| The Road to Brown - The Man Who Killed Jim Crow
The Road to Brown plunges us into the nightmare world of Jim Crow which robbed former slaves of the rights granted by the 14th and 15th Amendments. Under the "separate but equal" doctrine of the Supreme Court's 1896 Plessey v. Ferguson decision, black citizens were denied the right to vote, to attend white schools, to get sick in white hospitals or to be buried in white cemeteries. Those who objected were liable to be lynched. Charles Houston, the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, dean of Howard University Law School and chief counsel to the NAACP, launched a number of precedent-setting cases which targeted segregated education as the key to undermining the entire Jim Crow system. We see clips from a devastating film Houston himself shot in 1934 documenting separate but unequal schooling. Interviews with his associates recount how Houston, eschewing the limelight himself, energized a generation of black jurists including future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marsall - to wage the struggle against segregation. He taught: "A lawyer is either a social engineer or he is a parasite on society." Houston died tragically in 1950, just four years before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision validated his strategy. In a moving climax, the film recapitulates the arguments before the Court, Justice Warren's opinion striking down Plessy, the jubilant reactions of black America, and the string of legal and legislative victories which followed. Moving from slavery to civil rights, The Road to Brown provides a concise history of how African-Americans finally won full legal equality under the Constitution. Its depiction of the interplay between race, law and history adds a crucial dimension to courses in U.S. History, Black Studies, Constitutional Law, Law & Society, Social Movements and Government. The example of Charles Houston's determination will inspire today's students to take America further down the long road to social justice. The precedent-setting
cases Houston waged during the 1930s, to the final posthumous 1954 triumph
of Brown v. Board of Education. In so doing, this film provides a concise
history of how African Americans struggled for full legal equality under
the constitution. |
"Charles
Houston's legal campaign opened the doors of opportunity for me, my
children and countless others...Should be seen by every young American
to understand not only the history of the Brown case but the importance
of education to all of us." "Enlightening...Makes
legal history come alive." "A moving and
most important documentary." "A great
film, moving and personal...It comes at an important juncture to remind
us of a sordid stage in our history which continues to haunt us." "The
Road to Brown recounts a crucial part of America's sad history of
racial injustice. It highlights a dedicated and courageous black lawyer,
Charles Houston, who started us on the long still unfinished march to
equality." "A fine
video about an important subject...Highly recommended for all libraries." "Should
be used by every teacher of American History and government."
Producer/Director/Writer:
William Elwood Video
Purchase: $195
|
The
Road to Brown is the story of segregation and the brilliant legal
assault on it which launched the Civil Rights movement. It is also a
moving and long overdue tribute to a visionary but little known black
lawyer, Charles Hamilton Houston, "the man who killed Jim Crow."
