It was a year that left an indelible mark on a nation; 1968 saw the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential hopeful Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
Closer to home, it was also the year the first integrated class graduated from Aquinas High School after the Immaculate Conception Academy High School abruptly shut its doors. The school continued to serve younger students.
The story is captured in a new documentary, “Two Classes of 1968,” which was privately screened to cast members, historians and school alumni in Augusta Oct. 2.
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The documentary doesn’t tell just one story. It tells multiple ones, according to Nichelle Protho, the film’s producer and director.
“Everyone had their own experience,” she said. “It’s not one experience. There were 19 who experienced it, nine of them are in the documentary.”
Terrye Thompson was one of those who graduated in that class. She also served as the documentary’s executive producer.
Thompson remembered hearing rumors of the school’s closing, but they were just rumors at the time. She said she and her fellow classmates vowed to fight it, but the changes were made without their input. The students at Immaculate Conception Academy High School, located in the area of Augusta referred to as the Golden Blocks near Laney-Walker Boulevard, were a tight-knit bunch.
They comprised a small group who lived in the same neighborhood, grew up together and forged friendships that remain.
Going to a new school where the students there already shared the same types of relationships was challenging. Plus, they were of a different race, heading to an all-white school.
“We were teenagers,” she said. “You liked to be around the people you knew. There were cliques.”
Students in that class encountered other challenges. At ICA, they walked to school. Aquinas was miles away, and they had to find their own means of transportation. Most didn’t have cars. They had to take a bus.
Protho said they had to cross railroad tracks to get there, and that stigma of being from the proverbial other side of the tracks was attached.
The circumstances caused those students to “become part of social change,” she said. “And they were able to do it with grace. That’s why I wanted to do this project.”
The social change didn’t stop in 1968. It continued, and Protho brought in other voices from later years.
Karen Brown, former principal dancer with the Dance Theater of Harlem and former artistic director with the Oakland Ballet, remembered some tensions while she was at Aquinas, graduating in 1973.
Brown, who also appears in the documentary, attended Immaculate Conception Academy for several years, but along with her brother, Stephen, integrated Episcopal Day School on Walton Way.
African Americans in her class at Aquinas fought racial injustice through success, she said. They excelled in the classroom and on the sports field, and after they graduated went onto standout in their career fields.
Brown said their mantra was “Good, better, best. Never let it rest until your good is better, and your better is best.”
By the time, Brown’s younger brother, Russell Joel Brown, attended Aquinas, things were smoother but not perfect. He graduated in 1982 and traveled for many years as a performer with Disney’s The Lion King. He did a brief stint on Broadway with the show taking the role of Mufasa.
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He said that it was known among students who held racist views, and people knew who to avoid.
“I thank God for all of these experiences because we’re living in a real world,” he said.
Protho presented the film to Augusta for the first time Oct. 2, but she plans to bring it back at a later date. The Augusta Museum of History and the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History have expressed an interest in it, as has the Augusta University Cinema Series.
Protho’s next task is to enter it into film festivals. Once it’s completed a film festival circuit, it will return for wider viewing. For more information and updates, follow the film at facebook.com/TwoClassesOf1968.
Protho has worked on other projects including producer of “World Wide Nate: Africa” and “Ghost Whisperer: The Other Side.“
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
