Invisible Struggles

Trumbull Campus students' project leads to documentary and Warren town forum

“I personally would rather have someone call me a bunch of dirty names and at least acknowledge me as a person than act as if I wasn’t even there.” Warren resident Cliff Johnson offers an interesting perspective about racial segregation during the 1950s and early 1960s. For Johnson and many other blacks who lived in the northern United States, this more passive form of racism was a way of life during the civil rights era.

The experiences of Johnson and other Warren residents are present in a new documentary set to premiere on PBS 45 & 49. Invisible Struggles: Stories of Northern Segregation will premiere on Monday, Feb. 5, at 9 p.m., followed at 10 p.m. by the broadcast of a town hall forum about race relations. The program and forum coverage will air again on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at 12:30 a.m. and on Sunday, Feb. 11, at 2 p.m.

Invisible Struggles is directed by Kent State University faculty member Dr. Molly Merryman, assistant professor of justice studies. Assistant direction is provided by Dr. Ken Bindas, professor of history, and Dr. Joe Murray, assistant professor of journalism and mass communications. The documentary evolved from a Kent State Trumbull special topics class, Civil Rights in America: 1954-1964, that Merryman and Bindas taught in the fall of 2002. Students in the class interviewed Warren-area black residents who were civil rights activists or who witnessed or experienced racial segregation. As the oral history project progressed, the professors became aware of the significance and importance of the findings. “The honesty of the subjects in sharing their stories made us realize that we could document this form of cultural segregation through oral history,” Bindas says.

The narrator for the documentary is Warren resident Paula Johnson, who took an early interest in the project and asked to attend the class, despite not being enrolled in college at the time.

The Invisible Struggles project has grown to including a high school history essay contest to be held in February 2007, where local high school students will be invited to participate in the forum and submit reflective essays with the opportunity to win Kent State Trumbull scholarships. And producers have developed a curriculum guide for northeast Ohio schools to use in conjunction with the documentary.

“Our overall goal with this project has been to educate,” says Merryman, “so we wanted to connect the broadcast with education in area schools and to encourage ongoing education through scholarships.”

Coinciding with the PBS 45 & 49 premiere of Invisible Struggles, a town hall forum discussing issues of race relations in Trumbull County will be held on Thursday, Feb. 1, at 7 p.m. at the W.D. Packard Music Hall in Warren. All are welcome to attend this free event. The forum will be taped for broadcast by PBS 45 & 49 and will air following the documentary. (ASL interpreters will be at the event, and the screening will be broadcast with closed captioning. In addition, the forum and documentary are aurally-based and thus accessibly to the visually impaired, and Packard Hall is handicapped accessible.)

Gene Shelton, professor and academic diversity advisor for Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, will moderate the forum. Participants on the panel include Michael J. O’Brien, mayor of Warren; Bob Faulkner, longtime civil rights activist; Frederick Harris, documentary subject and former Warren public safety director; Anthony Iannucci Jr., director of the Warren Redevelopment and Planning Corporation; Thomas M. Humphries, president of the Regional Chamber; and filmmakers Bindas, Johnson and Merryman.

When asked what he found most striking about the documentary, assistant director and co-editor Murray said, “The people featured in the documentary earned the right to be angry and bitter for the way they were treated — yet they speak with an almost universal wisdom and dignity. It is like they knew when the interviews were recorded two years ago, that all our children would be watching them, and would recognize the gift in the telling.”

For more details and updates on Invisible Struggles: Stories of Northern Segregation, visit www.invisiblestruggles.org.

Sidebar

President Lefton to Host Invisible Struggles Fundraising Reception

On Thursday, Feb. 1, at 5:30 p.m. Kent State President Lester Lefton will host a fundraising reception at the Packard Museum in Warren to precede the Invisible Struggles documentary screening and town hall forum. Because of his support, the $100 per person donation will go to establishing scholarships for minority students and students enrolled in diversity programs at Kent State Trumbull.

“When I learned that PBS 45 & 49 was going to air our documentary, my mind immediately went to planning how we could turn this opportunity into something that would help our students and improve lives for African-Americans in Warren,” says Molly Merryman, assistant professor of justice studies at Trumbull and the director of Invisible Struggles.

The plan was to organize a fundraising reception that would both honor the people featured in the documentary and the students involved in the project, and raise money for student scholarships. Merryman scheduled a meeting with Lefton and asked for his support. “I remember thinking before our meeting that this man has never met me, and I am going to ask him to put his name on an event before he knows anything about me or our campus. But I figured, if I give him a copy of the documentary, the project and its people will say everything that I can’t,” Merryman says.

Lefton very quickly offered to host the event. This was soon followed by the Packard Museum offering its unique facility for free to support the event. Those attending will get to dine among vintage automobiles and motorcycles.

“We couldn’t have selected a better venue,” says Randi Schneider, director, Enrollment Management and Students Services at the Trumbull Campus and a member of the Invisible Struggles scholarship committee. “I can’t think of a better environment to hold a reception than this. Here we will show another facet of Warren’s rich history, before everyone watches the documentary and learns more about the civil rights era.”

The goal of the Invisible Struggles scholarship committee is to raise $10,000. “We want to provide opportunities that didn’t exist before,” Merryman says.

In addition to the reception, the group hopes to raise more money through contributions at the town hall forum and sales of the documentary DVD. Merryman received a grant to make 1,000 DVD copies of the program, which will be distributed to Trumbull County school and public libraries for free and sold to raise scholarship money.

Those interested in attending the President’s Scholarship reception or donating to the Invisible Struggles scholarship fund can call Chris at 330-675-7600 or find more information and an invitation on the Kent State Trumbull Invisible Struggles Web page.

For more details and updates on Invisible Struggles: Stories of Northern Segregation, visit the Invisible Struggles Web site.