| Abstract |
Produced by the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and CashWorks HD Productions, the 119-minute documentary recounts the turbulent history surrounding the troubled desegregation of New Hanover County Public School System in North Carolina during the late 1960s through 1971, and the violence that led up to the false prosecution and convictions of eight black male students, a white female community organizer, and fiery civil rights activist, Rev. Benjamin Chavis, for protesting racial injustice. The case of the Wilmington Ten made national and international headlines, resulting in a huge national, and even international movement to free them after Amnesty International formally declared them political prisoners. Produced, written and directed by Wilmington Journal staff writer Cash Michaels, the film also traces how the Black Press, led initially by Wilmington Journal publisher Thomas C. Jervay, Sr., and subsequently over 40 years later by his daughter, publisher-editor Mary Alice Jervay Thatch, through the NNPA, ultimately pushed for, and achieved the official and dramatic exoneration of the Wilmington Ten in 2012 through pardons of innocence by North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue. |
