ViewFinders Film Festival - Civil Rights & Social Justice with Jacqueline Jones LaMon

This extremely moving documentary, The Road to Justice, explores the history of the Civil Rights movement through the gaze of those in the present, striving toward this paradigm shift.

Screening of The Road to Justice (30 min) and Discussion with Professor Emeritus Kermit Frazier

The Road to Justice (30 min)

The Road to Justice follows two groups on a civil rights tour through the American South as they reckon with our painful legacy of racial injustice. The first, a group of predominantly Black middle school students from Chicago, and the second, a group of older Americans who lived through the 1960’s Civil Rights era. They come face to face with the leaders and everyday heroes whose courage and perseverance paved the way for future generations.

We share the story of Bill, a traveler whose great-grandmother was enslaved, and whose grandfather was brutally lynched. We learn from Kermit, who wrestles with the complexities of being a Black man in predominantly white spaces. We meet Doug and Katherine, who reckon with their history of white privilege and the Jim Crow South, as they return to their birthplace of Birmingham, Alabama.

Their experiences are presented in contrast with those of our young student travelers. Josiah endeavors to understand his grandmother’s past and comprehend our nation’s history of hate. Caitlin dreams of becoming an actress, but already faces the societal pressures placed on young women of color. Kaylynn attempts to fathom what life would have been like for her in the segregated South; she is the same age as Emmett Till was when he was brutally murdered.

All are changed by meeting Sylvester Hoover, a former sharecropper who operates a museum in the Mississippi Delta. By Elizabeth Eckford, whose bravery and fortitude were captured in iconic images as Little Rock was forced to integrate their schools. Hezekiah Watkins, a Freedom Rider, who spent time on death row at age 13 and was arrested 109 times during his lifetime of activism. And Carolyn McKinstry, a survivor of the Birmingham church bombing that killed her four young friends.

This extremely moving documentary, The Road to Justice, explores the history of the Civil Rights movement through the gaze of those in the present, striving toward this paradigm shift.

The film is a testament to the power of place and direct experience in creating transformational change.

Watch the trailer

Following the film, we will engage in a conversation with Adelphi University Professor Emeritus, Kermit Frazier.

Jacqueline Jones LaMon

Jacqueline Jones LaMon is the author of three collections, What Water Knows, Last Seen, a Felix Pollak Poetry Prize selection, and Gravity, U.S.A., recipient of the Quercus Review Press Poetry Series Book Award. She is the author of the chapbook, The Legend of Clarence Thomas, winner of the Integral Music Chapbook Prize; and author of the novel, In the Arms of One Who Loves Me, published by Random House/Ballantine Books.

Ms. LaMon’s work has appeared in a wide variety of publications such as POETRY, Callaloo, and Narrative Magazine. Noted twice by the NAACP in the category of Outstanding Literary Work, Poetry, Ms. LaMon is the recipient of fellowships from the BAU Institute at the Camargo Foundation, the Cave Canem Foundation, the Yaddo Foundation, and others. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College and UCLA School of Law, Ms. LaMon earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Poetry, from Indiana University Bloomington. She served as a board member and past president of Cave Canem Foundation, Inc. A member of the National Council for Graywolf Press, Ms. LaMon taught for over a decade in the multi-genre M.F.A. program at Adelphi University, where she currently holds the position of Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Part of the 2022 ViewFinders Film Festival – Focus on Social Justice