This article features Yana Gorskaya, Shayne Fox, editor Dane McMaster, sound effects editor David Barbee, and Supervising sound editor Steffan Falesitch discussing the production work on Go Flip Yourself and The Night Market.
Under the (mis)leadership of Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican School Board is attacking teachers for showing inclusive Disney movies like, Strange World.
Like many states, Florida is experiencing a severe teacher shortage, but Republicans are willing to chase away good teachers like Jenna Barbee, because she showed a movie that dared to briefly represent and acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ people.
And parents, like Emily Conklin, are joining in on the GOP’s Gestapo-like behavior by reporting teachers for showing Disney movies like The Ruby Bridges Story.
Still other Republican controlled states like Oklahoma and Texas are even paying out cash rewards to anyone who turns in someone who went out of state for an abortion.
Never ever let a Republican lie and convince you that they want an unobtrusive, “small government” that stays out of people’s private lives—because what they really want is a draconian government that’s big enough to spy on, punish, penalize and control anyone who isn’t cis, straight, white, male and Christian.
February 12th commemorates the founding of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) established in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans. Over the years, the NAACP’s mission has evolved “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination”.
Milwaukee lawyer, Wisconsin state representative, and civil-rights activist Lloyd A. Barbee (1925-2002) devoted most of his life to the NAACP’s mission. Joining the association at just 12 years old Barbee went on to become the president of the Madison branch from 1955-1960 and the Wisconsin chapter from 1961-1964. He was simultaneously earning a law degree and using his prowess as an activist to draft Madison’s Equal Opportunity Ordinance, demand Milwaukee Public Schools end segregation, and ultimately ran and won a seat on the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1965-1977 where he was the only African American in the state legislature.
Browsing the Special Collections stacks in search of materials to honor the day, I came across a quirky item belonging to Lloyd A. Barbee. The book in question is actually four titles Barbee had bound into a single item. The titles include An Outline of the Old Testament, A Hymarx Outline of the New Testament, A Hymarx outline of the Plays of Shakespeare, and NAACP Annual Report 1957-58. Why Barbee had the titles bound together is anyone’s guess, but the NAACP report provides insight into his civil rights passions, including an update on the association’s work with the Wisconsin Industrial Commission to secure Black tradesmen membership within local unions, an effort Barbee would have no doubt contributed to and has annotated with his initials.
This book is part of the Fromkin Memorial Collection developed around the broad theme of social justice in the United States.