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Interacting with footage from the civil rights protests of the 1960's, Bob Williams performs, as Raymond Hollis, in front of a class of Freshmen at South Umpqua High Tuesday morning. Williams, as Hollis, is part of A Right to Dream's ‘Living Voices’ a thaterical production about the Civil Rights protests.
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TRI CITY — At some schools, Bob Williams knows he’ll be the only civil rights education the students get.
So he talks fast, covering everything from the arrival of slaves on American soil in 1619 through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
With the Seattle-based Living Voices theater company, he’s taken “The Right to Dream” to many schools that have requested the program to fulfill a requirement that they provide some education for Black History Month. He’s even been to communities where the Ku Klux Klan is still active.
Living Voices’ style is unique. An actor takes on a character while a video plays. “The Right to Dream” includes real footage and still photos, as well as the voices of fictional characters who Williams talks with.
Tuesday Williams received a warm welcome from the freshmen at South Umpqua High School.
Umpqua Community College brought the presentation to several Douglas County schools, both for students and the public, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Williams gave Tuesday’s presentation on the anniversary of another significant date, the ratification of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished poll taxes so everyone could vote without paying.
Some students were near tears as they watched footage of sit-ins, marches and bus rides where protesters were beaten and killed. At the same time, Williams portrayed the fictional Raymond Hollis, who faces his own fears and joins with other university students to protest segregation, poll taxes and laws that required people to take a test, often one that couldn’t be passed, in order to vote.
“I didn’t know they threw tear gas and all that stuff,” freshman J.J. Jansen said. “It made me think like, ‘How can we treat people that bad? They’re just like us. Skin color shouldn’t really matter.’”
Amber Kuntz said she learned “that they were treated a lot worse than I actually thought they were. It made me think that you need to respect everybody. Just because of their race doesn’t mean that they’re different.”
The presentation was more than a history lesson, though the students learned about Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, Bob Moses and Malcolm X.
Williams talked to them about institutionalized racism. In the drama, Hollis’ best friend is a white boy named Jack. Jack’s father forbids him to see Hollis after they get in trouble for going into a theater together, too young to realize they should have used separate entrances. Later in the drama, Jack joins a riot against a sit-in at a Woolworth’s counter. Black students are quietly reading their books when the riot breaks out.
The police watch as the students are beaten. Jack throws acid in the face of one of Hollis’ friends.
After the drama, Williams asked the students how Jack could have changed so much. He said it wasn’t just Jack’s family and friends that influenced him.
He was given more privileges than black people, from the bus driver, his town, the government, even the president. Williams asked the girls what they would think if boys weren’t allowed on the bus, if they were told, “The buses are for regular people. The boys are going to have to walk.”
The girls laughed, but they got the point.
“Everything in his society was telling him that,” Williams said.
“Think about how different things are,” Williams said. “I hope your kids will see you get involved someday.”
• You can reach reporter Teresa Williams at 957-4230 or via e-mail at twilliams@newsreview.info.
So he talks fast, covering everything from the arrival of slaves on American soil in 1619 through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
With the Seattle-based Living Voices theater company, he’s taken “The Right to Dream” to many schools that have requested the program to fulfill a requirement that they provide some education for Black History Month. He’s even been to communities where the Ku Klux Klan is still active.
Living Voices’ style is unique. An actor takes on a character while a video plays. “The Right to Dream” includes real footage and still photos, as well as the voices of fictional characters who Williams talks with.
Tuesday Williams received a warm welcome from the freshmen at South Umpqua High School.
Umpqua Community College brought the presentation to several Douglas County schools, both for students and the public, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Williams gave Tuesday’s presentation on the anniversary of another significant date, the ratification of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished poll taxes so everyone could vote without paying.
Some students were near tears as they watched footage of sit-ins, marches and bus rides where protesters were beaten and killed. At the same time, Williams portrayed the fictional Raymond Hollis, who faces his own fears and joins with other university students to protest segregation, poll taxes and laws that required people to take a test, often one that couldn’t be passed, in order to vote.
“I didn’t know they threw tear gas and all that stuff,” freshman J.J. Jansen said. “It made me think like, ‘How can we treat people that bad? They’re just like us. Skin color shouldn’t really matter.’”
Amber Kuntz said she learned “that they were treated a lot worse than I actually thought they were. It made me think that you need to respect everybody. Just because of their race doesn’t mean that they’re different.”
The presentation was more than a history lesson, though the students learned about Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, Bob Moses and Malcolm X.
Williams talked to them about institutionalized racism. In the drama, Hollis’ best friend is a white boy named Jack. Jack’s father forbids him to see Hollis after they get in trouble for going into a theater together, too young to realize they should have used separate entrances. Later in the drama, Jack joins a riot against a sit-in at a Woolworth’s counter. Black students are quietly reading their books when the riot breaks out.
The police watch as the students are beaten. Jack throws acid in the face of one of Hollis’ friends.
After the drama, Williams asked the students how Jack could have changed so much. He said it wasn’t just Jack’s family and friends that influenced him.
He was given more privileges than black people, from the bus driver, his town, the government, even the president. Williams asked the girls what they would think if boys weren’t allowed on the bus, if they were told, “The buses are for regular people. The boys are going to have to walk.”
The girls laughed, but they got the point.
“Everything in his society was telling him that,” Williams said.
“Think about how different things are,” Williams said. “I hope your kids will see you get involved someday.”
• You can reach reporter Teresa Williams at 957-4230 or via e-mail at twilliams@newsreview.info.
