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The Street Academy (video in two parts, with transcript)

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Title
The Street Academy (video in two parts, with transcript)
Creator
Biggs, Julian (Creator)
Date
1969
Subject
Alternative schools
Description
Oscar Walters and Butch Lewis sit on chairs in the room of what looks like an empty, unfinished building and discuss the Street Academy. It had started a year ago (1968) with an idea from Trudi Johnson, Lenny (last name unknown), Butch Lewis, and a few others who had looked at the street academy in Harlem as a model for a Hartford street academy. on. It was funded through an organization identified as DCA and donations from churches. At its start in October 1968, there were ten students who were learning English, history, math, and biology. The subjects were taught by two nuns, a veterinarian who taught biology and brought students to his hospital in Manchester, and other neighborhood instructors. There were also art and music classes. The school hours were every week day from 8:30 to 3:00. Around December 1968, they found that that the school had started to fill up beyond capacity and to take on the traditional school-like structure. They decided to change the framework to what they call a “humanities” approach. Monday through Wednesday they had regular classes from 8:30 to 12:00. From 1:00-3:00 they had the preparatory academy, which gets three of the five participating students into a college program. On Fridays students took trips such as to Keney Park to go horseback riding or watched films such The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, the Bill Cosby series on Black America, Rin Tin Tin and a film on venereal disease. Lewis talks about how some students who knew how to play musical instruments would play organ, bass, guitar and drums outside on the grass and the community would come out and listen. He also describes how they were able to start a photo lab. Students would learn how to take photos with Polaroid land cameras. There was also a tape system so that older students who needed to learn basic math or reading could do so with headphones on and not be embarrassed about their learning level. Lewis describes history class as a combined literature and history class, in which students read [Eldridge] Cleaver as a starting point for discussing the revolutionary founding of America. Students could choose which subjects they were interested in and then have a three-week period to study for an exam. Students ranged from eight to 36 years old. The program had run from October 1968 to June 1969, with a total enrollment of 75 students and eight graduates. Lewis also talks about the support systems not offered in a regular school that were put in place as part of the program, such as connecting students in trouble with the law to lawyers from the Clayhill Neighorhood Core (legal services), child care for young single mothers who were enrolled in classes, and helping young people get jobs through the Neighborhood Youth Corps. Lewis also talks about bringing books to inmates in the jail. Another thing Lewis and Walters note is that aside from one University of Connecticut professor who taught some classes, none of the colleges (University of Hartford, Trinity, and University of Connecticut) provided any support.
Publisher
Ownership Statement: Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library
Format
color
Format
video/mov
Relation
Source Note: Butch Lewis Collection
Coverage
Hartford (Conn.)
Description
Oscar Walters and Charles “Butch” Lewis were members of Hartford’s Black Panther Party. The reference they make to a book by Eldridge Cleaver, used as a prominent text in Street Academy classes, is to Soul on Ice, published in 1968, the year the Street Academy started. Another 1968 work they refer to is the CBS News Special, Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed, starring Bill Cosby. This is one of a number of 1969 documentary-style films in the collection of Hartford Black Panther Party co-founder, Butch Lewis. The films were directed and filmed by Canadian filmmaker Julian Biggs and assistant Baylis Glascock. . They document various Hartford black and Puerto Rican community leaders and communities as well as white governmental and business leaders discussing issues facing poor communities in the City of Hartford. Issues include urban renewal, housing, employment, education, and governmental representation.
Creator
Glascock, Baylis (Creator)
Subject
Education
Identifier
50002:5547
Identifier
local: hpl_hhc_bl_street-academy
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11134/50002:5547
Type
MovingImage
Type
video recordings

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