TELL THEM WE ARE RISING



Although only seven percent of African-American students today choose HBCUs, several college presidents and a documentary film director told a Jackson State University audience screening “Tell Them We Are Rising” that these institutions must survive.

JSU joined Mississippi Public Broadcasting, Tougaloo College and JSU’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies as sponsors of the powerful documentary about the relevance of HBCUs. It was previewed by more than 100 people Thursday inside the Mississippi e-Center@JSU and will be released nationwide Feb. 19 on PBS stations, including MPB.

The story explores 150 years of African-American history by examining black colleges and universities. Despite smaller enrollment, HBCUs still account for 25 percent of African-American graduates.

Director Stanley Nelson set out to tell the world HBCUs are still rising. The institutions are credited with building the middle class, paving a path to the American dream and shaping culture. Although it took him 10 years to complete the project, he said it was important to tell this story.

“Furthermore,” said Nelson, “There’s no way my mother and father would have gone to college if it had not been for HBCUs … You will come out of this screening feeling what HBCUs have been and what they are today.”

Nelson’s film begins from the time of enslavement when an education for blacks was forbidden to modern-day history of more than 100 black colleges in the nation.

HE said Southern whites, in particular, feared that educated blacks would unravel their society. The story also reveals that individuals venturing to be educated after the Civil War were killed. Even some abolitionists supporting education were hanged as others helped to set up schools. It’s believed that 20,000 people were slain because of the perceived threat associated with educating blacks – most victims, of course, being African-Americans.

Resistance against white oppressors began to swell and eventually made its way to college campuses over the next several decades. Protests also were leveled against some black university administrators who didn’t appear to sufficiently support the progression of African-Americans.

Clouding America’s violent era of the late 1800s was the 1972 uprising at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where two African-American students were shot in the head. The horrific scene was captured on film and is included in the documentary. It shows law enforcement officers hurling tear gas and unleashing a hail of gunfire on crowds. The deadly aftermath sent shockwaves throughout the nation and beyond.

Documentary shows HBCUs continue to rise despite struggles, violence over 150 years
 


Stanley Nelson, the preeminent storyteller of the African-American experience and Firelight Films, the award-winning production company committed to making films about pivotal events, movements, and people in American history, unveil a new full-length trailer for the upcoming documentary Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities. The trailer provides a fast-paced, rousing overview of the complex history of how HBCUs, havens for Black intellectuals, artists and trailblazers, offered a path of promise toward the American dream, educated the architects of freedom movements throughout the decades and cultivated leaders in every field.

Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges & Universities premieres on the acclaimed series Independent Lens on PBS on Monday, February 19th 2018 at 9p ET (check local listings). For more details on the film and #HBCURising campaign go to www.hbcurising.com
 
Also, the DirecTV guide here in Dallas is showing that a documentary about former SWAC school Bishop College will be airing after this special at 1030pm. That will be followed by a documentary about PV at 1130pm.
 

I am watching right now. We lived in Baton Rouge during most of the '70s and remember the news of the students being killed when we lived in Minnesota. I remember the issue of the funding between LSU and Southern. Frankly, the funding issue is between LSU and the rest of the schools in the state.
 
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