Project Overview
Study of local race relations within broader historical context of civil rights movement.
Goals: Generate short documentary film we can incorporate into our prototype Remixing Rural Texas: Local Texts, Global Contexts, under development now and funded, in part, through the National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Humanities grant. Ideal: Let's work with what we already have, THEN go out and get what we need.
In all we do, let's work toward (a) reciprocity, (b) preservation, (c) representation (not appropriation). That's difficult, no doubt. But certainly doable.
The project team is delighted to be working with RTV to create a 30 minute documentary that includes three segments likely to be most relevant to our needs for the RRT prototype. We are happy to help, developing storyboards that build from the existing archival footage and lining up opportunities for the collection of new footage and relevant artifacts.
SEGMENT ONE: The Norris Community Club (established 1973)
Remix of existing archival materials featuring key challenges and accomplishments in in the first few years of Norris Community Club's activist efforts for racial justice, especially with respect to Ivory Moore's role as a founding member and liaison to city and university.
SEGMENT TWO: The Sign (installed 1921)
Remix of existing archival materials and contemporary interviews to tell the story of race relations in one rural Texas town with a troubled past. The narrative begins and ends with the installation of two signs, both at the railroad station flanking the main entrance to Downtown Greenville. The first, "Welcome to Greenville: Blackest Land. Whitest People," was installed in 1921 and removed nearly half a century later. Conversations about the sign, its legacy, and its intent remain charged more than forty years later, even after the installation of a new sign, in 2008, the result of extensive lobbying and fundraising by city leadership through the Corporation for Cultural Diversity, "Welcome to Greenville. We are Building an Inclusive Community." The same year, the portion of the major interstate running through Greenville was renamed MLK Freeway. Both signal formal connections with a national project to improve race relations at local levels.
SEGMENT THREE: Corporation for Cultural Diversity (established 2001)
Remix of existing archival footage featuring key challenges and accomplishments in in the first few years of Corporation for Cultural Diversity efforts for racial justice, especially with respect to their role in installing a new sign where the old sign once hung: "Welcome to Greenville: Building an Inclusive Community" (in 2008). Remix will focus on purpose and meaning of the new sign as described by CCD membership, as well additional present-day challenges.
Requests
Roles
CLiC (Converging Literacies Center)--SC, KD, SH
Bring existing content together at wiki (we'll continue to process these, though much is already available)
Secure permissions on their use.
Work with library to move items into Northeast Texas Digital Collections (where permissible)
(full citations crucial!)
Storyboard with you, calling attention to rich artifacts already available in collectoin
Arrange for interviews with additional players of note
Call attention to potential shots worth pursuing
Review drafts
Work with you to get a complete draft of documentary to participants, along with Thank You letter signed by both teams (see above)
Liason between RTV, particpants, etc
RTV
Cull existing footage and other materials made available at wiki (see above)