The World of Cecil is a two-part documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in September 2023.
It is a biopic of the African American photo-journalist and civil rights activist Cecil J. Williams, who was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in 1937.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Writer, producer, and director: Beryl Dakers
** Production: South Carolina Educational Television
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Episode one = 57 minutes
** Episode two = 56 minutes
** Total run time = 113 minutes
How did Cecil become a well-known photographer of the civil rights movement?
When Cecil was a young boy, his older brother had a camera. It was the only camera in the family. In 1946, when Cecil was nine, his older brother got a musical instrument, and he decided that he wanted to devote his energy and his free time to playing this instrument.
Since he no longer had any use for his camera, he gave it to his younger brother Cecil. This is how Cecil became the owner of a camera at the age of nine.
Cecil discovered that he could take a picture of a person and then go to a shop where it could be developed and printed.
Later, when he showed the printed picture to the person, he could sell the picture to the person and in this way, he could make some money. Enough to buy more film and to pay for the prints.
This was how he became a photographer at the age of nine and ten.
As a young boy, he was interested in the organization NAACP and the campaign for civil rights.
In 1948, when he was eleven, he was told that a famous African American lawyer was coming to Charleston (SC) in order to meet with members of the the local branch of the NAACP and to conduct a case in the local court.
He went to the railway station in Charleston with the members of the NAACP in order to greet the famous lawyer who was coming to town
In the moment when the door of the train was opened and the lawyer was about to disembark, Cecil was ready with his camera. He took a picture of the lawyer standing in the doorway.
Who was this lawyer?
His name was Thurgood Marshall.
Nineteen years later, in 1967, he became the first African American member of the US Supreme Court.
He was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The nomination was confirmed by the Senate.
Thurgood Marshall was a member of the Supreme Court until 1991, when he retired. He died in 1993.
In 1948, young Cecil was there, at the right time, and the right place. He took a picture of Thurgood Marshall. This is how Cecil became a photographer of the civil rights movement.
He liked taking pictures, and he had a remarkable talent. It seems he was always there when something important was happening.
His pictures documented numerous significant moments in the history of the civil rights movement.
This film covers the life and work of Cecil in great detail. People who know him, and people who have studied his work, are interviewed in the film.
Cecil himself is also interviewed. He offers his own version of his life. He explains how and why things happened the way they did.
For many years, Cecil was hoping that some company or some
organization was going to establish a museum which would focus on the visual
evidence of the civil rights movement. But it never happened. Nobody did it.
In the end, he decided that he had to do it himself. In the film, he explains how he established a museum which is devoted to the history of the civil rights movement.
The basic material presented in the museum is a large selection of pictures he has taken in different locations during a long career as a photographer.
What do reviewers say about this film?
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The topic is important. The story deserves to be told. In this film, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Books
Freedom and Justice: Four Decades of the Civil Rights Struggle as Seen by a Black Photographer of the Deep South
By Cecil Williams
(1995)
Orangeburg: A Place and a Time
By Cecil Williams and Sonny DuBose
(2008)
Out-of-the-Box in Dixie: Cecil Williams’ Photography of the South Carolina Events that Changed America
By Cecil Williams
(2012)
Injustice in Focus:
The Civil Rights Photography of Cecil Williams
By Claudia Smith Brinson and Cecil Williams
(2024)
# 2. Film and video
Eyes on the Prize:
The History of the Civil Rights Movement
Season one (6 episodes) covers the years 1955-1965
(1987)
Season two (8 episodes) covers the years 1965-1985
(1990)
Seasons one and two were released on DVD in 2006
Civil Rights History Project: Cecil J. Williams
2014 – 116 minutes - YouTube
Brad Bernstein Interviews Cecil J. Williams about his Photography Work for Jet Magazine
2020 – 8 minutes - YouTube
Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum:
Carolina Impact
2022 – 4 minutes – YouTube
The power of photography and how Cecil Williams captures America’s history with civil rights
2022 – 6 minutes - YouTube
Lee Central Middle School Visits the Cecil J. Williams Civil Rights Museum
2023 – 10 minutes - YouTube
Orangeburg, SC man’s own civil rights museum to get larger space
2024 – 3 minutes – YouTube
Oral History Interview with Cecil J. Williams
2024 – 26 minutes – YouTube
Unforgettable:
Celebrating Legendary Photographer Cecil Williams
2024 – 104 minutes - YouTube
*****
The famous photo-journalist
Cecil J. Williams
(born 1937)
*****
Charleston, South Carolina, 1948:
The famous African American lawyer
Thurgood Marshall arrives on the train.
Cecil Williams captured this moment
when he was eleven years old.
Thurgood Marshall was born in 1908.
As a lawyer, he argued many cases
before the US Supreme Court.
He won 29 of the 32 cases he argued
before this court.
In 1967, he became a member of this court.
He was a member of this court
for more than twenty years (1967-1991).
He died in 1993
*****
