This maxim reflects the bond between writer Tom Dent and his library at Amistad.
New Footage from the Civil Rights Era Available for the First Time
Brenda Flora
No items found.
lmination of a multi-year project supported by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) the Amistad Research Center is excited to announce the digitization of the Ed Pincus Film Collection. The initiative is the largest film digitization project in ARC’s history, providing access to more than 85 hours of previously unreleased material tracking Southern civil rights organizing, voter registration, and white supremacist violence in the late 1960s.
For ten weeks in 1965, filmmakers Ed Pincus and David Neuman filmed in Natchez, Mississippi, charting the early attempts the Freedom Democratic Party (FDP) and NAACP to organize and register Black voters, also capturing the formation of the self-defense group the Deacons for Defense and Justice. During this period the car of Natchez NAACP president George Metcalfe was bombed. This footage became the basis for the documentary Black Natchez (1967). Additional footage shot during the same time period became the short film Panola (1970), which focused on the life of a single African American man at the height of the chaos.
Pincus and Neuman returned to Natchez in 1967, following the murder of NAACP treasurer Wharlest Jackson, to document Jackson’s funeral and the aftermath of his death. Pincus intended to use this footage to create a follow up film to Black Natchez, but that project was never completed.
The collection captures the response of the Black community and local and national civil rights activists to the bombings of Metcalfe and Jackson, including protest marches, meetings, and public sentiment. The films include scenes on the street, at barbershops and restaurants, and at organizational meetings. The collection is a window into the thoughts and feelings of the local community and activists about the racial tensions and violence in the city, captured at a historical turning point.
ARC has been the custodian of the films since 2002, when documentary filmmaker Ed Pincus donated his collection for long term preservation. Until recently, researchers were able to view the footage in person only, by traveling to New Orleans and projecting the original films under supervision of an archivist. The digitization of the collection means that the films are now available to a wider audience, including the Natchez community whose history is recorded here.
The Ed Pincus Film Collection will launch on the Louisiana Digital Library for free streaming access by the end of 2021. A portion of the footage will be featured in American Reckoning on PBS FRONTLINE’S Un(re)solved series.
This project is supported by a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Images from Amistad’s website, newsletters, and blogs cannot be reproduced without permission.
Explore More Articles
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books:
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books:
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books: