1. FEBRUARY BLACK HISTORY FILM SERIES
Hidden Colors (2011)
Hidden Colors is a documentary about the real and untold history of people of color around the globe.
This film discusses some of the reasons the contributions of African and aboriginal people have been left
out of the pages of history. Traveling around the country, the film features scholars, historians, and
social commentators who uncovered such amazing facts about things such as: The original image of
Christ; The true story about the Moors; The original people of Asia; The great west African empires; The
presence of Africans in America before Columbus; The real reason slavery was ended And much more.
Written by Anonymous
American Violet (2008)
The film is based on the civil rights lawsuit Regina Kelly v. John Paschall, filed on behalf of 15 African-
American residents of Hearne, Texas who were indicted in November 2000 on drug charges after being
rounded up in a series of drug sweeps the ACLU referred to as "paramilitary". The lawsuit accused
Paschall and the South Central Texas Narcotics Task Force of conducting racially motivated drug sweeps
for more than 15 years in Hearne. In 2005, the ACLU and Robertson County settled and the plaintiffs
agreed to dismiss the individuals named in the suit, including Paschall. The fictional Harmon County
represents Robertson County, Texas, where John Paschall was defeated for reelection in 2012. Regina
Kelly continued to live in Hearne until 2009.
Rosewood (1997)
The movie of Rosewood relates the historical events of a January 1923 race riot in Rosewood, FL in
which whites attacked blacks and burned the town down. A mentally unstable white woman, Fanny
Taylor, claims to have been beaten by a black man. Historical accounts note that this was never proven.
The movie shows a white man, not Fanny’s husband, in her bedroom where they have sex. Shortly after
he finishes, he prepares to go back to work. She gets upset at him for ejaculating on her face and hits
him inciting him to beat her. Some black workers outside heard the events but did nothing. When they
told about it, their account of a white man beating Fanny was not believed. Singleton presents it as
looking as if Fanny was covering up her cheating on her husband by blaming it on a black man. The white
residents readily believe Fanny's account, demonstrating the power of racial stereotyping and fears. The
black residents of Rosewood quickly become targeted by the white males of nearby Summer, Florida
and others who arrive for a fight, including members of the Ku Klux Klan. Mobs formed swiftly.
Prom Night in Mississippi (2009)
The documentary is about the senior prom in Charleston, Mississippi. The high school in Charleston (a
community of 2,100 residents) has an average of 80 graduates per year, and up until 2008 had separate,
segregated proms for black students and white students, despite Mississippi fully integrating their
schools in 1970. In 1997 Morgan Freeman (a resident of Charleston since 1991) approached the school
and offered to pay for the prom, provided it be racially integrated. The school declined Freeman's offer.
In 2008 Freeman offered again, and the school agreed to move forward with an integrated prom.