---

by ALLIANCE OF ETHICS & ART INC

---

Project Details

A Book, a Play, and an Event!
The educational performance event, “The People of Clarendon County”—A Play by Ossie Davis, which has been produced around the country, free to the public, since 2007, is based on the book by journalist, Aesthetic Realism Associate, and editor Alice Bernstein, in which the play by actor/activist Ossie Davis appears in print for the first time (Third World Press: Chicago).
In her introduction, Alice Bernstein tells of conversations with Ossie Davis in 2004 which led to her “unearthing” his 1955 play and her idea for the book. Ossie Davis encouraged her vision of presenting his play in relation to what Aesthetic Realism, the education founded by Eli Siegel, explains is the cause and answer to racism. The cause of racism and every instance of human injustice is contempt-- the "addition to self through the lessening of something else." Racism, Eli Siegel explained, does not begin with race, but with the human tendency to think we’ll be more ourselves by looking down on the world and people different from us. The answer is learning that respect, wanting to know and be fair to all of reality outside of oneself, makes for the greatest pleasure, freedom, strength.
In a letter recommending Alice Bernstein for a fellowship, Ossie Davis wrote:
“Alice Bernstein has dedicated her life to ending racism in this county….One of [her] life’s goals is encouraging young people to read books and enjoy writing. She does this by visiting elementary schools speaking to young people about prejudice—even within herself—and how it can change to kindness. Recently a principal in Baltimore invited her to address each class in the public school. She also spoke on Can Racism End? Yes! Aesthetic Realism Shows How at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem and at Brooklyn College.
“Remarkably, Ms. Bernstein has unearthed a play I wrote fifty years ago, ‘The People of Clarendon County.’ It tells the story of South Carolina and how Reverend J.A. De Laine and others started the lawsuit that became the momentous Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education. Ms. Bernstein is writing an introduction based on what she has learned about people and history from Aesthetic Realism which she has studied for decades. I told her I would be glad to join her in introducing this play in New York. She sees it as relevant to public education and her enthusiasm has engendered interest by others.
“Alice Bernstein deserves a fellowship. It would do much to further the social and educational goals of Brown vs. Board of Education.”

The Play
Through the art of the drama, Ossie Davis’s play chronicles the pivotal, little known chapter in Civil Rights history—that the momentous 1954 Brown v. Board decision actually began in a small rural community in South Carolina. We meet the courageous African-American parents who risked their lives to file the first legal challenge to segregation in the public schools—suing for an “equal” school bus for their children. Their case was later combined with four others as Brown v. Board.
Ossie Davis wrote his 1955 play in celebration of the one-year anniversary of the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education which outlawed segregation in public schools. The play was performed just once, in 1955, for an enthusiastic audience of union brothers and sisters at Local 1199's Bread and Roses Cultural Project in New York City. The young actors were Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and Sidney Poitier.
The book was launched at an event at the Harlem School of the Arts (HAS) in New York City on November 28, 2007, with award-winning actor Ruby Dee, the wife of Ossie Davis, as a featured guest. This was the first revival of the play, and the actors were children studying drama at HSA. Ruby Dee thrilled the audience with her firsthand account of the original performance at Local 1199, later adding:
"It moved my husband to think that fifty years later, school children might learn about history by reading or acting in his play. In addition, Alice's book will also inform people about the success of the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method in enabling children to learn every subject, and ending prejudice in the classroom."
At this book launch, the overflow audience learned about the cause of racism and the answer explained by Aesthetic Realism, as told by Ms. Bernstein, Dr. Arnold Perey, and early childhood educator Monique Michael (born in Haiti). And they experienced the an example of the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method which, which, since 1972 has enabled children in all grade levels and in all economic conditions to learn successfully. As the audience participated in the interactive first grade science lesson on diversity in birds and in people, taught by Ms. Michael, they saw why this method is so successful in enabling children to learn and to become kinder!
At the conclusion of the event, Alice Bernstein introduced unsung pioneers of civil rights who were in the audience, including many originally from Clarendon County.
This book launch was also the beginning of something new—it was the prototype of the performance event which by 2013 has been presented across the country, free to the public-- in schools, colleges, universities, churches, community organizations, and museums. "The People of Clarendon County"—A Play by Ossie Davis, & the Answer to Racism! has been presented in the Congressional Auditorium of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, with featured guests: House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, Congressmen John Conyers (MI) and Elijah E. Cummings (MD) of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Jose E. Serrano (NY).
Other venues include Tulane University Law School in New Orleans; African American Museum of Philadelphia; United Autoworkers Region 9A headquarters in Farmington, Connecticut; North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, NC; Elmont Public Library, Elmont, NY; South Carolina State University, Columbia, SC; Riverhead Middle School, Long Island, NY; University of South Carolina in Columbia; St.Paul's Episcopal Church, Jersey City, NJ; Hamilton Fish Public Library, New York, NY; Grand Army Plaza Public Library, Brooklyn, NY; Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT; Lenoir Rhyne University, Hickory, NC; South Carolina State University and I.P. Stanback Museum, Orangeburg, SC; Baruch College, New York, NY; Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, NY; Black Male Summit, South Carolina Convention Center in Columbia; and many mote.



Deadline Not Specified

http://www.allianceofethicsandart.org/Clarendon_County.html

2 Charlton St Suite 6K,
NEW YORK,
New York 10014-4917
United States.

View all projects by ALLIANCE OF ETHICS & ART INC