Documentary for Black History Month at DSLCC Feb 25

Documentary Film Scheduled at DSLCC For Black History Month

In observance of Black History Month, Dabney S. Lancaster Community College Student Activities will host a showing of “Slavery By Another Name,” a film narrated by actor Laurence Fishburne, on Tuesday, February 25, beginning at 11:30 am in Moomaw Center on the main campus in Clifton Forge.

The film challenges one of Americans’ most cherished assumptions: That slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South after the Civil War, new systems of involuntary servitude took its place with shocking force and brutality. The film documents how for more than 80 years, thousands of African Americans, often guilty of no crime at all, were arrested, compelled to work without pay, repeatedly bought and sold, and coerced to do the bidding of white masters. Tolerated by both North and South, forced labor lasted well into the 20^th century.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas A. Blackmon, the film gives voice to the largely forgotten victims and perpetrators of forced labor and features moving interviews with their descendants living today. A group of historians provides context and perspective to the documentary.

The showing is free and open to the public. For more information contact Student Activities at (540) 863-2828.

Judy Clark, Public Relations, Dabney S. Lancaster Community College

h