I’ve been thinking about a time that I was a volunteer in a school classroom.
Let’s hear about it.
It was one February — Black History Month — when a teacher, knowing my background, asked me to talk to her elementary school class. I knew she had a VHS tape player in her classroom, so I had an idea.
I had two relevant movies on DVD discs. And my video system at home would let me transfer short scenes from the discs to a blank VHS tape. So I did.
What were the movies?
One was The Jackie Robinson Story.
You mean 42? I saw that.
No. This was a 1950 black-and-white movie starring — Guess who.
I don’t know.
Jackie Robinson. Not a great actor, but he did well enough. So you got to see him play himself.
Interesting.
The point was to show what discrimination was like back when he broke into the major leagues in 1947. It showed how he played.
But it also showed how some of his teammates didn’t accept him at first.
And it showed how some of the fans harassed him. Like the one who taunted aim and put a black cat down on the field next to him.
But it also showed how, with encouragement from his wife, he was able to work through it.
Good.
And you had a second movie?
Yep. It was called The Long Walk Home.
Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg?
Right A fictional story of how the Montgomery Bus Boycott affected these two people.
For instance, the Montgomery, Alabama, buses have two doors.
And a scene in the movie shows how a black passenger would have to go in the front door to pay the driver. And then have to get off and go back to enter the back door.
And sit in the back of the bus?
Right.
It doesn’t show it in the movie — it’s only talked about — but what sparked the bus boycott was when a black passenger, Rosa Parks, broke the rule and took a seat in the front.
So she was arrested.
That’s when the black passengers rebelled and decided to walk instead of ride the buses.
The movement took hold. And Martin Luther King got involved. And it got a lot of play in the media.
Well, I showed the kids a few scenes from the movie. Along with scenes from the Jackie Robinson movie.
Bottom line: It showed them a bit of history they might not have known before.