In this clip "Blast from the Past" features an excerpt from a Sarah-Ann Shaw interview with Rhody McCoy. Best known as administrator of Ocean Hill-Brownsville, an experimental decentralized school district in Brooklyn with about 9,000 students, Mr. McCoy is an advocate of black community control of schools. Overall the program is divided into two halves: the first consisting of two filmstrips related to the slave trade and the middle passage, the second of new smagazine-style segments. In honor of Black History Month, Say Brother presents two filmstrips by the Afro Audiovisual Company of Boston: The Atlantic Slave Trade, Parts I and II (Middle Passage). Filmstrips discuss the events and conditions that led to the slave trade between the Americas and Africa, including the ways in which slaves were captured, the response of African kingdoms faced with the increased demand for slaves, and the way in which slaves were imprisoned, traded, branded, and delivered to buyers. Filmstrips touch upon the colonization of Africa by European countries as trade elevated, the impact on the culture and development of Africa due to the slave trade, and literature published to justify the slave trade that resulted in prejudice after slavery ended. Additional segments include "Community Access" (about the Jamaica Plain-Roxbury Food Co-op), "Blast from the Past" (with an excerpt from a Sarah-Ann Shaw interview with Rhody McCoy), and the "Community Calendar." Produced by Marita Rivero. Directed by Conrad White.
