April 28, 2014 – Following up on its multimedia report on school resegregation, ProPublica announced today that it will feature photos from local high school students in an exhibit in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The exhibit, titled “Grandchildren of Brown: Student Photos on Race in Tuscaloosa, 60 Years Later,” will run May 2-18 at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center, with an opening reception May 2 at 6:30 p.m. CT.
The University of Alabama School of Law and several departments in UA’s College of Arts and Sciences worked with ProPublica in presenting the exhibit.
“Segregation Now,” a deeply reported piece by ProPublica’s Nikole Hannah-Jones and co-published in The Atlantic, tells of schools across the nation quietly resegregating as integration mandates are lifted. In conjunction with the story – whose narrative centers on Tuscaloosa – ProPublica asked students at one integrated school in town and one that is again nearly all-black to use cameras to document race and education through their eyes.
Based on that project, the “Grandchildren of Brown” exhibit coincides with the 60th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Student photos are packaged with their six-word essays on race and education, in collaboration with Michele Norris’s Race Card Project. The reception, free and open to the public, will include a screening of the short documentary film “Saving Central,” produced by Maisie Crow for ProPublica, and a student panel moderated by Gene Demby of NPR’s Code Switch.
“As we discuss the resegregation of the South, this exhibit helps us to focus on those with the greatest stake but the smallest voice: the students,” Hannah-Jones said. “There is a stark, unpoliticized truth in these photos and the stories behind them. By holding the exhibit, we hope to invite the community to acknowledge, contemplate and discuss what’s happened – and consider the path forward.”
Hannah-Jones, who will welcome visitors to the May 2 event, will be available for interviews. ProPublica will also be live-tweeting the reception with the hashtag #RevisitingBrown.
Exhibit/Reception Details
Grandchildren of Brown: Student Photos on Race in Tuscaloosa, 60 Years Later Exhibit: May 2-18 at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center, 620 Greensboro Avenue, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401 Reception: May 2, 6:30-8:30 p.m. CT Contact: Nicole Collins Bronzan, director of communications
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