( ♪♪♪ )
Voices of Baltimore -
Life Under Segregation
is a film that tells the stories of people
who lived separate but unequal.
You didn't see the signs
that said white and color.
You saw them
when you went downtown.
And some places
you just didn't go.
It didn't hold you back.
It really propelled you further.
I need to stand up
for what is right.
MAN:
We were arrested. We were tried.
WOMAN:
Mediocrity was not acceptable.
Not just for you and your family
but for a whole race of people.
What we saw in 2015
could have happened in the 1930s.
And as Maya Angelou say,
"Instead, I rise, in spite of that."
I'm not going anywhere.
( ♪♪♪ )
Here to talk about the film
and the all-too-recent times it recalls
are the show's producers,
Morna McDermott McNulty
and Gary Homana.
Good to have you both here.
Thank you,
it's great to be here.
Congratulations on what appears
to be a great film. Very moving film.
So I gotta ask you, you're both
educators at Towson University
in the Elementary Ed Department,
but you've decided to take this project on.
So I'm gonna ask you, Gary,
what was the motivation?
So, I teach an
urban education course.
I was the lead in that course
and one of the instructors asked me
to come to his class
and he had a guest speaker.
And the guest speaker's name
was Evelyn Chapman
and she was speaking about her growing up
in Baltimore during Jim Crow
and her experiences in education
and her life in the community
and I walked away from that just
knowing that these stories
had to be preserved because
these are people in their 80s
and in many ways those stories
will be lost.
And so then I talked
to Evelyn a little bit.
Morna came on the team and
then we started working on the project.
Okay. So, timing is always an issue.
Why now, Morna?
Why do you think this film is so
important right now, needs to be done?
I think there is that clip right in the film
that you showed in the beginning
that says "What happened then
could have easily have happened in 2015."
And with the advent
of the death of Freddie Gray
and the rise of Black Lives Matter
and the recent election
and things that are happening
right now,
those issues that were experienced
in the Jim Crow era
are still with us
and until we can reimagine
the way we think of history
and what we value and whose voices
are important to listen to,
we're not gonna get it right
moving forward.
So I think we've gotta really critically
re-examine where we've been
to understand where we're gonna go.
Okay, so these themes that you're talking
about, they resonate now in Baltimore.
In what ways,
would you say, Gary?
Well I think that the -
like Morna was saying -
I think that the themes of the film
are high expectations of individuals
and how to realize that you're
not only responsible for yourself
but you're responsible
for a whole group of people.
And one of the key themes that
came out in the film was exactly that.
It was you weren't
doing this for yourself.
You were doing it for your
community and you were doing it
to bring people up behind you so
that they could achieve what you achieved.
So it wasn't just one person succeeding,
it was a whole race of people succeeding.
And community was essential.
Yeah. And communities -
speaking of community,
what's been the response
from the community to your film?
It's been very favorable.
I feel that older generations of people
who have come to watch it
and identify so much with
Oh my gosh! Yes!
That was exactly
our neighborhood too!
So there's that connection.
And to the younger generation,
there's that reaching forward
and that reaching back of youth
seeking advice, suggestions,
support from the younger generation--
the older generation
that came before them.
And it speaks to two keys issues
that we still have yet to untangle.
One if the deficit model of
understanding historically black communities
and the way that we mistake desegregation
as some universally
Yay! We're done! Let's move on  narrative
and the other is the specter
of white privilege
which still undergirds a lot of the systemic
oppressions that we're experiencing
and I think the film doesn't shy away
from having that conversation.
So a very important topic.
Gary.
And some of the other issues
building on that, for example,
we were doing some
pilot showings of the film
and the recent premiere
that was on February 16th
and people were saying
this is absolutely necessary.
People were crying for this.
"I teach students in rural Missouri.
They need to see a film like this."
Or "I teach films in Minnesota-- I mean, I teach
classes in Minnesota with Native Americans."
They resonate.
So it's not just an African-American
race-based issue.
It's a wider-based issue of
addressing how we understand
and communicate with each other
and listen to each other
so that we can rise above where we are.
Right. Okay, well I think
this film is wonderful
and I congratulate you both on your
intentions and on your success with this.
And we encourage people to go online
at Towson University on the website.
They can find out more about the film
and where they may be able to see it
and experience it.
So thank you again
and congratulations.
