Thank you, Dave, for the detailed and interesting report.  I would be
interested in learning the thoughts of anyone on the list as to why this
event attracted such an antagonistic -- and opportunistic, I suppose --
response from civil rights organizations when, if memory serves, Roots
and The Color Purple received all but universal -- if undeserved --
approbation.  I have some thoughts of my own but I would be interested in
hearing others'.
 
On Wed, 12 Oct 1994 19:55:27 -0500, Dave Harvey wrote:
 
>The beginning of the program was delayed for fifteen to twenty minutes
>due to the crush of local & national media and of a small contingent of
>protesters from the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership
>Conference. Representatives of these groups met with Colonial
>Williamsburg's President Robert Wilburn and the Director of African
>American Presentations and Programs, Christy Coleman. These few
>individuals threatened to verbally and physically obstruct the program
>which over 2,000 people had assembled to see. . . . This mood soured quickly
when the protesters
>shouted down the staff member who tried to introduce the program, and
>then the protest leaders were allowed to directly address the assembled
>crowd (and cameras). The NAACP representative called the event "a
>carnival" and the SCLC representative told everyone that he wanted to be
>arrested and dragged-off by local police. . . .  The protest leaders busied
>themselves with the media and those who were genuinely there to learn
>stayed for more than an hour in dialogue.
Ken Yellis
Assistant Director for Public Programs
Peabody Museum of Natural History
170 Whitney Avenue
Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118
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(203) 432-9891/9816(fax)