McKendree University to Host A Black History Tour of St. Louis Film Screening Feb. 4

Director Tony West will be showing his film, A Black History Tour of St. Louis, at McKendree University’s The Hettenhausen Center for the Arts on Wednesday, Feb. 4. The film will be shown at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and the public is invited to attend this event for free with a ticket, which can be attained at the Hett’s website.

After the showing, West will take questions from the audience. Participating in the event will be Father Gerald Kleba, who was recently featured on NPR’s StoryCorps and who gives the St. Louis Black history tour, and Jobyna Foster, former head nurse of Homer G. Phillips Hospital. The question-and-answer session will be led by Dr. Lauren Thompson, associate professor of history at McKendree.

Through the voice of Father Kleba, this film offers a fascinating and moving account of the history of Catholicism in the St. Louis Black community. Among other topics, it covers the groundbreaking nursing program at the Homer G. Phillips Hospital, the history of Black educational experience in the Ville, the city’s crushing history of redlining, Visitation Credit Union’s economic empowerment, and Civil Rights protests at Jefferson Bank. The documentary premiered last July and has won awards at the Venice Under the Stars International Film Festival and the Hidden Universes Independent Film Festival in Melbourne, Australia.

For more information or for free tickets to either screening, please visit the Hett’s website.

 

-McK-