| Review | The History Teacher, 38.1 | The History Cooperative

Review

Standing on My Sisters' Shoulders, directed by Laura J. Lipson; producers Laura J. Lipson, Dr. Robert and Joan Sadoff. New York: Women Make Movies, 2003. 61 minutes, color and B/W, VHS video, documentary. $295.00 sale, $90.00 rental.

Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, directed by LisaGay Hamilton; producers Neda Armian, Jonathan Demme, LisaGay Hamilton, Joe Viola. New York: Women Make Movies, 2003. 90 minutes, color, VHS video, documentary. $295.00 sale, $90.00 rental.

These two extraordinary, award-winning documentaries about Mississippi women in the civil rights movement are significant contributions. Despite the attention to the male leaders of the civil rights era, women were the prime movers of the movement. As one commentator explained, "Men led, but women organized." Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, and Anne Moody have attained some recognition, but they were only the tip of the iceberg. Names such as Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, Modjeska Simkins, Septima Clark, Gloria Richardson, Bernice Reagon, and Daisy Bates, to name but a tiny number, represent the movers and shakers at the grassroots levels.

John Dittmer's classic book, Ordinary People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, captured the saga on the local level. Standing on My Sisters' Shoulders puts this same story on film. During producers Robert and Joan Sadoff's first venture into filmmaking, they asked a local woman for directions in Philadelphia, Mississippi. She volunteered that if they wanted stories about the murder of the three civil rights workers in 1964, she could supply the people. The resultant interviews of common people became the 1994 Philadelphia, Mississippi: Untold Stories. The broader project, Standing on My Sisters' Shoulders, provides a narrative of Mississippi women in the larger civil rights movement.

The film begins with a brief overview of the movement and then expertly mixes archival footage with interviews as it concentrates upon women in the campaigns of Mississippi. A significant number of participants appear on screen; however, five women receive the most attention. The late Fannie Lou Hamer, the charismatic sharecropper who gained national attention; Annie Devine, who organized voter registration in Madison County; and Unita Blackwell, sharecropper turned SNCC activist and later mayor of Mayersville, were founders of the Mississippi Freedom Democrats and participants at the 1964 Democratic Nominating Convention. In an act of monumental courage, Mae Bertha Carter and her husband were the only black parents to enroll their children in all-white schools in Drew. Victoria Gray Adams from Hattiesburg was one of the early activists in voter registration. A few of the others profiled include Constance Slaughter Harvey, the first black woman to graduate from the University of Mississippi law school; student activists June Elizabeth Johnson and L.C. Dorsey-Young, who rose from the plantation to earn a doctorate in social work; and Jane Trumpaurer Mulholland, who enrolled in black Tougaloo College and was the only white student involved in the Jackson Woolworth lunch counter sit in. The cinematography is stunning with beautiful scenes of contemporary Mississippi, the interviews are crisp, and the mix between classic footage of the era and the interview is well balanced. The documentary is historically sound, enlightening, and inspirational. Standing on My Sisters' Shoulders is an invaluable classroom source, it is a film students need to see.

Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, an important tribute to an amazing woman, is a precious historical and cultural resource, but it is less suited for most classrooms. Actress LisaGay Hamilton's award-winning tribute to Beah Richards is equally well done. Richards, from Vicksburg, Mississippi, was a talented actress, poet, dramatic reader, and philosopher, a black female film pioneer. Through her distinguished career, she continually overcame the barriers and impediments against black females. Launching her stage career at age 36 in an off-Broadway production, Richards' notable stage and film performances included Amen Corner, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Roots, In the Heat of the Night, The Great White Hope, and Beloved. She also appeared in television roles in ER, LA Law, and The Practice. At age 80 she won her third Emmy for her performance with Hamilton on The Practice, and received the award only ten days before she died.

After working with Richards on Beloved, Hamilton determined to capture the amazing woman in a documentary. Although suffering from emphysema, bound to an oxygen respirator, and becoming increasingly feeble during the year-long filming period, Richards emerges as a vibrant, articulate, spirited, elegant personality with wit, charm, and abiding humanity. During her career, she was a colorful, controversial figure, whose long association with communists Paul Robeson and William and Louise Patterson resulted in an FBI file maintained from 1951 through 1972. Her poetic tribute to Robeson, written at age 17, and "performed" years later, is stunningly powerful. Hamilton calls Richards our "Jegnasour great master," a fitting appellation. Beautiful and inspiring, with some powerful presentations of Richards' famous poems, this archival document is, nevertheless, too long, slow in parts, and a bit too idiosyncratic to serve as a good teaching tool in most history classrooms.


Converse College	Joe P. Dunn

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