Join us for a screening and conversation with writer and director Kevin Wilmott.

The 24th (2020) tells the story of an all-Black regiment of the US Army who were stationed near Houston during World War I, where they encountered Jim Crow segregation laws and a hostile, all-white police force. After several instances of police brutality, men of the 24th armed themselves and took the fight into Houston, killing 11 civilians and 5 policemen. The soldiers were collectively court martialed; 19 were executed and another 41 received life sentences of hard labor. Willmott made the film to bring attention to this event as an important and largely-forgotten moment of Black resistance in the Jim Crow-era. Though it’s a story of the past, this film’s concerns resonate with our own moment of racial reckoning and civil rights activism. After the screening, we’ll have a live conversation with Willmott, when students can ask about this and other films, and for advice as young creatives, scholars, citizens and activists in our student body.

This event is co-sponsored by the International Film Studies Certificate Program, Gaines Center, Law School, English Dept. Creative Writers Series, History Dept., William T. Young Library, Cooperative for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Veterans Resource Center, and the UK Office of Institutional Diversity.