We are so excited to share the page for the short film Annie Mae Carpenter and the Uprising in Nacogdoches. The documentary short is based on the feature documentary A Strike and an Uprising (in Texas!). The site is a living document created for young people ages 12-18 and educators alike. The film features 3 high school students and an educator discussing African American Labor History. They engage in a discovery of an unknown labor uprising in Nacogdoches, Texas based on the firing of Annie Mae Carpenter for refusing to clean the men’s dormitory restrooms at Stephen F. Austin State University. Annie Mae Carpenter was secretary of the Nacogdoches NAACP. The resulting race and gender class action suite dragged through the Texas courts for more than ten years. Black women led a union organizing drive that culminated in a Jobs with Justice march of 3,000 in Nacogdoches and led towards victory. The short emphasizes the power of collective action for racial, class, and gender justice. Based on oral histories from the feature documentary “A Strike and an Uprising (in Texas).”
