Publication Date
January 1999
Abstract
In 1987 Robert Smith, then director of Library and Media Services for the Highland Park (MI) School District, created an audiovisual presentation on the history of African American education for the training academy of the National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE). Moved by the presentation, many of the academy participants encouraged Smith to expand it into a documentary film. A year later Smith, intrigued by the idea and armed with a $5000 planning grant from the National Alliance, began research to determine the feasibility of such a venture. He discovered in the process that much of the material needed to document the history was not readily available to researchers.