School Sagas: Desegregation Then and Now

FAIN: ZPA-283500-22

Bishop Blue (Marshall, TX 75670-0933)
Rae Phillips (Project Director: May 2021 to September 2023)

The retention of a film editor, online collections consultant, and a senior staff member, as well as two scholars, to produce an online database of oral history and educational materials about school desegregation, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of court-mandated public-school desegregation in Caddo Parish, Louisiana.

The Bishop Blue Foundation is requesting a $20,000 grant to develop a plan for presenting filmed School Sagas oral histories (collected from alumni and current students of formerly segregated schools in the Ark-La-Tex region where Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas meet) to an online audience of scholars, grade school students, and the general public interested in engaging with challenging topics like race, segregation, integration, and equity in a public school system where constitutional protections for quality education continue to be debated. We are requesting funding under the “A More Perfect Union” initiative as our project demonstrates the limitations of Supreme Court decisions reliant upon local implementation.