Created Equal Programming Series: The Loving Story, Scholar Series

Scholar:

• Discussion led by: DeWitt Dykes, Associate Professor of History at Oakland University

  In this, the final installment of the "Created Equal" programming series, Mr. DeWitt S. Dykes Jr. will lead a community discussion based on themes found in the film, The Loving Story.  Using clips from the film, the audience will come to understand the struggles in America in recent history, especially in regard to the theme "equality under the law."  Using his studies in African-American History, U.S. Urban History, and Gender and Family History, our guest speaker will talk briefly about American race relations in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mildred and Richard Loving knew it was technically illegal for them to live as a married couple in Virginia because she was of African American and Native American descent and he was white. But they never expected to be woken up in their bedroom and arrested one night in 1958. The documentary brings to life the Lovings’ marriage and the legal battle that followed through little-known filmed interviews and photographs shot for Life magazine

To mark the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has developed a special initiative, Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle. As part of the Endowment’s Bridging Cultures initiative, Created Equal uses the power of documentary films to spark public conversations about the changing meanings of freedom and equality in America.

Four outstanding documentary films, spanning the period from the 1830s to the 1960s, are the centerpiece for this project. Each of these films was supported by the NEH, and each tells the remarkable stories of individuals who challenged the social and legal status quo of deeply rooted institutions, from slavery to segregation.

Created Equal encourages communities to revisit the history of civil rights in America and to reflect on the ideals of freedom and equality that have helped bridge deep racial and cultural divides.

The Detroit Historical Society represents one of 473 communities across the nation who received the Created Equal film set, accompanied by resources to guide public discussion programs.  The Society will hold screenings and discussions of each film beginning in February 2014. We will show the films in their entirety each month as our Film Series presentations. Then, for our monthly Scholar Series presentations, we will show excerpts of each film, followed by a facilitated group discussion led by a humanities scholar.