November 30 - December 10, 2000
An Exhibition of International Cinema

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USA, 1999, Video, 84 minutes
English
Directors: Barak Goodman and Daniel Anker

In March 1931, a train crowded with hoboes left Tennessee for points West. During the passage, a fight erupted between two groups of travelers - one white and one black. When the train halted just outside the town of Scottsboro, Alabama, two white women stepped forward from the shadows and made a shocking accusation: that they had been raped by the nine black youths aboard the train. So began one of the most significant, yet often forgotten, legal fights of the 20th century. The case became a flash point for the NAACP, the Communist Party, Alabama segregationists and Americans on both sides of the racial divide. After the defendants were handed down unanimous death sentences, Defense attorney Samuel Leibowitz, Al Capone's famous Jewish lawyer from New York, was hired to retry the case. Pilloried as a communist "Jewish carpetbagger" from the North, Leibowitz soon found himself the object of discrimination and animosity. Featuring never before seen photos, archival footage, and interviews with surviving witnesses, Scottsboro: An American Tragedy deftly tells this extraordinary story for the first time on film. Narrated by Frances McDormand and Stanley Tucci.

Winner, Audience Choice Award 2000,
     Birmingham Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival
     Directors Daniel Anker and Barak Goodman
Winner, Jury Prize 2000, Urbanworld Film Festival
     Best Documentary
Nominated, Grand Jury Prize 2000, Sundance Film Festival
     Documentary Category

This screening is part of the ongoing Windows and Mirrors series co-sponsored by the DCJCC and the African-American Resource Center at Howard University. Windows and Mirrors celebrates shared traditions between the African-American and Jewish communities.

Panel Discussion with
Daniel Anker, Director

Deidre Cross, former Scottsboro resident

Maurice Jackson, visiting Associate Professor of History, Georgetown University; Former DC and National Member and leader of the Communist Party, USA

James Miller, Professor of English and American Studies; and Director of Africana Studies, George Washington University

Introduced and Moderated by
E. Ethelbert Miller, Co-Chair of The Humanities Council of Washington, DC

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