I want to second Fritz's encouragement.  The documentary portrays an
extraordinary act by a group of remarkable students from Howard High.
Many of those class members went on to illustrious careers here and
elsewhere and contributed to the pride that many folks in the community
still feel toward Howard High.  Roland Carter made a poignant and
mysterious [to me at least] comment in the film that might suggest some
important things to think about as we remember our recent past.

--Gene

Eugene Bartoo
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
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-----Original Message-----
From: UTC Staff E-Mail List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Fritz Efaw
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 12:50 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [UTCSTAFF] Documentary Film Awarded

At 09:25 AM 1/21/2005 -0500, Robert Duffy wrote:
>Brian Cagle, a former UTC theater student currently pursuing an MFA
>in film at Northwestern University, was recently awarded First Place
>in Primary Multimedia from the American Association for State and
>Local History for his film " No Incident, No Service: The Chattanooga
>Sit-Ins of 1960."  The film will be shown on Saturday, 22 January at
>2:00 pm at the Chattanooga Regional History Museum.  Admission is
>free.
Thanks for the announcement, Bob.
         I want to encourage everyone who can to see this film.  When I
saw
it last year I gained even more respect and admiration for a couple of
our
colleagues, Booker Scruggs and Roland Carter, who participated in these
sit-ins.
         They were high school kids at the time, and remember, this was
February 1960, the very beginning of the modern civil rights
movement.  Eisenhower was president, the Wisconsin and West Virginia
were
several months later.  The only real sit-ins that had taken place were
those by the NCA&T students in Greensboro in the fall of '59.  The
Nashville sit-ins by Fisk students, out of which would emerge SNCC, were
the following summer.
         As a pivotal historic event and point of civic pride, this
should
be celebrated as much as the local civil war battles, IMHO.  Those high
school kids, including Booker and Roland, became an important link in a
chain of events.  A lot of our students, especially those from
Chattanooga,
might gain a greater appreciation of their history by seeing it as well.

Fritz Efaw.