The Hillsboro Story - March 6, 2011
The Hillsboro Story
March 6, 2011
A play by Susan Banyas
Commemorating the 55th Anniversary of the Hillsboro, Ohio Desegregation Case
The Hillsboro Story, a warmhearted, hardhitting narrative, opens in Hillsboro, Ohio on July 5, 1954 when the “colored” elementary school went up in flames. The fire sparked a “school fight” led by five African American mothers that became one of the first test cases for the Brown v. Board of Education decision (May, 1954) in the North. Ms. Banyas, the playwright, was in the third grade, and the memory of those times sparked this cultural detective story – a lively weaving of spoken word, movement, monologues, and visual images, backed by an evocative original music score.
The investigation is informed by historical research, photography, and extensive interviews with key players locally and nationally whose voices form the heart of the story.
Photo: Merle Hudson, Gertrude Clemons Hudson, Joyce Clemons Kittrell, Plaintiffs in Clemons v. Board of Education of Hillsboro, Ohio, 1956, the first test case for the Brown v. Board of Education decision in the North
Presented by the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research and the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site as part of the 2010-2011 program series, Commemorating Our Nation's Struggle for Freedom: From Civil War to Civil Rights.
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