I am happy to describe my oral history project and television documentary "The Force of Ethics in Civil Rights."— interviews with unsung heroes, including many from Georgia. The fight in the 1950s, ‘60s and beyond, for equal education, voting rights, full citizenship and dignity in every aspect of life was among the greatest revolutionary movements in American history!

Top left to right: Lonnie King, William Sonny Walker, Tyrone Brooks

Bottom left to right: Ozell Sutton, Barbra Pace Sears, Constance Curry

(Photos courtesy of David M. Bernstein)

For almost two years I’ve had the privilege of conducting 106 videotaped interviews with men and women around the country—the oldest is 97! Their narratives are important evidence of what the American philosopher Eli Siegel (1902-1978), founder of the education Aesthetic Realism, explained: "Ethics is a force like electricity, steam, the atom—and will have its way!" The ethical principles I learned from Aesthetic Realism are the basis of my work as a journalist and oral historian.

State Representative Tyrone Brooks and Alice Berstein

Background: Beginning—and Continuing—in Georgia

The oral history project began in 2005 with a letter from Barbra Pace Sears, Managing Editor of La Vida News/The Black Voice in Ft. Worth, Texas. Barbra was my editor for many years, and it was she who initiated my regular column based on Aesthetic Realism: "Alice Bernstein & Friends."  During our friendship, I learned about her work with Dr. King in Atlanta, and her courageous lawsuit, with three others, in the 1950s to desegregate then Georgia State College. The young attorney who represented them in the Georgia Supreme Court was Constance Baker Motley, the first African American woman to become a federal judge. Barbra wrote to me about that time:"I had to face the KKK and the White Citizen’s Council almost daily for approximately three years. I had to move my two children to ‘safe’ houses almost weekly….The white lawyers refused to give me the dignity of calling me by my name—not even my first name….Later two students: Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter [Gault] had to reopen my case in order to attend school."

When Barbra Pace Sears died in 2005, I wrote an article about her life which appeared in many newspapers.  Intense interest in this story led to requests that I interview other unknown heroes in the civil rights struggle. That is what I have been doing ever since.  In the documentary, viewers will see ethics as alive, immediate—for example, Celestine Parson Lloyd of South Carolina, whose grandmother lived to 117, and who told her about being sold with her sister on an auction block; Dabney Montgomery, a Tuskegee Airman denied the right to vote, who protested in Selma and "got a taste of that teargas"; Jack Hasegawa, a Japanese American, who demonstrated with Dr. King in Atlanta; attorney Morris Rosen of Charleston, who had signs "Colored" and "White" removed from the courtroom; Addie Wyatt, who was the first African American woman to join Chicago’s butchers and meatpackers union, and who became a legendary union organizer; Judge D’Army Bailey who fought to save the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was assassinated, and to preserve it as the outstanding National Civil Rights Museum.

    Charles Black     Barbra Pace Sears

In Georgia, I was privileged to interview Ozell Sutton, the son of sharecroppers and the first African American to serve in a Georgia governor’s cabinet, who offered disaster relief to the very landlord who earlier had terrorized his family; Constance Curry, author and documentary producer, who was an advisor to SNCC and also worked with the American Friends Service Committee on voter registration, school desegregation, and prison reform; Lonnie King, a leader of the Atlanta Student Movement in the 1960s who, with Julian Bond, organized sit-ins and boycotts including of Rich’s Department Store where they were joined by Martin Luther King, Jr., and he was also president of the city’s NAACP; Charles Black, also a participant in Atlanta’s student movement while at Morehouse College, became an organizer of the Adult-Student Liaison Committee, and later went on to work as an equal employment opportunity investigator for the federal government; Dr. William "Sonny" Walker, originally from Arkansas, was the first black to head a major state agency, later coming to Atlanta; and there is the eminent, courageous, State Representative Tyrone Brooks, who was jailed 67 times in behalf of civil rights, and whose work for justice continues today!  In other cities, some people I interviewed with deep ties to Georgia are:

Dr. James R. Gavin III, scientist, doctor, civil rights and healthcare activist, who was the first black student to earn a Ph.D. in health sciences at Emory University, later returning to head its School of Medicine; Leamon Hood, president of the AFSCME local of Atlanta sanitation workers in the 1970s, who became the first black district director of that union; All their stories have educated and moved me deeply, as they will do for you. These men and women, black and white, are important in American history and deserve the nation’s gratitude and acknowledgment.

The Cause of Racism—and the Answer!

Every day we are reminded that racism is still raging. In this documentary what I have written about for eleven years as a journalist—how the knowledge of Aesthetic Realism explains the cause of racism, contempt, "the addition to self through the lessening of something else"—and the scientific, kind, learnable solution, told of in Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism (Orange Angle Press, 2004), which I was honored to edit and coauthor with 24 men and women who represent humanity’s diversity.  That Aesthetic Realism has the understanding that people are hoping to know can be seen in a statement by State Rep. Tyrone Brooks of Georgia. In my interview with him, Mr. Brooks discussed the 1946 mass lynching in Monroe (GA) of two African American World War II veterans—George Dorsey and Roger Malcom—their wives, and an unborn child—and efforts, continuing today, to bring the killers to justice. He read aloud the commentary about lynching by Ellen Reiss in the international periodical, The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known in which she wrote: "How can ordinary people, with families, who tuck their children into bed at night, become a lynch mob? Every person who took part in a lynching had been looking for a chance to see something as against him; to punish and annihilate it to make himself wholly right and good, and someone not himself wholly wrong and evil. It is horrible and completely unforgivable. Yet the elements I have described have been welcomed by everyone in some fashion…. We won’t understand how persons can take another person and torment and kill him (in the American South; or Germany of the 1940s; or anywhere) until we understand the contempt that is in everyone."  Commenting, Representative Brooks said: "When you read this and understand the meaning of it—we really cannot feel clean until we are willing to see the cause and rise against it. She should inspire all of us to criticize contempt in ourselves and wherever possible raise the consciousness of this in our children, our families, our communities, so that we won’t repeat the atrocities we witnessed, whether in Germany or in Monroe, Georgia or Mississippi.

As we remember what Dr. King was saying, that we want the best of humanity to rise to the top and continue to fight against the worst in humanity, we have to remember this profound statement by

Ellen Reiss." The answer to racism, I am convinced, is in the study of aesthetics, and this principle stated by Eli Siegel: "The resolution of conflict in self is like the making one of opposites in art." As people watch "The Force of Ethics in Civil Rights" I want them to see the great opposites of Sameness and Difference in all humanity, not as an agony but as an opportunity to know ourselves and the world truly—and to see how, for instance, the art of music is a guide to sanity and kindness on this subject. I want young people, and everyone, to be inspired to continue the fight for justice, to understand and criticize contempt everywhere, including in us—to have ethics a living thing in our lives!

What We’ve Accomplished

The documentary’s cameraman is David Bernstein, who is my husband, and I thank him for his work and for sustaining this project which is such a big part of our lives. We have been joined on various occasions by filmmakers Bennie Robinson (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Robin Moore (Next Evolution Studios); photographers Allan Michael and Amy Dienes; with technical assistants Zvia Ratz, Steve Weiner, and Dwayne Buckle.  Over 100 hours of videotape are waiting to be processed, embodying history as it was lived in Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Washington (DC), Alabama, Connecticut, North Carolina—and of people now as far away as Montreal and Tanzania! You can hear Matthew Walker, Jr. describe

Freedom Rides and conversations with Dr. King after one of the buses was bombed; and Jack Hasegawa, a Japanese American, talks of demonstrating for voting rights and fair housing in Atlanta and in Boston. This footage, along with newsreels, photographs, music, and commentary will make a powerful documentary, and will be a treasured archive for historical societies, colleges, churches, and libraries.

All this has been accomplished with only $30,000—the result of seed money from a philanthropist, two grants from nonprofit foundations, the generosity of individuals, and our determination to squeeze full value out of every dollar.  Several corporations donated equipment, Mac computers, printing, and support services. Dedicated professionals and others volunteered their time, cars, homes, skills, food, services, and more! For example, we’re grateful for the hospitality of Crystal and Sylvester

Freeman of Atlanta who invited us to stay at their home for my interviews in Georgia; Judith Hanson, Executive Director of the Atlanta Branch of the NAACP and her staff opened their offices for interviews; Rosetta Miller-Perry, publisher of the Tennessee

Tribune, provided lodging for a three person team on two trips to Nashville; Dorothy Crook, Director of AFSCME Local 1733 in Memphis opened the union’s offices for interviews; and the City of Memphis provided free hotel accommodations because they see this project as benefiting their city and citizens.

What We Hope For and How You Can Help

"The Force of Ethics in Civil Rights” is now a project of the Alliance of Ethics & Art, a not-for-profit corporation. Our budget is $175,000 to produce a one-hour documentary, and our goal is to raise $150,000 by Spring 2007 to begin editing. Once we have a firm commitment for this amount, we may be eligible for an additional grant of $25,000. The total will cover editing equipment, software, and services; licenses for historic news footage, photographs, and music to produce the documentary by Fall 2008.  We would be grateful for the support of readers. Your tax-deductible contributions will be in behalf of the flourishing of art, life, and justice in America. And we welcome your ideas about ways to achieve our goal.  Contributions are tax-deductible by check, through our fiscal sponsor, The Global Center a 501(c) (3) whose mission is to assist in the production of socially responsible film and video documentaries.

Checks made out to: The Global Center, with "Alliance of Ethics

& Art" in the memo portion, will go to "The Force of Ethics in Civil Rights." 

Please mail to: The Global Center, 575

Eighth Avenue, Suite 2200, New York, NY l0018.

For further information, you may call (212) 691-2978.

Alice Bernstein is an Aesthetic Realism Associate and journalist whose articles appear in newspapers nationwide.  She began her study of Aesthetic Realism with Eli Siegel, and continues today in professional classes taught by Class Chairman Ellen Reiss. Ossie Davis described Mrs. Bernstein as "a person who has dedicated her life to ending racism in this country."  As a journalist she has interviewed artists, lawyers, labor leaders, judges, educators, and elected officials. In 2005 she began an oral history project and television documentary on the Force of Ethics in the Struggle for Civil Rights, and has been traveling and interviewing unsung heroes. Representative Tyrone Brooks of Georgia wrote "I am grateful for what Alice Bernstein is doing to preserve our history and bring it to the forefront so that it captures the attention of young people." She is editor and coauthor of Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism (Orange Angle Press, 2004), and a founding director of Alliance of Ethics & Art, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to projects which use the arts, based on principles of Aesthetic Realism, in the cause of social justice. She is a contributor to the forthcoming African American National Biography, ed. by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (Oxford University Press, 2008) and the book "The People of Clarendon County" by Ossie Davis & Related Documents, Edited and with an

Introduction by Alice Bernstein (Third World Press, 2007).