Public Broadcast Laboratory; 202; Hear Us, O Lord

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This record is featured in “Voices from the Southern Civil Rights Movement.” This record is featured in “Education Reporting on Public Television.” This record is featured in “National Educational Television.”
Series
Public Broadcast Laboratory
Episode Number
202
Episode
Hear Us, O Lord
Producing Organization
National Educational Television and Radio Center
Contributing Organization
Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/512-028pc2v166
NOLA Code
PPBL
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Description
Episode Description
Public Broadcast Laboratory presents a 90 minute color special, Hear Us, O Lord, a report on the response of lil-white suburb to a federal school desegregation order. Confronted with the prospect of having many of their children bussed to school in a neighboring black community, the people of South Holland, Illinois, unite to resist the court order. Hear Us, O Lord, a 50 minute film report on the response of one God-fearing family in an all-white Chicago suburb troubled by a Federal school bussing order. Televisions first close up portrait of typical Northern adherents of George C. Wallace takes viewers inside the home of electrical designer Dan Lang in South Holland. Just outside the Chicago city line, his community is the first incorporated suburb in the nation to be ordered to desegregate its schools. Dan is not certain about the wisdom of fighting the order. He deliberates the righteousness of the action with his wife and neighbors around the kitchen table. The camera follows Dan as he goes into Chicago to visit his old home, now owned by a black, and he takes his children on a sight seeing bus tour of the black neighborhood where the court requires them to go to school. To make the color broadcast, PBLs reporters spent months in South Holland, virtually living with the Langs and witnessing their deliberations with neighbors as the town closed ranks to fight the court order. PBLs cameras also filmed stormy public meetings in which several Calvinist ministers exhorted parents not to give in to the federal government. Ramsey Clark, Attorney General of the United States, and Harold Howe II, U.S. Commissioner of Education, appear on Public Broadcast Laboratory. They participate in a post film discussion of Hear Us, O Lord. Clark and Howe discuss the films implications for federal policies promoting equally of opportunity and racial integration. The children in the family are being bussed from South Holland to the neighboring negro settlement of Phoenix. Appearing with Clark and Howe in the post film discussion is congressman Edward J. Derwinski, who represents the two towns. Hear Us, O Lord, gives an inside view of a family that feels threatened by the proximity of blacks. The parents are also troubled by the dilemma they feel is posed by the federal court order: whether to hold their notions of what is right for their children, or to obey the law. Hear Us, O Lord also illuminates some of the fears and anxieties which presidential candidate George C. Wallace exploited in his campaign. By happenstance, the broadcast is the first television close-up of a typical northern Wallace sympathizer (who later cast his vote for Richard M. Nixon). Hear Us, O Lord is introduced and narrated by its producer, Elizabeth Farmer.
Broadcast Date
1968-12-08
Asset type
Episode
Genres
Documentary
Topics
Education
Social Issues
Race and Ethnicity
Media type
Moving Image
Embed Code
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Credits
Director: Pierce, Dick
Editor: Pierce, Dick
Executive Producer: Wicklein, John
Guest: Clark, Ramsey
Guest: Derwinski, Edward J.
Guest: Howe, Harold, II
Interviewee: Lang, Dan
Narrator: Farmer, Elizabeth
Producer: Farmer, Elizabeth
Producing Organization: National Educational Television and Radio Center
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Library of Congress
Identifier: unknown (unknown)
Format: 2 inch videotape
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Citations
Chicago: “Public Broadcast Laboratory; 202; Hear Us, O Lord,” 1968-12-08, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed November 21, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-028pc2v166.
MLA: “Public Broadcast Laboratory; 202; Hear Us, O Lord.” 1968-12-08. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. November 21, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-028pc2v166>.
APA: Public Broadcast Laboratory; 202; Hear Us, O Lord. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-028pc2v166