Aishah Shahidah Simmons, documentary filmmaker and lecturer speaks with students about her documentary, “NO!,” Monday afternoon in Visser Hall 330. Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin
The hardships and struggles that faced the black community in the past, and its current struggle against sexual violence was discussed by mother and daughter speakers in a series of events presented by the department of ethnic and gender studies last Monday and Tuesday.
“My making ‘No!’ was something that I tried to separate myself from, and I am not actually anywhere in the film,” said Aishah Shahidah Simmons, documentary filmmaker and lecturer. “But as I went along, I found out that I had everything to do with it. Through the production of the film, I found that I healed.”
The presentations began on Monday with a workshop by Aishah Simmons concerning documentary filmmaking, and particularly focused on examples that dealt with issues facing the black community. About 15 ESU students and faculty attended. Her film “No! The Rape Documentary” was shown on Tuesday night in Visser Hall.
“I never knew how much of an issue (sexual violence) was for African-American women,” said Frances Busby, senior secondary English education major. “Social issues play a role in the classroom, so I am hoping to use the information I learn in the classroom.”
That same evening Aishah Simmons’ mother, Gwendolyn Soharah Simmons, professor of religious studies at the University of Florida, presented her experiences as a college girl that helped with the peaceful protesting organization Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the Civil Rights Movement.
“My story is a small one, but there were so many of us young people who took time out of their lives for the Civil Rights Movement,” Gwendolyn Simmons said. “It really was a great fortune to serve on the frontlines during the movement.”
Gwendolyn Simmons described in great detail the influences and events that brought her into the heart of the Civil Rights clashes in the state of Mississippi in the summer of 1964.
“I had (civil rights information) coming at me from all sides,” Gwendolyn Simmons said. “It didn’t take much to move me from my ‘no involvement’ stance that I had shared with my grandmother.”
The opposition of her family to her joining the movement, particularly her grandmother, was a major theme in the presentation. The danger of the undertaking was the reason for their opposition, Gwendolyn Simmons said.
“My grandmother told me, ‘You’ll be raped, shot and thrown into a creek with a bail of cotton around your neck,’” Gwendolyn Simmons said. “I was shocked when I learned that white men had been killed.”
Gwendolyn Simmons highlighted some of the lesser known groups and demonstrated just how large of a movement the battle for civil rights was.
“It’s too easy to just say Martin Luther King ran the Civil Rights Movement,” said Karen Manners Smith, professor of history and director of the ethnic and gender studies program. “We don’t have as many stories in American history that are as successful as the Civil Rights Movement.”
Some students that attended the lecture felt motivated about what they considered current social injustices.
“I think students today are more apathetic,” said Carlos Pringle, senior history major. “I feel motivated to support the rights of homosexuals, even if people don’t agree with what others do they should support their right to work the job they want and have civil rights.”
Loading ...
