Friday, October 08, 2004

Oct. 8, 2004

Wilmington, N.C. – Screenings of the documentary The Quorum, directed by University of North Carolina Wilmington professor Maurice Martinez, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16 at the Soapbox, 255 N. Front Street and at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20 in the UNCW education building, room 162. The screenings are free and open to the public.

The Quorum, a true story about social change and racial integration following the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Decision of 1954, recounts the story of a coffee house in New Orleans that opened its doors to people of all races in 1963. The Quorum was a gathering place for artists, musicians, students, professors and the “ordinary” man as well as a stop for the “Freedom Riders” who rode into the South to volunteer in the Civil Rights Movement. The documentary explains the fear and intimidation tactics used by law enforcement trying to destroy the right of assembly as guaranteed by the Constitution during a raid on the coffee house in 1964 and documents an event of social change in New Orleans that was a profound step in making freedom a reality for all people.