"Beyond the Schoolyard: A Testament to the Power of Education" invites you to uncover a hidden chapter in our shared history.
The Calvert Colored/W.D. Spigner School stands as a powerful testament to African American's resilience and the enduring pursuit of knowledge. Through the lens of visual anthropology, we illuminate the complex narratives of struggle, triumph, and lasting impact woven into the fabric of this community. Your engagement with this story is more than learning—it's an act of cultural preservation and a step towards collective liberation. Are you ready to see education through a new, more inclusive lens?
The Calvert Colored/W.D. Spigner School stands as a powerful testament to African American's resilience and the enduring pursuit of knowledge. Through the lens of visual anthropology, we illuminate the complex narratives of struggle, triumph, and lasting impact woven into the fabric of this community. Your engagement with this story is more than learning—it's an act of cultural preservation and a step towards collective liberation. Are you ready to see education through a new, more inclusive lens?
By examining the rise and fall of this segregated school and its lasting impact, the project contributes to the broader discourse on the importance of equal opportunities in education and the need to confront our past to build a more inclusive future. The upcoming state historical marker dedication ceremony for the Calvert Colored/W.D. Spigner School underscores the significance of this documentary in ensuring that the lessons of the past continue to inspire change for future generations.
My latest project, "Beyond the Schoolyard: A Testament to the Power of Education," explores the legacy of the Calvert Colored/W.D. Spigner School, a segregated institution that played a crucial role in educating African American students during a challenging time in our nation's history. This documentary preserves the school's history, celebrates its triumphs, honors its alumni, and highlights the ongoing fight for education equity.
We stand on the shoulders of giants who fought for our right to education, our right to be heard, and our right to belong."
Amplifying Voices of Educational Resilience
Trailer Video
"Witness the extraordinary story of the Rosenwald school that defied the nation's failures"
Synopsis
In the segregated South, access to education for African American children was defined by profound injustice. Yet in the small town of Calvert, Texas, the local Black community rallied to create a beacon of empowerment and self-determination - the Calvert Colored School, funded in part by the Rosenwald initiative.
BEYOND THE SCHOOLYARD chronicles how this landmark institution channeled the pain of oppression into the purpose of uplifting generations from 1929 to its desegregation in 1972. Visionary educators like W.D. Spigner nurtured the minds of their students while instilling immense pride and ambition against all odds.
Comprehensive archival materials and powerful first-hand accounts elevate the voices of those this nation failed. This documentary honors the school's enduring legacy as both a triumph over injustice, and a rallying cry for the ongoing struggles toward true education equity that its closure in 2009 laid bare.
BEYOND THE SCHOOLYARD chronicles how this landmark institution channeled the pain of oppression into the purpose of uplifting generations from 1929 to its desegregation in 1972. Visionary educators like W.D. Spigner nurtured the minds of their students while instilling immense pride and ambition against all odds.
Comprehensive archival materials and powerful first-hand accounts elevate the voices of those this nation failed. This documentary honors the school's enduring legacy as both a triumph over injustice, and a rallying cry for the ongoing struggles toward true education equity that its closure in 2009 laid bare.
Building of Legacy
When the Calvert Colored School first opened its doors in 1929, African American children in the rural South faced an education system utterly failing them. But this Rosenwald-funded institution channeled the anguish of segregation into extraordinary acts of hope and self-determination.
The 6-acre campus with its distinctive C-shaped, red-brick buildings became a harbor of empowerment and ambition against all odds. Teachers like W.D. Spigner encouraged students to dream far beyond what racist policies permitted.
BEYOND THE SCHOOLYARD explores how this groundbreaking Rosenwald school improbably thrived through the harshest injustices of the Jim Crow era, inspiring activists and uplifting the entire Calvert community through its very existence.
The 6-acre campus with its distinctive C-shaped, red-brick buildings became a harbor of empowerment and ambition against all odds. Teachers like W.D. Spigner encouraged students to dream far beyond what racist policies permitted.
BEYOND THE SCHOOLYARD explores how this groundbreaking Rosenwald school improbably thrived through the harshest injustices of the Jim Crow era, inspiring activists and uplifting the entire Calvert community through its very existence.
W.D. Spigner, Principal pictured below
When I first learned about the Calvert Colored/W.D. Spigner School's story of resilience amid segregation, I felt an urgent calling to share it with the world. Here was an extraordinary example of a community facing America's gravest injustices head-on and emerging triumphant through the empowering act of education.
With BEYOND THE SCHOOLYARD, I wanted to create a definitive historical record that elevates the essential voices of those generations of students, teachers and families. But I also wanted it to sound an echoing call for us to finally live up to their remarkable legacy.
This documentary ensures that the spirit forged beyond those schoolyard walls - that transformative vision of what equitable education can achieve - blazes on as a guiding light for today's battles.
- Myeshia Babers, Director
Featured Voices
Alumnus
Historian
Educator