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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 22 January 2020
Film probes radical black-

Latino-poor white 1960s alliance

By RUSSELL CONTRERAS shocked some allies and Wearing a beret and his
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., (AP) scared police and the FBI, hands behind this back,
— Civil rights activists were who feared the coalition Lee stood in front of a
still mourning the 1968 as- would upend the social or- room of whites. To ease
sassinations of Rev. Martin der. the crowd’s anxieties, Lee
Luther King, Jr. and Robert It would eventually change told the crowd, “my name
Kennedy. Richard Nixon Chicago. is Bobby Lee. But my real
was president, the Vietnam Filmmaker Ray Santisteban name is Robert E. Lee.” It
War hadn’t ended, and said it took him 14 years to was an ironic reference to
urban racial tensions re- complete the project. The the former Confederate
mained. effort only took off after he general who now shared
In that climate, a 24-year- convinced Lee, the ailing the name with a black rev-
old Black Panther Party organizer behind the multi- olutionary.
member from Houston ethnic effort, to speak pub- “We laughed,” remem-
named Bobby Lee went licly for the first time. bered Hy Thurman, a white
into a Chicago neighbor- The subject of race also has man from Tennessee and a In this June 4, 1969, file photo, Bobby Rush, deputy defense min-
hood of poor Southern come under scrutiny under member of a group called ister of the Illinois Black Panther party, center, reads a statement
white migrants with a stun- President Donald Trump, the Young Patriots. at a news conference after an early morning raid on Chicago
Panther headquarters by FBI agents. At left is Jose "Cha Cha"
ning and straightforward who has been accused of The police mistreated them Jimenez, chairman of the Young Lord, a Chicago-area Puerto
plea: Join us. making racist statements. like the police mistreated Rican group.
A new PBS documentary “Funders would tell me, ‘this blacks, Lee told the crowd. Associated Press
is exploring a little-known was an interesting film but Landlords also refused to
movement that brought to- what does this have to do change living conditions in apartment and killed Illinois nese Americans would join
gether blacks, Latinos, and with today?’” Santisteban their homes like the homes Black Panther leader Fred Latinos in California to push
poor whites from Appala- said. “Then, the country of black residents, he said. Hampton, the coalition for desegregation.
chia that later resulted in changed. I started getting “What do you want in your helped Republican Ber- During the Civil Rights
the upending of politics in calls about four years ago community? What do you nard Carey defeat Demo- movement, Mexican Amer-
the American Midwest. about it.” want here?” he asked. cratic Cook County State’s ican and African American
“The First Rainbow Coali- In 1969, Lee reached out to Lee also enlisted the Puer- Attorney Edward V. Hanra- advocates tried to create
tion,” scheduled to begin Southern white migrants in to Rican group, the Young han. a coalition in Houston. The
airing Jan. 27 as part of the a northern Chicago neigh- Lords, to join the new multi- It wasn’t the first time there Houston group fought even
Independent Lens series, borhood called “Hillbilly ethnic struggle. was an attempt to forge a over whether they should
shows how members of the Harlem” to join him in fight- The coalition began pres- multicultural alliance. New be called the Black/Brown
Black Panther Party orga- ing poverty and police mis- suring landlords about con- Mexico-born education or Brown/Black Coalition
nized Puerto Rican radicals conduct. ditions and challenged po- pioneer George I. Sanchez until future Congresswom-
and Confederate flag- “They were poor. It was a lice on their tactics. When and NAACP lawyer Thur- an Barbara Jordan told
waving white Southerners slum. You could smell it,” eight police officers from good Marshall correspond- participants to call them-
to help tackle poverty and Lee told Santisteban. “And the Cook County state’s ed in the late 1940s on ways selves the B and B Coali-
discrimination. The union you could smell a slum.” attorney’s office raided an to fight segregation. Japa- tion. q

'Downton Abbey' creator's new TV show is painfully accurate

By LYNN ELBER should have prepared bet- said. "Whereas you could
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — ter by wearing a corset for say that 'Downton' was on
The period costumes of a few hours each day in the other side of the hill, it
a Julian Fellowes drama the weeks up to beginning was part of the decline,
can be excruciatingly ac- shooting." particularly as we follow it
curate, as an actress in his It's impossible to get the sil- through the '20s."
new series "Belgravia" dis- houette of the 1840s with- "Belgravia" is a "can-do
covered. out the binding undergar- show," he said. "It's really
The Epix drama from ment that women wore, about people achieving
"Downton Abbey" creator she said. If the limited series' what they want, despite
Fellowes and executive actresses look like they're the difficulties the society
producer Gareth Neame is comfortable, Greig added, places in their path. ... But
set in 19th-century London "it's really great acting." I hope it is essentially a kind
and features Tamsin Greig, Alice Eve ("Bombshell") and of uplifting tale."
who starred in the TV com- Ella Purnell ("Sweetbitter") Fellowes was pleased
edy "Episodes," and Philip also star in the series and by the reception for last
Glenister ("Cranford"). joined in a presentation to In this Sept. 16, 2019, file photo writer-producer Julian Fellowes year's big screen version of
Asked if the elaborate out- TV critics Saturday. The six- attends the premiere of "Downton Abbey," at Alice Tully Hall in "Downton Abbey," which
fits were difficult or easy to part drama will debut April New York. arrived four years after the
work in, Greig gave a quick 12. Associated Press series ended on PBS, but
reply. "Belgravia," set in the grand was noncommittal about
"Do you think that they London neighborhood of "Downton Abbey," the hit For the Epix limited series, the possibility of a sec-
look easy?' she said. "I was that name, was adapted TV drama that unfolded in it's the "rise of the great Vic- ond film. He's got another
under the care of an os- by Fellowes from his epon- the early 1900s, Fellowes torian era of manufactur- TV series in the works, "The
teopath within a week of ymous 2016 novel. Asked said the projects reflect the ing and money and ... the Gilded Age" for HBO, set in
filming, and I realized that I to compare the series to periods in which they're set. expansion of London," he 1880s America.q