By Richard J. McCollough, M.Ed.
My name is Richard J. McCollough, and I, along with Travis W. Lewis, produced the landmark documentary film Lulu and the Girls of Americus, Georgia 1963. We premiered the film in 2003 at the George Eastman Museum Dryden Theater in Rochester, NY. It is a poignant, untold story of how children joined the fight for equal rights in their hometown. Told from the perspective of Lulu Westbrooks-Griffin along with her brother James, cousin Gloria, other family members and several surviving women the film recounts that fateful experience in the summer of 1963 when they were arrested for protesting against racism and then incarcerated for more than a month, subject to the most inhumane conditions. .
Congressman John Lewis was integral in helping us make this film. It was a real honor working and learning from him.
Left to right (Richard J. McCollough, Congressman John Lewis, and Travis W. Lewis)Â Â Summer 2001 Congressman John Lewis was introducing the film at the Library of Congress in July 2003.
We met John Lewis in the summer of 2001. We worked with his Chief of Staff Michael Collins to set-up the interview, filmed in his legendary office on Capitol Hill. John Lewis was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963, and he talked about how SNCC organized youth-led nonviolent demonstrations across the south. Lewis worked with local SNCC volunteers in Americus, to mobilize hundreds of young people for a protest against segregated movie theaters in their hometown. In those days, blacks could only sit at the back of the theater. It was a sweltering Georgia summer in 1963, and young people, according to John Lewis,” were willing to put their lives on the line to fight injustice and Jim Crow Laws. As the demonstration got underway, the Americus police moved in to stop them, the sheriff warned the crowd to go home, but suddenly a scuffle broke out, and the melee began. Police used Billy clubs and released dogs on young people. It was said to be both a horrific scene and a sad moment in American history. Many received injuries, including Lulu Westbrook- Griffin, who was hit in the head and knocked unconscious. John Lewis remembered the incident as if it was yesterday. Once the children were arrested, they were all separated. Boys and girls were split up and taken to different jails. As it turned out, 32 girls ended up at the Leesburg Stockade, an old abandoned civil war era stockade. The place had not been used in years. It did not have running water nor toilet facilities. Worried parents had no idea where their children were taken. Law enforcement kept the girls’ location a secret. Lewis reminded us about the absolute power exercised by police in the south. He said this was one of the main reasons to fight racial injustice, prejudice, and discrimination by authorities. So for 45 days, 32 girls lived in squalid conditions. Though they were fed and given water, it was a demoralizing experience. Many of the women today still suffer from the memories. There were rumors some girls were raped. Lewis, SNCC, and the families of the children searched leads to find the girls but failed.
Ironically by late August 1963, as the girls suffered from neglect, the March on Washington took place. It was a major demonstration to draw attention to the inequities faced by black people and a demand for jobs and freedom. More than 250,000 people converged in front of the Lincoln Memorial to hear various speakers. John Lewis, who was only 23, gave a rousing speech about the fight for freedom. Ironically, as he gave the speech, he was well aware of the ongoing search for the missing girls. It was a difficult time. In his legendary address, he made explicit reference to the girls and others” while we stand here, there are students in jail on trumped-up charges.”
After the March on Washington, Lewis and SNCC got a tip of the girls’ location. He sent his friend and SNCC photographer Danny Lyon to Leesburg, Georgia, to find the girls and document their incarceration. Danny Lyon took several photographs and was able to get them to the justice department and Congressmen in Washington, DC. The girls were released by early September 1963.
John Lewis was so impressed with the documentary he hosted a special screening at the Library of Congress for the House, the Senate, and the Congressional Black Caucus in July 2003. Audiences loved the film.
The film has screened in festivals, won several awards including a Telly Award and an Accolade Global Film Competition Award. Though we won praise for telling the dramatic story with high production values, syndicators and distributers said it was a local story and would not have national appeal. You can read between the lines on that. A lot of doors were closed in our faces. A major national cable company liked the film, but they said it did not fit their programming and their viewers would not be interested in this kind of documentary.
As black people, we have known many injustices and telling our stories historically have been ignored. We believe today’s socially conscious” television audiences will embrace this untold civil rights story and finally recognize the fight and the heroism of the surviving members of those 45 days in the Leesburg stockade in the summer of 1963.
John Lewis encouraged us never to give up in trying to get the story out.
