A 30-minute documentary profiling students and community members who are creating change in the wake of racism, anti-Semitism and the traumatic consequences of bullying gets an advance screening Tuesday (Jan. 31) at the University of Mississippi.
“Not In Our Town: Class Actions” begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Overby Center Auditorium, followed by a panel discussion. Panelists are UM Chancellor Dan Jones; Susan Glisson, executive director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation; and Taylor McGraw and Toran Dean, members of One Mississippi. Admission is free and open to the public.
Nearly 50 years after James Meredith became the first black student at the university, some football fans began the chant “The South will rise again” when the band played a composition called “From Dixie with Love.” Student leaders confronted the divisive practice, sparking a campus visit from the Ku Klux Klan.
“It (the film) was filmed partially on the Ole Miss campus when students peacefully confronted the Ku Klux Klan by turning their backs on hate,” said Ellen Bourdeaux, director of Friends of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, which is presenting the special screening.
“The story focuses on Melissa Cole, Jake McGraw, Artair Rogers, Chancellor Jones and their efforts to make positive change at the University of Mississippi,” said Charene Zalis, co-producer of the film.
Narrated by “Survivor” winner Yul Kwon, the film will premiere nationally on PBS at 9:30 p.m. Feb. 13.
Ben Guest, program manager for the Mississippi Teacher Corps at UM, will serve as moderator for the panel discussion and has some of his footage from the KKK rally in the film.
“The response from the University of Mississippi community to the chant ‘The South will rise again’ was a step forward for this institution,” Guest said. “I’m happy to be serving as moderator for the panel discussion and to hear, from some of the principals involved, what they were thinking and how they were feeling. And I am happy to have that footage included in the NIOT piece. ”
Friends of MPB work to increase MPB’s engagement with Mississippians and bring special screenings and events to communities across the state. One Mississippi is a group working to find a way to break down social barriers.
Besides the UM segment, the film shows solutions in two other cities where bullying and anti-Semitism were found. Lancaster, a city east of Los Angeles, was so shaken after teen suicides in nearby towns that a middle school counselor started an anti-bullying program, which inspired a citywide campaign. The college town of Bloomington, Ind., shocked after a Korean student was murdered by a white supremacist a decade ago, banded together again after anti-Semitic attacks on the eve of Hanukkah.
“Not In Our Town: Class Actions” is the fourth PBS special from Not In Our Town, a project of the Working Group. Not In Our Town was launched in 1995 with the national PBS special “Not In Our Town,” which followed the citizens of Billings, Mont., as they joined forces to resist bigotry in their town. Over the past 15 years, Not In Our Town has grown from a PBS documentary into a national effort to connect people working together to take action against hate and create safe, inclusive communities.
For more information about the UM event, contact Ellen Bourdeaux at 601-432-6309. For more information see Not In Our Town or Mississippi Public Broadcasting.