The Untold Stories of American Race Riots

The Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum held a screening of I Bear Witness: The Untold Stories of American Race Riots on Saturday, Sept. 19. Tiffany Lee, an educator, historian, cultural preservationist and Illinois Humanities Road Scholar, is the producer and co-director and was on hand for a discussion with the audience.

The film centered on in-depth scholarly research and first-person narratives of African Americans who lived through the unfathomable realities of race riots. One of the main things that attendees took away was the way in which race riots are often contextualized. People tend to talk about one specific account, but through this film and Lee’s teachings, the audience gained the perspective of the riots being nationwide terrorists acts that occurred for more than a century.

“To this point, I compiled first-person narratives from several locations, but if you listen closely, when spoken together, they can be describing a single night of riots,” said Lee.
  

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