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Local students excel in Constitutional Rights Foundation competition
Topics: history day, school, Fruitvale Jr. High, students, civil rights, Ali Castellanos, Allie Molen
Posted by sreep Fri Jul 6, 2007 12:18:38 PDT
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Fruitvale Jr. High seventh-graders Ali Castellanos and Allie Molen recently won first place for the state of California in the Free Expression in a Free Society competition sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation.  Castellanos and Molen produced a 10-minute video documentary on the voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, a little-known but critical figure in voting rights in Mississippi during the early 1960s.  The full title of the documentary is Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired:  the Triumphs and Tragedies of Civil Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hamer.

     The competition included junior (sixth, seventh, and eighth grades) and senior (high school) categories and was judged by documentary film makers, one of whom said, “This documentary was terrific.  It was the best including the senior docs I saw.  The research and footage were excellent.  The story was superbly well told and the voiceover was excellent in terms of both content and delivery.  I came away knowing a lot about a woman I previously knew nothing about, understanding the context of her life and work and had a feeling for her humanity and humor.  Well done.”

     Castellanos and Molen share an award of $500 and will present their documentary at the CRF Spring Dinner in Century City.  In attendance will be hundreds of judges, attorneys, and film makers. 

     Fannie Lou Hamer was born into a poor sharecropping family in Mississippi.  When she was six, she too began working in the cotton fields.  On August 31, 1962, when Hamer was forty-four, she stopped sharecropping.  She learned from SNCC, the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, that she had a right to vote.  Mrs. Hamer got on a bus with 17 other black citizens, bound for the Sunflower County seat to register, having recognized voting as the true equalizer.  

     In 1963, Hamer and other activists were jailed and brutally beaten in Winona, Mississippi.  As a result, Hamer lost the vision in one eye and walked with a limp for the rest of her life.  But she continued her efforts, saying, “What was the point of being scared?  The only thing they could do to me was kill me, and it seemed like they’d been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember.”

    During Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964, Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to unseat the original Mississippi delegation at the upcoming 1964 Democratic Convention.  In August, at the convention, she gave a riveting speech that was shown coast-to-coast.  Nonetheless, the attempt failed, but Congressman John Lewis said, "As far as I’m concerned, this was the turning point of the Civil Rights Movement.  I’m absolutely convinced of that.”  In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, giving all citizens the right to full participation in the United States government.       Both girls previously participated in State History Day in April with their video, winning third place and receiving the Aronoff Award, a $100 special prize given to the documentary best exhibiting the principles of the Bill of Rights.  They were also invited to present their documentary last March in Mississippi at the Second Annual Conference of Mississippi Civil Rights Veterans.  Both girls; their History Day coach Susan Reep, who is also Ali Castellanos’ grandmother; and Sandi Molen, Allie Molen’s mom, flew to Jackson, and the documentary was well-received by the almost 100 attendees, a virtual who’s who of those who were active in the movement.

     Hamer’s legacy was confirmed when, on July 20, 2006, Congress renewed   the Voting Rights Act for 25 years.  They named it the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Reauthorization and Amendments Act.      

     Before she died on March 14, 1977, she made known what she wanted on her tombstone.  “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”  

   

     Castellanos and Molen researched their project for over six months, watching video footage, reading books, and interviewing numerous people from the movement, including former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young.  They incorporated their interviews into the documentary to help tell the story and produced an annotated bibliography detailing their research. 

     "I have learned and experienced a lot in the process of making our documentary on Fannie Lou Hamer," said Allie Molen. "My understanding of the Civil Rights Movement has expanded immeasurably, and I enjoyed meeting and interviewing so many people who actually were a part of the movement. I wouldn't trade my experience and knowledge of this project for a million dollars! I think more kids should participate in National History Day because they learn many important skills, like researching and interviewing that will prove useful in their future."

     Despite the enormous time commitment, Castellanos said, “Doing the research for this project and making the video itself was such a great experience and accomplishment. I learned so much that will be beneficial to me throughout school and the rest of my life. Even if we hadn’t won any awards, I wouldn’t regret doing the project.”

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Comment From: Roberthargreaves

I was a civil rights worker in Mississippi 1n 1964-1965. My first three nights in Missippi were in the Hamer home in Ruleville. She was certainly a dynamic woman, but so were hundreds of others who probably will never make it into history books. Fannie Lou was more than a sharecropper - she was head bookkeeper for the Eastland Plantation. Senator Eastland's family plantation. When she went to try to register to vote (she didn't succeed) her home and the homes of others that went with her were shot up that night. And the next day she was fired from her bookkeeper job. The summer of 64 Fannie Lou made appearances around the state at Freedom Democratic Party meetings making speeches. The FDP didn't succeed in replacing the Mississippi Democratic Party delegates at the Democratic Party convention, but they did succeed in preventing the delegates from voting at the convention. Comment From: sreep

Thanks for the comment. We met so many of the people when we went to Mississippi - who put their lives on the line daily, like you did. I believe she was the bookkeeper on the Marlowe plantation and we went there, but it is of course much changed.  We did see her gravesite in Ruleville as well as other places of historic interest. I hope you had a chance to watch the documentary. The girls had to keep the video to 10 minutes for history day, and it's hard to condense such a dramatic story to 10 minutes, but I think they did a great job. FLH was one of many, but she was exceptional.