VHS, 30 min., 1998

With grant funds from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the W.C. Kellogg Foundation, the Southwest Arkansas Community Development Corporation researched and produced a film that explains where and how African Americans were educated in Columbia County before desegregation.  Narrated by an alumna of Columbia School and a VISTA volunteer on staff with the CDC, the program visits several of the school sites and makes use of oral interviews with former students and personnel of the various schools.

And So I Sing

VHS, 30 min., 1996

This exhibit explores the background and accomplishments of seven African American classical musicians and their ties to Arkansas. It includes photographs, newspaper articles, memorabilia and "interpretative text" gathered from the archives and special collections of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program and other contributors.

See also:
EXHIBITS
And So I Sing

At the River I Stand

VHS, 60 min., 1993

The 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike that became the last crusade of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is the focus of this documentary. Although remembered as the struggle which culminated in the assassination of Dr. King, the strike is significant in itself as a watershed event in the civil rights movement. It was a tragic test of Dr. King's philosophy of nonviolence, and the key event in King's attempt to merge civil rights issues with a broader concern for economic issues.

Doing What Was Right

VHS, 30 min.,  2004

This video, produced by Jack Hill of TeleVision of Arkansas, was released in 2004 in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the quiet and successful integration of the public schools in Charleston, Arkansas.

Education in Craighead County: A Way Out for African Americans

VHS, 30 min.,  2004

This documentary uses interviews, photographs, historical records, newspaper accounts, and letters to tell the story of education for Black Americans in Craighead County.  It shows how much Black parents valued education and how they felt that education would prepare their children for a better life.

Eliza Miller High School: Ye Shall Know Them By Their Fruits

VHS, 34 min.,  2003

In 1925, Eliza Miller, the wife of a successful Black businessman in the Helena area, bought and donated land to the local school district for a high school to be built to serve the African American students in the area.  The video includes interviews with historians, former teachers, and graduates of Eliza Miller High School.

Ethnic Notions

VHS, 56 min., 1987

An award-winning documentary which takes viewers on a disturbing voyage through American social history. It traces for the first time the evolution of the deeply rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice. Light is shed on the origins and devastating consequences of this 150-year-long parade of bigotry. Situating each stereotype historically in white society's shifting needs to justify racist oppression from slavery to the present, Ethnic Notions reveals how popular culture both shapes and reflects public attitudes.

Eyes on the Prize I

VHS, 60 min. each, 1987, Study guide available CC

Six part comprehensive television documentary on the American civil rights movement, 1954-1965. The series focuses on the people, the events, and the issues of those turbulent years.

1. Awakenings (1954-1956)

Highlights of the events that began the modern black freedom struggle.

2. Fighting Back (1957-1962)

Exploration of the lawsuits brought by parents on behalf of their children when blacks rejected the notion of "separate but equal" education.

3. Ain't Scared of Your Jails (1960-1961)

Four related stories are explored: the lunch counter sit-ins of 1960; the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC; the impact of the movement on the 1960 presidential campaign; and the freedom rides of 1961.

4. No Easy Walk (1962-66)

The civil rights phenomenon is placed in a broad historical context, describing the growing commitment of activists to nonviolent tactics.

5. Mississippi: Is This America? (1962-1964)

Focuses on the extraordinary personal risks faced by ordinary citizens as they assumed responsibility for social change, particularly the 1962-1964 voting rights campaign in Mississippi.

6. Bridge to Freedom (1965)