American Experience, The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi’s Schools

PBS WESTERN RESERVE (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1):

Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 9 PM
Wednesday, Sept. 13, at 2 AM

FUSION (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2):

Saturday, Sept. 16, at 2 PM

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Douglas A. Blackmon looks back on his experience as a member of the first class of Black and white children to attend all 12 grades together in Mississippi. The film, produced by Blackmon and Sam Pollard and executive produced by Cameo George, is a deeply personal depiction of one Southern town’s painful struggle to integrate its public schools and the continuing repercussions felt more than 50 years later. 

After the 1954 Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, little more than token efforts were made to desegregate Southern schools. That changed dramatically on Oct. 29, 1969, when the high court ordered Mississippi schools to fully — and immediately — desegregate. As a result, a group of children, including 6-year-old Blackmon, entered school in the fall of 1970 as part of the first class of Black and white students who would attend all 12 grades together in Leland, Miss.