Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 20 February 2018
Film showcases historically black colleges and universities

By DEEPTI HAJELA
NEW YORK (AP) — Film-
maker Stanley Nelson knew
he wanted to tell a story
about the nation's histori-
cally black colleges and
universities — not just about
individual HBCUs, many of
which have their own cele-
brated histories, but about
what they collectively have
meant to black people.
And in making the docu-
mentary "Tell Them We Are
Rising: The Story of Black
Colleges and Universities,"
Nelson said, something
quickly became clear: HB-
CUs never were just about
learning what was in books.
From their beginnings in the
years after the Civil War, the
nation's HBCUs have been
driving forces for African-
American economic and In this March 2, 1965 file photo, The Rev. Martin Luther King speaks at a Charter Day ceremony at Howard University in Washington.
political advancement. King discussed his civil rights movement theme, "We shall overcome."
"As we were making the Associated Press
film, it became for us a look
at American history, and
African-American history, last year and is getting its many Southern states. After Institute, and emphasized service at a Woolworth's
through this lens of HBCUs. national broadcast debut the war, newly freed black self-sufficiency for African- counter in February 1960
They were involved in so through the PBS series "In- people were allowed to Americans, focusing on were students at North Car-
many central events," said dependent Lens" on Mon- learn but were far from wel- acquiring industrial trades olina Agricultural and Tech-
Nelson, who wrote, direct- day. come at institutions of high- and skills and earning the nical State University.
ed and produced the film, Before the Civil War, school- er education serving white respect of whites through Nelson, who's black, also
which made its debut at ing for enslaved black peo- people, leading to the cre- labor and hard work. has made movies about
the Sundance Film Festival ple was largely outlawed in ation of colleges and uni- But Du Bois, who attended the Black Panther Party and
versities to cater to them, another HBCU, Fisk Univer- the Freedom Summer. He
predominantly in the South. sity, before going to Har- attended an HBCU, Morris
According to the federal vard University, had a dif- Brown College, for a term,
government, an HBCU is an ferent view for HBCUs and and said it's "no accident"
accredited learning insti- society at large. For him, that so much civil rights ef-
tution started before 1964 colleges and universities fort and energy came out
that had a primary mission were places to educate of HBCUs.
of educating black people, African-American leaders "It almost is not going to
and there are about 100 of and thinkers, to be in the come from anywhere else,"
them today. Though HBCUs forefront of political and he said. "These are safe
were started for blacks, to- civil rights efforts pursuing black intellectual spaces."
day they accept students equality. The film closes with a look
of all races and their stu- Another part of the docu- at HBCUs today, their stu-
dent populations are 78 mentary shows how one dents and some of their
percent black. of the most fundamental challenges, like the plight
Nelson's film explores those aspects of the civil rights of Morris Brown, which lost
HBCU origins and how their movement, the case-by- its accreditation in 2003
campuses became safe case legal dismantling of but still has some students.
spaces for African-Ameri- the separate-but-equal sys- It doesn't delve deeply
can intellectualism to flour- tem of segregation, came into those challenges,
ish and places where larger from the efforts of Thurgood which Nelson described
societal issues also were Marshall and his mentor as a "complicated ques-
felt. Charles Hamilton Houston, tion" that could be its own
In part of the film, viewers who taught him and other movie.
are introduced to how col- black students at Howard Overall, the film is meant to
lege educations became University's School of Law, give people a grounding,
a front in the ideologi- another HBCU. said Nelson, whose parents
cal conflict between two Other efforts that were fun- attended HBCUs.
prominent African-Ameri- damental to the civil rights "I think that there are just a
cans, Booker T. Washington movement, like the lunch few institutions that have
and W.E.B Du Bois. counter sit-ins that started sustained the African-
Washington, a graduate in Greensboro, North Caro- American community," he
of Hampton University, lina, also were connected said. "Black colleges and
became president of an- to HBCUs — the first four universities are certainly
other HBCU, Tuskeegee men who asked for lunch one of them."q