'CLINTON 12' TO SCREEN AT UNA JAN. 17
Jan. 10, 2008
By Josh Woods
Director of University Relations
FLORENCE, Ala. — Twelve black students walked into history Aug. 27, 1956, when Clinton High School in Clinton, Tenn., became the first desegregated public school in the South. Their story, not widely known, is finally told in Keith McDaniel’s documentary “The Clinton 12,” which will be shown at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 17 at the University of North Alabama’s GUC Performance Center. McDaniel, the film’s writer and director, will speak following the screening.
The screening will be the first installment of the George Lindsey UNA Film Festival’s new Film and Lecture Series. The event is being hosted in partnership with UNA’s Black Student Alliance and Presidential Mentors Academy.
While the 1957 desegregation of Little Rock Central High School is widely regarded as the first public school integration following Brown v. Board of Education, the Clinton 12 walked onto the Clinton High campus a year earlier. McDaniel’s film, narrated by James Earl Jones, tells the story of violence and tension in the town of Clinton, which eventually reached a breaking point with the high school’s bombing in 1958.
“The Clinton 12” has screened in dozens of film festivals across North America, garnering 15 awards, including several Best Documentary awards as well as the Nashville Public Television Human Spirit Award. It will broadcast nationwide on PBS this year.
McDaniel, of Oak Ridge, Tenn., was the 2007 recipient of the All American Film Festival’s Director’s Award for the Advancement of Independent Cinema. He owns and operates his own production company, Secret City Films, and is founder and director of the Secret City Film Festival. McDaniel first book is scheduled for release this fall.
For more information on the Jan. 17 screening of the “The Clinton 12,” contact Cynthia Burkhead at 256-765-4790 or caburkhead@una.edu.
