in 1940. See also reports her involvement in desegregating schools in Charlottesville. She regards Charlottesville as a leader in desegregation. Part two. Ms. Bryant advocates the teaching of African American history. She tells about her own life. At 7:49 interview with Mr. Williams begins. Mr. Williams discusses the historical importance of the Charlottesville street on which he stands during the interview. He offers his views on public housing and his promotion of scattered housing for low income families.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of Charlottesville house at 407 Ridge Street. At 1:00, interview with Frances Brand in her art gallery in Charlottesville. She describes her series of paintings, called "Firsts," as a tribute to important individuals within the Charlottesville community, especially people she considered exemplars of civil rights advocacy. She remembers her subjects and their achievements. At 13:30, discussion with three Charlottesville city school board members. One, Henry Mitchell, was a part of the NAACP's 1956 lawsuit to desegregate Charlottesville schools. He describes the aftermath of the desegregation ruling and the commonwealth's policy of Massive Resistance. Part two. Three members of the Charlottesville city school board, including Grace Tinsley, Henry Mitchell, and Clifford Bennett, discuss present day (1987) problems in Charlottesville city schools, especially concerning African American student self-image. At 15:10, footage of paintings of Charlottesville notables by Frances Brand. Part three. Grace Tinsley, Henry Mitchell, and Clifford Bennett recall the history of the Charlottesville city school board and the changes in race relations over the years.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of exteriors of houses (and William Elwood) until 8:55. Then civil rights attorney Fred Gray discusses Alabama lawyers, Arthur Shores, and becaming a lawyer in order to try civil rights cases. Gray had to go to law school outside of Alabama as African American schools in Alabama didn't offer what he wanted. He taught himself Alabama state law while in Ohio. Gray describes developing strategies for his civil rights cases. He also talks about the Montgomery bus boycott. Part two. Mr. Gray recalls his 1954 defense of an African American juvenile arrested on Montgomery bus (before the Rosa Parks arrest). Gray talked to Rosa the day before she was arrested and represented her in court. Mr. Gray remarks that Montgomery bus cases like Browder v. Gayle were the first major application of Brown's meaning. Gray describes the difficulty of registering African American voters because registrars would go missing, even after the courts ordered them to register African Americans. To avoid the impact of African American voters, Alabama redrew Tuskegee boundaries to include only white people. Mr. Gray explains Tuskegee gerrymandering and Gomillion v. Lightfoot. Part three. Mr. Gray goes over details of Gomillion v. Lightfoot, recalls how Tuskegee Institute was no longer within the city of Tuskegee because of the new boundaries. Mr. Gray discusses Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, a school discrimination case that managed to include all public schooling in Alabama. Gray explains how litigating the rights of students in order to end segregation also meant dealing with the rights of teachers. Although the Alabama African American teachers associations weren't part of the original suit, they joined the case. Part four. Mr. Gray acknowledges the Bicentennial of the Constitution in 1987, and he discusses how the Constitution was not written to include African Americans. It is the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and various civil rights acts that make the Constitution a living document for African Americans. Gray talks about the Tuskegee Civic Association and gives a lot of credit to local banker Allan Parker. Mr. Gray also covers rehearsing the Gomillion case and the immediate result of Gomillion.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights activist Gardner Bishop talks about meeting with Charles Hamilton Houston to get money for a lawyer to represent the Consolidated Parents Group. Houston sent a letter on the group's behalf to newspapers, then offered to take the case himself for free. Mr. Bishop talks about the case, how Houston became ill and asked James Nabrit to take over for him. Houston asked Mr. Bishop to visit him in the hospital just before he died. Mr. Bishop talks about hosting Consolidated Parents Group meetings in his basement. Part two. Mr. Bishop recalls meeting James Nabrit, who changed case to include enrolling black students in an all-white school. Mr. Bishop speaks of his amazement at the wonderful condition and facilities of the school in the white neighborhood. He also visited a school in a black neighborhood, and it was crowded and dilapidated. Mr. Bishop remembers visiting the Supreme Court to hear the Consolidated Parents Group case. He was one of the pallbearers for Houston.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Journalist Brandy Ayers describes the Willie Brewster murder trial, which featured the shooting of indicted killer Damon Strange by Jimmy Glenn Knight in the courthouse during the grand jury hearing. He also discusses how the jury commission worked in Alabama. Part two. Mr. Ayers calls for a new style of politics wherein all factions come together for total mobilization. He believes that the American dream is not real for African Americans.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney and professor J. Clay Smith discusses the beginning of Howard University Law School and John Mercer Langston. Mr. Smith says the law school's mission was always to make the Constitution a living document. Early students didn't have a high school diploma, just a certificate of literacy. Most first African American lawyers and judges in different states were graduates of Howard. Charles Hamilton Houston taught at Howard; he himself went to Harvard Law School. Houston was known as a hard taskmaster. He was criticized for trying to Harvardize Howard, but he knew the law school had to be comparable to others. Part two. Mr. Smith recalls Houston practicing civil rights test cases in court rooms at Howard University. Both faculty and students would pose as the different Supreme Court justices trying the case the next week. Thurgood Marshall was great with people; William Hastie was a gifted writer. Mr. Smith recounts that either Houston or Marshall had to sleep in caskets in African American mortuaries while traveling around the South to assist other lawyers due to threats from the KKK. Mr. Smith contends that the scholarly community is still biased about giving credit to African American scholars. Part three. Mr. Smith talks about Houston as the architect of the modern civil rights movement. Women's liberation lawyers, even conservative lawyers, use the legal strategy designed by Houston to change law. From 3:50 to 10:40, footage of Houston and Hastie portraits. From 10:40 to end, Alvin J. Bronstein interviewed in his office. As a young lawyer Mr. Bronstein traveled south for 1964 Freedom Summer. He was sent to St. Augustine, Florida to work on a law suit that would make hotels serve African Americans. He then went to Mississippi and stayed for five years as a trial lawyer in Macomb where there had been 37 church bombings. He set up offices around the South as part of the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee funded by the ACLU.