Filmmaker Joe Allen visits Suffern High School

Suffern High School students heard from local filmmaker Joe Allen about social action after watching his documentary “Two Schools in Hillburn.”

News 12 Staff

Feb 12, 2020, 8:10 PM

Updated 1,543 days ago

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More than 700 Suffern High School students heard from local filmmaker Joe Allen about social action after watching his documentary “Two Schools in Hillburn” on Wednesday.
The film chronicles the national effort to desegregate two different schools for white and African American students in the 1940s.
Students say they felt inspired to act after hearing from Allen and watching the documentary, which was first shown in 2017 and has been since shown to thousands of students.
“I think it’s important now that people understand we can change history, we can move the needle,” Allen said. “It doesn’t have to be where we just accept what’s going on.”
Speaking alongside Allen was Dr. Travis Jackson, who attended Hillburn’s school for black students before it integrated.
The NAACP attorney who took up the Hillburn case was future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
“Two Schools in Hillburn” will be shown at the Lafayette Theater in Suffern on Feb.27.
 
 


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