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Pepperdine Libraries and Black Student Association Host Premiere Screening of The Red Cape

Director and screenwriter Nelson Oliver will visit Pepperdine Libraries to premiere his original short film, The Red Cape, on Thursday, Feb. 21. The Black Student Association partnered with the Libraries to host the screening and discussion from 4 p.m. in the Surfboard Room of Payson Library, Malibu.  

The Red Cape chronicles a little known chapter in American history:  the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot, which stands as the only coup d'état, or violent overthrow of a government, in United States history.  The incident was a springboard for the Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised black citizens through the 1960s.

Oliver grew up in North Carolina. "If you've never heard of it, you'll begin to understand why a group of us in North Carolina felt compelled to make this docudrama," he says of the project. "This project does not aim to open old wounds, point fingers, or take a political 'stance.' Our hope is to present the past in a way that gives insight and allows us to make our great nation even better."

Following the screening, Oliver will be joined by Joi Carr, assistant professor of English, to discuss the continuing resonance of this story in American civil right history. Carr's Ph.D. from Claremount Graduate University was in English, Literature, and Film Studies.

For more information, contact Ken LaZebnik at (310) 506-6785 or visit the Pepperdine Libraries website.