Since 1970, the month of February has been spotlighted as Black History Month.
It is a time to reflect on what happen during that period, to appreciate black innovators like Madam C. J. Walker, Garrett Morgan, George Washington Carver, and to honor those who sacrificed their lives for Civil Rights like Martin Luther King, Jr., W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, and others.
In honor of the Civil Rights’ movement, University of Memphis Communication Department produced a documentary that showed how a little town near Memphis made history before the Montgomery bus boycott, and the Selma March.
Hoxie, Arkansas was one of the three cities along with Fayetteville and Charleston to fully accept the desegregation law that the Supreme Court ruled in the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1955.
Hoxie: The First Stand will be re-broadcast on WKNO on Thursday, February 12 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, February 14 at 2 p.m.
The film took place in the eponymous town of Hoxie, Arkansas, which is about 30 minutes from Jonesboro, Arkansas, and 2 hours from Little Rock.
“The most unique thing about Hoxie was that it was where the first desegregated battle took place,” David Appleby, professor and director of the documentary, said.
The small town Hoxie was not your typical city like Memphis, Tennessee, Birmingham, Alabama, or Selma, Alabama who had to endure consistent prejudice and violence every day.
“[Not everyone has] heard of Hoxie who has studied the Civil Rights' movement, because normally if you study it [Civil Rights' movement], the beginnings are either Emmett Till or it's the Little Rock 9 integration,” Appleby said.
It was a poor city where white and black families had to work together to keep their town up and running. They were neighbors and nothing really happen there until the Hoxie School Board led by Howard Vance, the superintendent at the time, integrated the schools.
“These guys made this happen,” Appleby said. “Only the superintendent has a college education. Some of these guys had a 6th grade education, and yet they made a unanimous decision.”
The film, which took 6 years, and about $100,000 to make, also featured music produced by Michael Bacon, who is the brother of actor Kevin Bacon.
He said that it got to a point where they didn’t have enough photos for the documentary, but luckily they eventually found the original photos that were taken, and it was with the Mississippi Valley Collection.
Appleby said that he went to Jonesboro, and invited the people of Hoxie to come down to watch the documentary when it was released in 2003.
The documentary went on to win numerous awards, such as the DuPont Columbia Award. Lesley Stahl, of 60 Minutes, presented the award to Appleby. The film also received the Peabody Award, Regional Emmy, and Best of Festival awards.
“I hope that someone would read the [Daily] Helmsman, and watch the movie,” Appleby said.
