By Kacie Haines and Kayla Calhoun
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
Towson University and its College of Education premiered the documentary “The Voices of Baltimore: Life Under Segregation” at Towson’s Stephens Hall Theater Friday night.
The documentary was produced by author Franklin Campbell-Jones and professors Morna McDermott McNutly and Gary Homana of Towson’s College of Education.
The one-hour-long film included interviews with African American Baltimore residents who had first-hand experience with Jim Crow laws in Maryland. The documentary also examined life in segregated schools, the desegregation that occurred after the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, and ways American society can continue to move forward on race relations.
The premier was followed by a panel discussion with six of the people featured in the film, including Evelyn J. Chatmon, a former assistant school superintendent for Baltimore County schools; Patricia Welch, the dean of education at Morgan State University; Louis Diggs, an author who served in the all-Black Maryland National Guard during the Korean War; Treopia Green Washington, the director of special initiatives in the College of Education at Bowie State University; Elizabeth Frances Nichols Gill, who was a supervisor at AT&T; and Dr. Walter Arthur Harris Gill, who serves on the Citizens Review Board for Children in Baltimore City.
Homana said the film project started in 2014 when he heard a guest lecture by Chatmon. He said he found her story interesting and decided to do a documentary that followed stories similar to Chatman’s. The filmmakers spent a month in 2016 filming the movie.
“The idea for this film occurred in 2014, in an urban education course I visited where Evelyn Chatmon was a guest speaker,” Homana said. “Her story was powerful. It touched my soul and left me with the determination to preserve these stories for their value, courage and commitment not only to the individuals in the film.”
Laurie Mullen, the dean of the College of Education, said the film is important because it raises issues of equity, power, privilege and justice that are still relevant today. She said the college wanted to show the film as its way of recreating itself to help the community understand important issues. She said she hoped the film would “ignite or reignite a sense of duty to each other.”
“This film is about Baltimore’s history, but its stories of segregation and struggle are still all-too pervasive today,” Towson President Kim Schatzel said during the event. “Baltimore’s poverty results in the history of structural racism and discriminatory policy.”
“When you [the panel] were telling your story it sounded like you were telling my story,” Campbell-Jones said. “It was a story that needed to be told; it was one that as you told it and I have seen that video a thousand times, every time I watch it I get a little choked up.”
The documentary brought up raw experiences for all of the featured speakers.
“Something that really struck me while the video was playing, it was the silence in this room,” Chatmon said. “I could almost hear people breathing and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness this is capturing the people in this room.’”
When the panel began speaking, Welch described the experience as “powerful” and said she wished “there were more people who look like I look that know they matter.”
Christian Pineiro, a senior at Towson University, described the movie and experience as “moving.” He said he felt that “to see them in person, you felt more invested in what you were watching and could have a personal connection.”
“We live in a time where we move away from the conversation,” Pineiro said. “I think this is the best time in this modern sense to have this conversation. Asking the tough questions is a way to really understand the history.”
Panel members said future generations need to know about the past. They said a documentary like this makes it difficult for anyone to forget or try to suppress history.
“I’m going to be honest with you. As I sat and watched that movie, it deeply moved me, it truly did,” Diggs said. “I realized how important it is that our children know their history.”
Panel members said they hope people will take the time to personally investigate the many other stories that can be told about the Jim Crow era in Baltimore.
“As I watched the movie it was extremely moving and listening to my colleagues tell their stories, it made me think how many other stories are out there,” Washington said. “If you would go out in your community and seek out people that have been around for a while, like some of us, their stories would resemble much of what you heard tonight.”