It’s been quite the month for Rosenwald, as screenings continue at film festivals and Community Centers along the coast! On March 13th, Aviva returned to the Maine Jewish Film Festvial, where she had shown The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, to a warm reception. Rachel Talbot Ross, president of NAACP of Portland served as MC for the screening, as well as an encore screening the following night. Rachel Talbot Ross also plans to run for Maine state office and is the daughter of Representative Gerald Talbot, a man who reorganized NAACP in Maine and became the first president of NAACP chapter in Portland.
The Maine Jewish Film Festival screenings were also accompanied by a panel of women film makers. Joining Aviva were two amazing Israeli film makers: Shirly Berkovitz (The Good Son, Dir.) and Hilla Medalia (Censored Voices, Prod.).
Left to right: Aviva Kempner, Shirly Berkovitz, Hilla Medalia
On March 19th, Aviva attended a screening at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Washington DC. At the screening were Doris A. Dearing Johnson, Vyllorya Andrette Evans, and Thelma D. Jones.
All three ladies have their own Rosenwald school connection- Doris attended Higison-Rosenwald in Aberdeen, Mississippi where her mother Ora Lee James Bailey was the principal and where Vyllorya’s mother also taught. Thelma attended the Greene County Training School-South Greene High School in Snow Hill, NC. Before the screening, the women talked about their experiences with the schools.
Left to right: Doris A. Dearing Johnson, Vyllorya Andrette Evans, Aviva Kempner, Thelma D. Jones
March 22nd was a big day- beginning with this screening at the US Department of Agriculture Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in Washington DC. She was joined at the screening by Charles Smith, Gladys Gary Vaughn, and David Leon King.
Left to right: Charles Smith, Aviva Kempner, Gladys Gary Vaughn, David Leon King
Aviva ended the day with a trip to north for the Baltimore Jewish Film Festival where the filmed screened for a packed house of over 500 people at the Gordon Center for the Performing Arts.
High profile court cases have a way of capturing the collective attention of the public and dominating news cycles. Think Rodney King, OJ Simpson and Timothy McVeigh, to name a few vastly different circumstances and outcomes. However, despite their differences all these cases shaped — or in many cases brought to the forefront– a major national conversation that extended beyond the courthouse and throughout the nation. While the names listed above may be more familiar to us today, Leo Frank rang just as many bells in the mid 1910s. The quick story of Frank is that he was a young Jew from Brooklyn who relocated to Georgia and became the superintendent of a pencil factory where a young woman was murdered. Frank was quickly suspected, convicted on scant evidence, given a life sentence, then dragged from his cell by a mob and lynched from an oak tree in 1915. You can find a picture of his limp frame hanging from the branch while surrounded at knee level by stone faced white men defiantly staring into the camera, unmasked and indignant. The extrajudicial act was met with both fervent accolades and outrage. The Leo Frank trial and murder served as an indicator of the dripping antisemitism of the American South as well as economic insecurity throughout the region in the post Civil War era. Today, as groups such as the KKK and other fringe elements make more headlines than they have had in years it is highly important to remember past lessons.
The Rosenwald DVD will have an extra feature on Julius Rosenwald’s reaction to the Leo Frank trial and his support of the condemned. Rosenwald had every reason to be fearful of building the schools in the South after this case, but maybe because he was from the North he remained undeterred.
To read more about Leo Frank check out this article on The Tablet here.
In a brief column titled “The Writer’s Room”, Darryl Pinckney mentions Augusta Savage while reflecting on the room in which he wrote his recent novel. The room was part of what was once the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts, founded by Savage, and later became the Harlem Community Art Center. Augusta Savage was awarded money from the Rosenwald Fund.
On February 20th, Aviva turned out to a screening of Rosenwald at Northumberland High School in Heathsville, Virginia. The screening was teeming with excited individuals, including a large group of Rosenwald school alumni.
A group of Rosenwald school alumni
Members of the Julius Rosenwald School Foundation of Northumberland County at the screening of Rosenwald.
However, this was not an average screening. The Heathville event was organized by the Julius Rosenwald School Foundation of Northumberland County- a group that is currently working to repurposed an original Rosenwald school. Before the screening, Aviva received a short tour of the school.
Aviva and the Foundation members stand before the Rosenwald school
A fascinating, two-story Rosenwald school, the Northumberland collective still has a long way to go in terms of restoration.
You can find out more about how to support the Julius Rosenwald School Foundation of Northumberland County by following them on their Facebook page.
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