By Margaret Hicks
Eagle Staff Writer
MargaretHicks188@aol.com
On Thursday September 27, 2018, Anthony Brogdon’s documentary film, Business in the Black (BITB), will be shown at Rudisill Library, 1520 N. Hartford Avenue in Tulsa, Okla.
The film is being hosted by Mary L. Williams and the program will begin at 6:30 p.m. with speaker Ellouise Cochran. Cochran is a relative of Dick Rowland who was arrested for allegedly assaulting Sarah Page, a white elevator worker, back in 1921. That incident was the precursor to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The film will start at 7:00 p.m. and Brogdon will be available for questions and answers after the film. Admission is complimentary.
About Business In The Black
This one-hour 10-minute film was released in Detroit, Brogdon’s home town, in May of 2017. It focuses on the rise of black businesses in America from the 1800s through the 1960s. It includes footage about Tulsa’s Black Wall Street.
The film looks at how slaves learned to read and write and qualified to go to college. It also looks at businesses that were built, flourished, and then destroyed by whites. The film identifies black millionaires in the 1800s, and it includes interviews of descendants of slaves whose families owned businesses in the 1900s.
About Anthony Brogdon
Brogdon is a novice filmmaker from Detroit. He made one film, The Great Detroit, prior to BITB.
In an interview with Brogdon he said he is “self-taught,” and that he is an Oakland University (Rochester, Mich.) graduate. He said he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Management. He has also written a play, Foot Solders,” that he will also bring to film.
Prior to coming to Oklahoma City and Tulsa on September 26 and 27, respectively, he will be touring the East coast September 11 – 19.
