Film highlights painful Virginia past

NORFOLK, Va - The light shining in the First Baptist Church basement Sunday afternoon was of a past swollen with darkness: a documentary of Virginia's Massive Resistance.

"The boys started pointing at me and were saying house slave, house slave," one woman interviewed for the film said.

The documentary "Locked Out: Fall of the Massive Resistance" offers a first hand account of the state's decision to close many public schools instead of integrating them. It was produced by University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

"Ive seen audiences laugh and seen audiences cry, it moves every part of your emotion as you're watching it," Ken Stroupe said.

Dozens of people showed up to watch the free screening. Some of them knew they were viewing history within history. The church where they were seated is also featured in film; once home to the Norfolk 17.

"When they closed the schools, we opened the church, which is true to form of being able to extend yourself beyond the walls," Pastor Robert Murray said of the historic building.

Within those same walls were instructors like Charles Corprew. "It was 6 of us, we had no more than 2 students in a class," he said. His students learned the basic subjects, but majored in the harshness of life.

"Two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate," several white students protested in the film.

"I was telling [the Norfolk 17] them to persevere," Corprew added, "and I had to persevere. When asked what made him so angry, he answered, "The way they were treating them, not when they got in the school but on the way to school."

"Theres a tendency in certain parts to want to feel angry at the stupidity and hatred that was so prevalent at the time," Stroupe said.

There were many such moments during the film.

For the people who put the project together, it was almost a mission accomplished. To them, the goal is reached if the story never goes silent.

"This is a wonderful project to help younger people realize they're not just in the classroom or opportunity just because of who [they] are, but because of who all the people who came before [them] were.