Program Three Shaker Heights: The Struggle for Integration Homecoming...Sometimes I am haunted by memories of red dirt and clay Ralph Ellison's "King of the Bingo Game"

Tonight's program focuses on race in America, taking a look at the realities of integrated neighborhoods, the history of black farming in the South, and Ralph Ellison's investigation of civil rights.

In the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, wide racial disparity in students' test scores challenged local assumptions of equal treatment. The film Shaker Heights documents that community's reaction to the problem, addressing the realities and ideals of genuinely integrated neighborhoods. (Stuart Math, 1998; 60 mins.)

In Homecoming...Sometimes I am haunted by memories of red dirt and clay, filmmaker Charlene Gilbert travels to her cousin's farm in Georgia, giving viewers a look at the vanishing traditions of black farming and the decline in black farmers in the United States (from one million in 1920 to less than 18,000 today). (1999; 60 mins.)

Set in Harlem in 1943, Ralph Ellison's "King of the Bingo Game" uses the esteemed author's short story to depict a struggling African American man trying to provide for his family within a culture that's provided "emancipation," but few meaningful civil rights. (Elise Robertson, 1999; 30 mins.)