Texas Border Business
McAllen, TX—To mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, South Texas College Library will take part in the annual celebration of Black History Month with a series featuring movies, speakers, and an exhibit this February.
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 program.
The STC Library 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 and The Loving Story received Emmy Awards, and The Abolitionists was nominated in 2013.
The STC History Department along with the STC Library will be celebrating the grant throughout February in honor of Black History Month with special author visits lectures, films and an exhibit. On Tuesday, February 11th at 6pm, Dr. Rhonda Gonzalez will discuss “Audacious Irreverence: Black Women and the Holy Office in 17th Century Mexico” at the Pecan Campus Library Rainbow Room. Dr. Gonzalez is a professor of history at the University of Texas San Antonio and was recently awarded the American Historical Association Gutenberg-e Prize. On February 27 at 6pm, Mr. Christopher Davis will give a perspective on, “A New Kind of Game: The Desegregation of College Football in the Southwest, 1945-1976” at the Pecan Campus Rainbow Room.
Along with the speakers, two films will be screened: The Abolitionist on February 5th and Slavery by Another Name on Feb 18th. The films will be shown at the D-Auditorium, and they will feature an introduction and discussion with a local scholar. In addition to the films and lectures, the exhibit, “Road to the Promise Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement” will be on display at the Pecan Campus Library Rainbow Room February 1-28.
“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,” said historian Christopher Davis. “We are pleased to receive a grant from NEH to provide programming around these films and are thrilled to add these to our library collection for students, faculty, and community to checkout for years to come.”
Each of the films was produced with NEH support. 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.
Admission to STC Library events is always free and open to the public. For more information on these events, please contact Mr. Christopher Davis at (956) 872-2275, crdavis@southtexascollege.edu or visit https://offtheshelf.southtexascollege.edu.
