A documentary film, “A Binding Truth,” about the North Carolina history of racial divides and civil rights in the Charlotte area in 1965 and reconciliation that has been happening since then between the two hosts, will be shown at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, in the Ocracoke Community Center.
Admission is free but donations will be accepted and a discussion about the film will be held the next evening at 7 also in the Community Center.
Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick and De Kirkpatrick, about whom the film was made, will attend.
In 1965, Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick made a decision that changed history and swept him into one of North Carolina’s most volatile civil rights cases, played out at the explosive intersection of football and race.
Jimmie Lee grew up in an all-black community on the outskirts of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County. His father left the family when Jimmie Lee was 11 and he was raised by his mother and grandparents. His great-grandmother worked for a wealthy white Charlotte family as a domestic worker and a cook. It was a time when there were separate white and black drinking fountains and negative consequences for crossing societal lines.
A gifted athlete like his dad, Jimmie was a sensational running back, one of the best in North Carolina. He became deeply conflicted when a school boundary changed and presented him with a choice for his senior year: Stay with friends and teammates at all-black Second Ward High, or move to affluent, white Myers Park High, that offered many more opportunities.
Almost 50 years later, in 2013, a “Charlotte Observer” newspaper series told of the connections between Jimmie Lee’s undefeated 1965 football season at Myers Park, a high-stakes civil rights case filed by Julius Chambers against the Shrine Bowl – the result of Jimmie not being selected to play in the iconic all-star game – and the bombings of four civil rights leaders’ homes in Charlotte.
Jimmie Lee said then that he lives in two worlds: “I see my white friends and my black friends, but never together.”
Among those who read the Observer articles was De Kirkpatrick, a forensic psychologist and a white high school classmate of Jimmie Lee’s.
The two weren’t friends at Myers Park, but, because of their last name, had jokingly called each other “cuz.” They made plans to talk for the first time in nearly 50 years. During many of those years, Jimmie Lee was in search of his genealogy, a complicated family history, and his own identity.
In a shocking phone call, he shared with De what he had discovered: That their connection went back farther than high school– to a plantation in Mecklenburg County on the eve of the Civil War. “Your great-great-grandfather owned my great-great-great grandfather.”
This truth stunned De. Learning that his ancestors were slave owners was a life-changing moment and sparked a journey for both men at age 65.
“Put aside your guilt and I’ll put aside my anger,” Jimmie Lee said to De, “and we have a chance to learn from each other.”
Although this story is rooted in the South, it is also America’s story – one of slavery’s legacy, present-day racial divide, and the hope that by learning from each other, we can heal deep wounds that many of us have never faced.
Here is a trailer for the film https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/842917169.
People who watch the film Tuesday night will be asked briefly to identify questions and issues the film elicits for them, to be discussed Wednesday night.
The two will discuss the topics derived from Tuesday night’s audience.
“We will present a number of teaching points that we hope “Stirring the Ashes” makes clear, e.g., our nation’s founding on slavery,” De said.
“Stirring the Ashes” is an educational experience designed by the two men and centered on safe and honest conversations about race, enslavement, and healing in America.
Those who attend the discussion will receive a handout listing a dozen scenes in the movie that raise discussion points: The importance of speaking the truth about America’s history of slavery; the significance of the wound slavery left on white people; the interplay of caste; the reality of Black women taking care of white children; Jimmie and De’s journey into Stirring the Ashes and what it means to us; Harvey Gantt, former mayor of Charlotte, on the Black experience in America.
Wednesday night attendees do not necessarily have to have seen the movie the previous night.
We’ll close with a brief description of De’s book “Marse: A Psychological Portrait of the Southern Slave Master,” copies of which will be available for purchase.
