The public is invited to a free film screening and discussion on the 1939 Sharecropper Strike in Missouri, Feb. 14, noon, at the State Historical Society of Missouri as part of the History on Elm series. “Oh Freedom after While” is a 58-minute documentary narrated by Julian Bond, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center and former chairperson of the NAACP, and includes rare footage of the sharecropper’s protest in Missouri’s bootheel. The film’s writer and co-producer, Candace O’Connor, will answer audience questions after the film.
The film is in conjunction with Black Resistance in the Depression Era: The Missouri Sharecroppers’ Strike of 1939 exhibition at the University of Missouri Ellis Library as part of Black History Month events. Beginning Feb. 7, Ellis Library will exhibit selected photos from SHSMO’s collection of sharecropper images by Arthur Witman, an award-winning photographer at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. On Feb. 22, 2:30 p.m., SHSMO Art Curator Joan Stack will present a lecture on the exhibition at Ellis Library, room 114A.