Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

FAIN: TR-50572-14

Firelight Media, Inc. (New York, NY 10031-6300)
Stanley Nelson (Project Director: January 2014 to October 2025)

Production of a two-hour film exploring the history and legacy of historically black colleges and universities.

Though much of its history was eclipsed by the explosiveness of the 1960s, the essential role the nation's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) played in shaping African American life and dismantling segregation cannot be overstated. Without the gains incubated on these campuses over many difficult decades, it is doubtful whether America would today have an African American in its highest office. Firelight Films, led by award-winning documentary producer Stanley Nelson, seeks $650,000 in production funds to support "Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities," the first multiplatform documentary project focused on the dramatic and transformative history of HBCUs. The project, which will air on PBS' Independent Lens in 2016, will bring to a broad national audience for the first time the dramatic stories, characters, and developments that made HBCUs unparalleled agents for change and equality in the American landscape.