Wed 10/8 @ 7-9PM
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education decision, declaring school segregation unconstitutional, came down in 1954, and was fought mightily, not just in the south but across the country, including Cleveland. While many of the flashpoint incidents of violent resistance to Black students entering white schools did happen in the south, the north as swept with a wave of resistance as well when it came up with the idea of busing students to desegregate them, an idea that had a long-lasting impact.
It did in Cleveland, as northeast Ohio playwright Faye Sholiton’s play, A Death in the City, documented. Filmmaker Marquette William, producer/ performer Sherry Tolliver, and director David Hemphill featured scenes from the play in a film called A Death in the City: In the wake of Segregation, which will screen at the Atlas Cinemas at Shaker Square on Wednesday October 8. It follows the actions of nine people involved in the movement to integrate neighborhoods, housing businesses and especially schools in the 50s and 60s, focusing on Cleveland. The “death” referred to in the title was the Rev. Bruce Klunder, who was crushed to death by a bulldozer while protesting the construction of a segregated school on Cleveland’s east side.
The screening will include a discussion with some of the people involved in the creation of the film. Register for the screening here.