An anti-bias film produced by the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League, circulated in this state’s school for six years, was banned this week-end by the State Department of Education after protests by the Mississippi Association of Citizens Councils, an all-white organization advocating complete Negro segregation.
State Senator George Yarbrough, and other segregationists, have protested the showing of the film in the state’s schools, and the move was withdrawn temporarily until the entire three-man state Board of Education could view the picture. This week-end, after a screening, the ban was made permanent.
The film, entitled “The High Wall,” was made by the ADL with the help of the Illinois Department of Education. It dramatizes the story of a group of Americans of Polish origin suffering from prejudices in a community composed largely of Anglo-Saxon Americans.
One of the three members of the State Education Board, Superintendent of Education J. M. Tubb, said after the screening that he could see “nothing wrong” in continuing to show the film in the State’s schools. However, Attorney General Joe Patterson and Secretary of State Heber Ladner, the two other members of the board, voted for the permanent ban. The majority opinion declared the film would be banned because “it has become controversial.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
