“How can you call me beast or savage as you kick and scream,” senior Nina Nelson belts out in song as she struts down the aisle of the Lutheran Church. As the mosaic murals fade into footage of white protesters attacking a young African American girl, the camera zooms into a group of policemen arresting students.
That is just one part of “Little Rock Nine,” a video created originally as a class project by Nelson, well known for her singing abilities, and senior Jennifer Chen. Nelson and Chen also received editing assistance from class of 2015 alumnus Nik Aji, who studies music production at New York University and also performed a rap in the video.
Nelson and Chen’s production is based on the Little Rock Nine Arkansas incident in 1957. After Brown v. Board of Education declared segregated public facilities unconstitutional, a group of nine black students enrolled in the then white-only Little Rock High School. The video follows Elizabeth Eckford, a student member of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People who volunteered to test the Supreme Court decision — and was physically blocked by a group of angry protestors and the Arkansas National Guard.
“Music and film are two powerful mediums to convey emotion, so we sought to combine music, historical footage and reenactments to produce a powerful project that could capture a small part of Eckford’s emotions,” Chen said.
The girls were inspired to make the video after learning about the Little Rock Nine incident in history teacher Matt Torren’s Media Arts Program AP U.S. History class last year. As Eckford tried to enter the doors of the high school, the crowd physically and vocally abused her, screaming, “Two, four, six, eight, we ain’t gonna integrate.”
“We were stunned and inspired by Eckford’s dignity and persistence even when she was bombarded by racial slurs and death threats from segregationists,” Chen said.
As their final project in English teacher Natasha Ritchie’s MAP English 11 Honors class, Chen and Nelson decided to create a video depicting Eckford’s experience. In May, the girls started on the painstaking yet exciting journey of writing and producing the video.
As a songwriter, Nelson, with help from Chen, decided to write a song that displayed Eckford’s emotions and courage.
“[Eckford’s] bravery was so inspiring that I couldn’t help but to write a song about it,” Nelson said. “She was so beautiful and daring that I wanted to write the song from the point of view of [Eckford] herself.”
Nelson was inspired by live historical footage shown in a documentary played in Torrens’s class, specifically the scene of a white 17-year-old girl who screamed and spat in Eckford’s face as Eckford was blocked by the National Guard.
“Even though she thought she was more civilized than [Eckford], the [white girl] still did such an immoral act,” Nelson said. “But I love how [Eckford] did not let that faze her.”
After spending five weeks revising the lyrics, the song was finished. Chen then wanted to film Nelson singing in a church. Along with scenes of Nelson singing in a church, the girls wanted to portray Eckford’s experience through acting and visuals.
Instead of fully recreating scenes of protesters yelling at Eckford, the girls wanted to an actress to portray Eckford’s emotions; Nelson ended up casting her friend Natalie Penrose to play Eckford.
“In order to achieve certain emotions, we gave [Penrose] cues, such as ‘Your dad just took away your iPhone. How do you feel? Look a little angry, but very determined,’” Chen said.
After a full day of filming was finished, Chen and Nelson found footage of the Little Rock desegregation and combined the historical footage and their re-enactments to make the video with Adobe Premiere Pro. Aji, who produced the music, and Chen and Nelson dedicated 60 hours to editing the video.
Once the project was finished, Ritchie said she “was blown away and really proud of [the girls].”
“Projects like this one remind me why I love teaching and working with students; projects that can make an impact on social issues and move people to care about something are extremely valuable,” Ritchie said.
The girls then posted the video in the comment section of a Humans of New York photo in late November. Since then, it has garnered more than 730 views on YouTube. Chen hopes more people will watch the video since it carries an important and prevalent message.
“Eckford took a risk that morning and her act changed history,” Chen said “With this video, [we] wanted to tell a bit of the history that this courageous girl made.”
The link to the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdIDsNM61uM.
