The Clinton 12

Carson-Newman Students filled the seats in Gentry Auditorium Monday night to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by learning about the history of East Tennessee's involvement in the civil rights movement that King dedicated his life to. CN alum Keith McDaniel returned to campus to share with students, staff and visitors a piece of history that he had turned into a documentary film as the writer, director and filmmaker. McDaniel graduated from CN with a degree in communication with an emphasis in theatre. McDaniel got a rise out of his audience when he joked that "if you all knew how long it took me to get out of CNC, you would be surprised I even dared to set foot back on campus!"McDaniel further explained that after graduating he "fell in love with making a film and telling a story," completing several shorter documentaries about Oak Ridge, TN. In 2006, after reviewing those films, the Green McAdoo Cultural Organization hired McDaniel to create a feature on the "Clinton 12," a group of 12 African-American students who attended Clinton High School in the fall of 1956 as part of the first court ordered high school integration in the South. The organization was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the "Clinton 12" with the opening of the Clinton Museum and wanted McDaniel to present his film at the premier, giving those students, staff and citizens, black and white alike, to tell their story and their experiences as participants in 1950's Clinton, TN, at that time, the center of the civil rights movement.

McDaniel had one goal: historical accuracy. While some African-American members of both the "Clinton 12" and the Green McAdoo Cultural Organization were hesitant of a Caucasian filmmaker's ability to capture the truth and emotion of the time, after reading the script, they were convinced, so much so as to bend the budget to allow celebrated actor James Earl Jones, whom McDaniel nicknamed "Jimmy Boy," to narrate. McDaniel said that his most rewarding experience throughout the entire process was overhearing the actual "Clinton 12" students telling reporters "that's exactly how it happened." Upon hearing that, McDaniel said "I knew I had done my job."

"Clinton 12" is a documentary film, presenting real footage, pictures, speeches and interviews with those former students, staff and citizens who tell the story of 12 brave African-American kids who entered what was an all white Clinton High School in 1956 after the Brown v. Board of Education decision to end segregation in Southern high schools. The film features former students of the "Clinton 12" giving their accounts, sharing their emotions and recalling what it meant to them then and what it means to them not to be a part of something that changed the course of civil rights, racism, tolerance and equality in the South.

To watch this film on MLK's holiday seemed so appropriate as a look of shock and awe came over student's faces as they witnessed the harassment and danger that the e black students, their families and supporter s went through only miles away from the very seats they sat that night. The film showed the protests, the KKK warnings, the vandalism, the vigilante speeches and pictures like that of a very young boy smiling, proudly holding a sign reading "we won't go to school with negroes in the handwriting of a child. The audience was able to learn about Clinton's history and to sympathize with the struggles that eventually lead to success. Students erupted with laughter after a female "Clinton 12" student shared her experience of walking in and out of CHS through the segregationists and protestors, looking them straight in the eyes and saying "yes, I'm still here!"

After audience laughter came a deafening silence when the film recounted the 1958 bombing and near destruction of CHS, then later awe at the film scene in which rival high school Oak Ridge welcomes CHS students, black and white with the band playing the CHS alma mater as students get off the bus to attend their temporary school while CHS is rebuilt. The audience was touched and enlightened in learning about the national spotlight on Clinton, TN during the heart of the civil rights movement. A former "Clinton 12" student said during part of an interview, "we are all one race, the human race, equally, and this story was told to honor those who fought for the first court-ordered integration." Another Clinton student, the white, former football captain, shared that "as ugly as it was, it is a success story; the community made integration a success."

Not only was the "Clinton 12" civil rights movement a success, so was the presentation of the documentary on a day remembering a man who dedicated his life to the ideas of peace and racial equality. While filmmaker Keith McDaniel began "Clinton 12" with "no intention of becoming an activist for a civil rights group," he left his audience feeling proud of the fight of former East Tennessee students in the '50's to allow the freedom and equality they now share as classmates, teammates and friends at CN today.