February One: The Greensboro Four (2003)

February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four is a documentary film which premiered on US television (Independent Lens, PBS) in 2003. Here is some basic information about it:

** Producer and director: Rebecca Cerese
** Writer: Daniel Blake Smith
** Narrator: Lesley Blair
** Run time: 57 minutes

The title of this film refers to the date – 1 February 1960 – when four young men from Greensboro, North Carolina, began a peaceful and non-violent action to promote civil rights in the Deep South. They wanted to demonstrate against racial discrimination in their town.

First, they crossed the railway track which divided the town into two parts. Then they entered the white part of town. Next, they went to the Woolworth Department Store where they bought a few things. African-Americans were allowed to buy things in this store.

Finally, they walked to the lunch counter and sat down. This moment was a milestone in the history of North Carolina and the Deep South. Because blacks were not allowed to sit at the lunch counter of Woolworth. The white staff were shocked and surprised. They did not know what to do. Something like this had never happened before.

The four young men asked politely to be served. They were not served. But they did not leave. They just sat there waiting to be served.

After a while a policeman showed up. He walked up and down behind the four young men. He tried to scare them, but he never touched them.

After a while, the manager found a way out of the crisis: he announced that the lunch counter was closed for the day. The four young men left.

The word got around very fast, among the black community and among the white community. The next day they went back again. This time there were more people in the store. Reporters showed up with their cameras.

Day by day the protest action continued. Soon it spread to other places in Greensboro and then to other towns in the South. The sit-ins went on for weeks and for months.

Finally, on 25 July 1960, the owners of Woolworth decided to throw in the towel. From now on, everyone was allowed to sit at the lunch counter, no matter what the colour of their skin was. It was a great victory for the Civil Rights movement.

In this film, the story of this episode is told and placed in a historical context. Archive footage is used to show us glimpses of what happened in the past. And several persons are interviewed, including three of the four young men who took the bold step back in 1960:

** Joseph McNeil (born 1942)
** Franklin McCain (1941-2014)
** Ezell Blair, Jr. (now known as Jibreel Khazan) (born 1941)

The fourth member of the group - David Richmond, who was born in 1941 - passed away in 1990. There are clips from an old interview with him.

In addition, we get to hear from two historians:

** William Henry Chafe
** Vincent Harding

On 1 February 2002, a large monument was dedicated at the campus of the college where the four young men studied in the 1960s.

In 2010 this documentary film was shown on PBS again in order to mark the 50-year anniversary of the sit-ins in 1960.

What do reviewers say about this film? On IMDb it has a rating of 75 per cent, which corresponds to (almost) four stars on Amazon.

On the US version of Amazon there are more than 30 reviews of this product. The average rating is 4.7 stars. Here are some of the headlines that you can see on Amazon:

“Exquisite documentary”

“Great first-hand account of this remarkable day in history”

“Amazing story of ordinary young men changing the world for the better”

“An impressive and thought-provoking must-see”

“Good original footage along with recent interviews from the original four”

“Great movie – an eye opener”

“This was a really good movie”

“Excellent film”

“Well done”

“Inspiring”

As you can see, the ratings are quite good. But if you ask me, they are not good enough. I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars.

PS. For more information, see the following books:

** Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom by William Henry Chafe (1981)

** Picturing Greensboro: Four Decades of African-American Community by Otis L. Hairston (2007)

** Lunch Counter Sit-Ins: How Photographs Helped Foster Peaceful Civil Rights Protests by Danielle Smith-Llera (2018)

** The Sit-Ins: Protest and Legal Change in the Civil Rights Era by Christopher W. Smith (2018)

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 The Greensboro Four as they walk out of Woolworth Department store

at the end of the sit-in in February 1960

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The monument that was dedicated in February 2002

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An Injury to One (2003)

An Injury to One is an experimental documentary film about Frank Little and the Anaconda Mining Company in Butte, Montana. Here is some basic information about this film which premiered in 2003:

** Writer and director: Travis Wilkerson
** Narrator: Travis Wilkerson
** Run time: 53 minutes

In this film there is information about the following topics which are closely connected with each other:

** Frank Little (1878-1917)
** The International Workers of the World (IWW)
** The Anaconda Mining Company in Butte, Montana
** The history of Butte, Montana, during one hundred years (from ca 1900 to ca 2000)

Frank Little was a union organizer who worked for the IWW. In July 1917, he came to Butte, Montana; a town that was dominated by the Anaconda Mining Company.

At the time, most American unions were reserved for white men and for skilled workers. The IWW had a different approach. This union was for men and women - no matter what their colour was – and for skilled and unskilled workers. Its slogan was: “One big union for all.”

The IWW was a radical union that wanted more than better wages and a safe workplace for its members. The IWW wanted a better world for the workers.

The Anaconda Mining Company extracted copper which was important for the development of industry. In April 1917, the US had entered the Great War which is now known as World War One. From this moment, copper was important for the war effort.

Frank spoke to the workers of Butte at two public meetings. Many of the workers supported his opinions about the current situation in Butte, in the US, and in the world. However, the owners of the Anaconda Mining Company did not want him around. They wanted him out.

On the night of 1 August 1917, six masked men gave them what they wanted: Frank was kidnapped from his boarding room in town. He was tied up and dragged after a car to the outskirts of town, where he was beaten up and hanged from a bridge.

The police were unable to confirm the identity of the perpetrators. Perhaps because some of the six masked men were police officers. No one was ever arrested for this crime.

What do reviewers say about this film? Here are the results of two review aggregators:

** 71 per cent = Meta
** 79 per cent = IMDb

If you ask me, both these average ratings are too high. Why? Let me explain. The film is very uneven. It is composed of three elements:

# 1. Images and narration. This element works very well. I want to offer five stars for this element.

# 2. Images and on-screen text. The words appear one by one. There is never more than one word on the screen. This method is unfortunate. I want to see a complete sentence on the screen, not just one word after the other. I cannot offer more than two stars for this element.

# 3. The songs of the workers of Butte, Montana. There are four songs. The melody is played by a guitar, while the lyrics appear on the screen. Once again, only one word after the other. Once again, this method is unfortunate.

When you sing in a karaoke bar, the screen shows a full line of text, while a colour bar moves from left to right to indicate where you are at any given moment. Travis Wilkerson wants to present four songs, but nobody sings these songs! Why not? This is very strange.

If he was able to find someone who could play the guitar, why was he unable to find someone who could sing the songs? I cannot offer more than two stars for this element.

When I add up the ratings for the three elements, I get an average of three stars.

The story of Frank Little and the Anaconda Mining Company in Butte, Montana, is important. It deserves to be told. I am sure Travis Wilkerson has good intentions, but good intentions do not guarantee a good result.

When we are talking about a film, a book or a work of art, the only thing that really matters is the final result. And in this case the final result is not quite successful. The film has some flaws, as I have shown above. Therefore I cannot offer more than three stars.

PS # 1. Frank Little: The Hobo Agitator is a documentary film which was shown on US television (PBS) on 25 April 1995. Run time: 29 minutes. It is available online.

PS # 2. The following reviews of the film are available online:

** Ed Halter, “Stealing Butte,” The Village Voice, 15 July 2003

** Dennis Lim, “A Second look: An Injury to All,” Los Angeles Times, 30 October 2011

PS # 3. For more information, see the following book: Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood that Stained an American Family by Jane Little Botkin (2017) (the author is related to Frank Little).

PS # 4. The following book was published in 2003: The Truth about the Lynching of Frank Little in Butte, Montana by Mike Byrnes and Les Rickey. Three years later it was revealed that this book was a case of plagiarism. Almost every detail in the book was “borrowed” from an academic paper written in 1972 by Bill Roscoe who was at the time a student of history. For details about this case, see the following items which are available online:

** Erin Nicholes, “Butte book on lynching plagiarized,” The Montana Standard, 7 September 2006

** Will Roscoe, “Unsolved Mystery,” The Montana Standard, 7 October 2006

PS # 5. The following items are available online:

** Hunter Pauli, “Who killed Frank Little?” The Montana Standard, 1 August 2016

** Rory Carroll, “The mysterious lynching of Frank Little: [The] activist who fought inequality and lost,” The Guardian, 21 September 2016

PS # 6. Travis Wilkerson is the director of several documentary films, including the experimental Did you wonder who fired the gun? (which premiered in 2017).

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Frank Little (1878-1917)

Union organizer for the IWW

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