FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shana Weinberg (401-863-5085) shana_weinberg@brown.edu
Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle Film Screenings at Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice
Providence, RI, July 30, 2013—To introduce four documentaries with riveting new footage illustrating the history of civil rights in America the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice will offer a series of moderated screenings on campus in February 2014.
Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities that uses the power of documentary films to encourage community discussion of America’s civil rights history. NEH has partnered with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to develop programmatic and support materials for the sites.
The Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice is one of 473 institutions across the country awarded a set of four films chronicling the history of the civil rights movement. The powerful documentaries, The Abolitionists, Slavery by Another Name, Freedom Riders, and The Loving Story, include dramatic scenes of incidents in the 150-year effort to achieve equal rights for all. Freedom Riders received an Emmy in 2012, and The Loving Story and The Abolitionists were nominated for Emmys in 2013.
These films chronicle the long and sometimes violent effort to achieve the rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence—life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—for all Americans. The Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice is pleased to receive a grant from NEH to provide programming around these films and begin a platform for discussion around these issues.
Each of the films was produced with NEH support, and each tells remarkable stories of individuals who challenged the social and legal status quo of deeply rooted institutions, from slavery to segregation. Created Equal programs bring communities together to revisit our shared history and help bridge deep racial and cultural divides in American civic life. Visit www.neh.gov/created-equal for more information.
The Created Equal film set is made possible through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
About the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice
The Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice (CSSJ) is a scholarly research center with a public educational mission. Developed in response to a recommendation from the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, which spent three years exploring Brown’s historical relationship to racial slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, CSSJ aims to create a space for the interdisciplinary study of historical forms of slavery and how the legacies of slavery continue to shape our contemporary world.
About the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization that promotes excellence in the teaching and learning of American history. Programs include publications, teacher seminars, a national Affiliate School Program, traveling exhibitions, and online materials for teachers, students, and the general public. www.gilderlehrman.org.
About the National Endowment for the Humanities
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities. NEH grants enrich classroom learning, create and preserve knowledge, and bring ideas to life through public television, radio, museum exhibitions, and programs in libraries and other community places. www.neh.gov.
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