Black History Activators is a documentary film which
premiered in 2019.
The topic is the history of the civil
rights movement in the US, with special focus on pioneers.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Beverly Davis
** Narrator: William B. J. Butler
** Production Company: Red Rock Films
** Available via Amazon Prime Video
** Available on tubi tv
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Run time: 75 minutes
THE PLOT
This film is divided into 19 chapters. Each chapter
covers and presents a person or a historical event which played an important
role in African American history. Each chapter runs for three, four or five
minutes.
Here are the headlines:
# 01. Sojourner Truth (1797-1893)
# 02. Harriet Tubman (1822-1913)
# 03. Frederick Douglas (1818-1895)
# 04. Nannie Helen
Burroughs (1879-1961)
# 05. W. E. B. Du
Bois (1868-1963)
# 06. Walter F. White
(1893-1955)
# 07. Jesse Owens (1913-1980)
# 08. The Tuskegee Airmen (1941-1945)
# 09. Dr Charles Drew (1904-1950)
# 10. The Little Rock Nine (Arkansas) (1957)
# 11. The March on Washington, DC (1963)
# 12. Jim Crow (1964 and 1965)
# 13. Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993)
# 14. James Brown (1933-2006)
# 15. Loving v. Virginia (1967)
# 16. Arthur Ashe (1943-1993)
# 17. John Lewis (1940-2020)
# 18. Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005)
# 19. Maya Angelou (1928-2014)
As you can see, the 19 chapters are arranged along a more or less
chronological line from Sojourner Truth to Maya Angelou.
When we look at the 19 cases, we can see that there
are fourteen persons and five historical events.
Perhaps we should say four historical events and a
court case: chapter 15 about the interracial marriage of Mildred and Richard
Loving.
RATINGS AND REVIEWS
What do reviewers say about this film?
On IMDb it has a rating of 70 percent, which
corresponds to 3.5 stars on Amazon.
On Amazon there are at the moment 8 global ratings and
4 global reviews of this product. The average rating is 5 stars, which corresponds to a rating
of 100 percent.
If you ask me, the former rating is quite fair, while
the latter rating is too high. I like this film and I want to give it a good
rating, but I cannot go all the way to the top, because there are some flaws.
THE FLAWS
What is wrong?
Let me explain:
# 1. There are 19 chapters. Why make a film with 19
chapters? What an odd number! Why not settle for 15? Or why not add just one more
case and get 20, which is a nice round number?
The filmmaker never explains the odd number of
chapters.
# 2. How were the persons and the historical events
chosen? The filmmaker does not explain the criteria which were used, but when
we look at the list of the nineteen cases, we can surmise how it was done.
There is no chapter about Martin Luther King, Jr. or
about Malcolm X, although they are mentioned once or twice. I can understand
this fact. I can accept this fact. These two persons are well-known and there is much to say
about them and their role in African American history. Trying to present them
in a chapter which runs for only three, four or five minutes would be a
difficult task.
I think the filmmaker wanted to have a combination of
two categories: some cases which are well-known and some cases which are not so
well-known. This is a fair decision.
Having only well-known cases would be a bad idea, because
there is nothing new. Having only cases which are not well-known might be
unfortunate, because there may be too much new information in a short time.
# 3. One headline is rather odd: chapter 12 whose headline is Jim Crow. Why is it odd? Because Jim Crow is neither a person nor an
event.
Jim Crow is a reference to rules and regulations which were passed in southern states after the
end of the Civil War and Reconstruction in order to establish segregation and
maintain white supremacy.
Chapter 12 is about the civil rights act which was
passed in 1964 and the voting rights act which was passed in 1965.
The headline is unfortunate. How can we fix this problem?
What would be a better headline? We cannot say The End of Jim Crow, because racial
discrimination was not ended by these laws.
Perhaps we could say: Jim Crow Laws are challenged. At
least this headline fits the contents of the chapter.
But there is another problem:
The civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act
of 1965 are not really starters. They are the culmination of long-running
campaigns. They do not really belong in this film which wants to focus on
pioneers.
The director could have chosen the Freedom Riders (an important
campaign of 1961) or Freedom Summer (an important campaign of 1964).
These events can be described as starters. They fit
the bill better than the acts mentioned in chapter 12.
# 4. There is a factual mistake in chapter 8 about the
Tuskegee Airmen. They are well-known in the African American community. It is
not surprising that some myths are told about them.
One such myth is repeated in this film: the Tuskegee
Airmen were so talented that they never lost a single bomber.
This is not true.
The Tuskegee Airmen flew 179 missions in 1944 and 1945.
During seven missions, they lost at one bomber on each mission. Sometimes more than one. A total of 25
bombers were lost during 179 missions.
Surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen are not
responsible for this myth. They are the first to tell the truth. They say it
was impossible to have a perfect record with no losses.
[NBC News: Tuskegee Airmen lost 25 bombers,
AP telegram, 3 April 2007.]
[The Tuskegee Airmen and the Never
Lost a Bomber by Daniel Haulman (2011, 2012).]
# 5. Some important persons and some significant historical events are not included
in this film.
The director has the famous Little Rock Nine, but she does
not have the famous Wyoming Fourteen (1969) or the famous Wilmington Ten (1971).
In my opinion, the following persons could and should
have been included:
** Nat Turner (1800-1831)
** Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)
** Pauli Murray (1910-1985)
** James Meredith (born 1933)
The director does not mention the Black Panther Party.
She does not mention Bobby Seale (a prominent member of BPP) or Angela Davis (a
strong supporter of BPP).
# 6. The subtitle of this film is:
“The Most Prolific Figures and Events of Black History.”
This not not quite true. Five words are missing from this subtitle, as one
reviewer points out: two words in front and three words at the end.
When these five words are added, we have a new subtitle which says that say this film presents:
“Some of the Most Prolific Figures and Events of Black History in the US.”
And this version is true!
CONCLUSION
As stated above, I like this film and I want to give
it a good rating, but as you can see there are some flaws which cannot be
ignored. I have to remove one star because of these flaws.
Therefore, I think this product deserves a rating of
four stars (80 percent).
REFERENCES
Documentary films
** Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (2003)
** Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (2012)
** The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
(2015)
** Walk Against Fear: James Meredith (2020)
** My Name is Pauli Murray (2021)
** Ida B. Wells: A Chicago Stories Special (2021)
Books
** Encyclopedia of American Race Riots edited by Walter Rucker & James Upton (2 volumes) (936 pages) (2007)
** The Jim Crow Encyclopedia edited by Nikki L. M. Brown & Barry M. Stentiford (2 volumes) (951 pages) (2008)
** To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells
by Mia Bay (2009) (2010)
** Black 14: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Wyoming
Football by Ryan Thorburn (2009)
** The Wilmington Ten: Violence, Injustice, and the
Rise of Black Politics in the 1970s by Kenneth Robert Janken (2015) (2021)
*****
