Last breeze of summer

Duration: 30

Year Published: 1991

Creator: carousel

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: In this dramatization, Lizzy Davis, a school principal, watches a schoolbus disgorge an integrated group of students and recalls her adolescence in Ranford, Texas, 1957. As a result of the Supreme Court desegregation ruling, Ranford is ordered to integrate its schools and at a church service, the pastor reads the list of black students chosen to initiate the desegregation process. When Lizzie's name is called, her father beams with pride. Lizzie's mother, however, is adamantly opposed to her daughter's participation, fearing that Lizzie will be exposed to the violence that erupted earlier in Little Rock, Arkansas. Lizzie's father offers to take her to school on her first day, but Lizzie is determined to go alone. Riding the bus, she contemplates the whites only signs in store windows and her coming ordeal. Disembarking the bus at the formerly all-white school, Lizzie is immediately barraged by the racist jeers of protesters and must be escorted into the building by police officers. In class, Lizzie is taunted by other students and ignored by the teacher, Mr. Fletcher, when she raises her hand to answer a math problem. The next day, Lizzie is again rebuffed by Mr. Fletcher but remains steadfast, her hand resolutely raised in the air.