Draft Summer Hill Press Release
The Story of a Legacy of Hope, Summer Hill Premieres on Day, Date, Time, Station
In a small, north Georgia community in the Jim Crow South, a town within a town flourished. Their example is an antidote to the sprawling isolation in which we live today. Their success gives hope that all America might learn to live in community.
-- David Hughes Duke, Summer Hill Producer/Director/Writer
The Summer Hill community is a little less than an hour outside Atlanta. It’s a cluster of homes and churches perched on a rise overlooking Cartersville, Georgia. From the late 19th century until the Civil Rights Movement, this was where the black people of Cartersville lived. Many live there today.
Summer Hill, a new documentary, airing DAY, DATE, TIME, STATION, is a compelling look at the influence this small, tightly knit community – its school, churches and civic leaders – has had over generations of residents. The legacy of Summer Hill is one of learning, empowerment, strong family … and hope.
The documentary film grew out of Kennesaw State University’s Public History Program, funded by the Summer Hill Foundation and supported by a grant from the Anheuser Busch Foundation. The broadcast of the film on public television is made possible by the generous support of SunTrust.
Dr. Susie Weems Wheeler – a retired teacher and administrator – sums up one of the primary lessons she learned as a child. “You do the best that you can. You rise up as fast as you can to overcome some of the circumstances that may confront you. It takes work. It takes determination. Sometimes it takes patience.”
The film weaves the first-person narratives of Summer Hill residents – aged 50 through 90-something – with archival photographs and visual recreations of scenes and events. The result is a portrait of a uniquely successful community.
Despite poverty, racism, and limited opportunity, Summer Hill – and its small, segregated school – flourished for four generations. Summer Hill produced Georgia's first black Supreme Court justice; a famous Motown songwriter; teachers, ministers, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals; and many others who have made major contributions to their hometown and to the larger society.
“Summer Hill itself was a beacon in the community,” the Rev. Mildred Louis Young Harris recalls. “And it not only took in the children that came in and nested here, it also shined its lights out into the community and involved everybody who wanted to be a part of it.”
Justice Robert Benham of the Georgia Supreme Court – the first African American Supreme Court justice in Georgia – cites both school and church as major influences.
“The African American church was a source of hope and inspiration to people in the community, and they always looked to the future with a rather bright and positive attitude,” Benham recalls. “It’s not just the caring and sharing and a sense of service that we learned at Summer Hill. I think one of the more important aspects of the school was that it was seen as a vehicle whereby the community could be healed. My teachers usually thought that people were basically good, rather than basically bad. They thought that the schools had a role in improving the quality of life of citizens. They saw a need for change, rather than just adhering to tradition. And most importantly, even in the throes of segregation and oppression, they looked at the future with hope rather than with fear.”
The film outlines some of the instances of oppression, from the story of a joyful Cub Scout outing to a new Atlanta amusement park, only to have the children turned away because of the color of their skin … to the so-called “Black Codes,” which excluded African Americans from public restaurants and rest rooms and required them to bow to white people if they met on the street. In the film, the people of Summer Hill explain how they lifted their lives above such limitations -- even before the Civil Rights Movement.
“Hopefully, we can get this message to the world, because this is the only thing that’s missing in the world, is some little simple respect and simple love,” explains Summer Hill native Rev. Jackie Beavers, a member of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. “If we could teach every person to know that they’re somebody special, they’re made in the image of God, and nobody in the world can stop you from getting what’s yours but Y-O-U. If you spend all your time working with you, there’s nothing wrong with the rest of the world, nothing.”
Minnie O'Hara, a former teacher at Summer Hill School, sums up the central message of the film: “Everybody makes his own decision about how are you going to treat this friend or this person that's your next-door neighbor -- and deciding who is your neighbor. I think it behooves us all to try to make an impact on somebody, each one try to help one if you can. Help them if you can.”
Credits…
Summer Hill was produced by David Hughes Duke of Atlanta, an Emmy Award-winning writer, director, and producer, and is presented to PBS stations nationwide through American Public Television in partnership with Public Broadcasting Atlanta.
About Public Broadcasting Atlanta:
Public Broadcasting Atlanta is PBA30, Atlanta’s PBS station, and WABE 90.1 FM, Atlanta’s home for the classics and NPR news. Visit our website at www.pba.org
About American Public Television:
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