| “Between
a now vanished world and culture”
Part Two, The Bridge, asks
the question, “Did African Americans achieve integration
in the 1960’s or desegregation?” We examine
the fate of black institutions that were part of the black
community such as its universities, schools and businesses.
The military portion seen in this film focuses on the military
as one of few opportunities that were available to African
Americans before the 1960’s.
The basis for the documentary The
Bridge is that the 1960’s were a bridge between
a now vanished world and culture of segregation for African
Americans and the world of today which started in 1970 in
which African Americans were “integrated” into
privileges of full citizenship in America.
For young people who have grown up in the
90’s and the 21st century the history of integration
must feel ancient like the Civil War. Yet integration happened
only 35 years ago. The Bridge notes that
full citizenship for African Americans actually came 100
years after such status was granted as a result of the end
of the Civil War.
If you graduated from high school in the south
before 1970 you graduated from a segregated educational
culture. If you graduated in the 1950’s and 60’s
you graduated into an integrated world. The Civil Rights
struggle provided these opportunities and African Americans
rushed to take advantage of it. Left behind were the institutions
and culture of segregation. Left behind were some institutions
that possibly should have been taken with African Americans
because those institutions did not exist in the “new”
world they entered. These institutions were the schools,
teachers, communities, businesses in which African Americans
of every economic and social level lived together. Has the
desegregation of schools and employment created a new African
American underclass left behind by those with the family
structures and values built for the pursuit of the American
Dream.
Other Stories that are a part of The
Bridge are:
- The Hemphill Rosenwald school - a history of the
consolidation of a small two room school during integration
as told by faculty and student interviews.
- The story of Jim & Winnie Shankle. Is told in
Texas history as slaves who founded a freedman’s
community in Shankleville Texas. A historical plaque
commemorates Jim and Winnie’s story of slavery
in Mississippi and Texas and the founding of Shankleville.
We have an interview of Trogie Shankle, 90+ years old
at the Shankleville Cemetery.
- The Bridge is also about Vietnam.
The moving story of Herman Wright Sr. service and how
he Dorie and Clinton Wright were there at the same time.
Dorie and his wife Joyce contribute a moving story of
a close family in war.
The Bridge is currently in
production...if you have any questions or information to
share please contact us: info@thelongblackline.com |
