A new documentary series by Eastern Connecticut State University’s film department explores the diverse history of Connecticut’s tobacco heritage and the connected civil rights movement.
WSHU’s Eda Uzunlar spoke with director Kristen Morgan to learn more about “Stepping Into the Shade,” which premiers June 1 at the Westport Library.
WSHU: You and your co-director Brian Day spent three years gathering the experiences of people who farm tobacco in Connecticut to make this documentary series. Can you give a preview of one story that really made an impression?
KM: Yes, it's an interview with a 101-year-old man named Euyald Clarke. And he was on one of the first ships to come over from Jamaica during World War 2. So, we interviewed Mr. Clarke at his home in Hartford, and he was amazing. He told us all about the boat ride over and he told us about everything that he remembered. He sang a song for us, the first song that he remembered hearing when he got to the United States. And he was able to tell us a little bit about what he remembered from Dr. King too, because he was working at the same time when he came up.
It was just such a treasure to be able to talk to him and to hear his experiences and how much he remembered even at the age of 101. So for me, that was a really poignant moment, because it made me think about all the stories that have been lost, that people pass away without ever recording these stories.
WSHU: There are so many backgrounds represented in this series, in addition to Jamaican heritage, like you just said. There are migrants from Puerto Rico and Poland. Tell me more about getting a diversity of perspectives.
KM: Well, for us, it was really important to focus on the people in this documentary. I'm really interested in the subject of labor, and some of the untold stories about labor. So what my colleague Brian Day and I wanted to really focus on was the story of the people, and how those people changed the culture of Connecticut when they came here to work tobacco, even if they only were here for a brief time.
Once we started working on the story, we were kind of focusing on this Morehouse angle — the story of Dr. King and his colleagues from Morehouse [College] who would come up to work — but then we realized that the story was so much bigger. And we wanted to get perspectives from many of the different groups who came in.
So, we were looking at the Jamaican story, the story of Puerto Ricans who came here to work: we found out that there were displaced people from World War II who would come over and work tobacco. This project was much more far-reaching than either Brian, or I imagined when we first started working on it.
WSHU: The story has been so long in the making — and it's finally here. What do you hope audiences take away from the screening?
KM: Well, I hope that people will learn maybe a little bit more, dive deeper into the history of Connecticut, but that they'll also understand how different groups of laborers came and stayed here and made a mark, you know, especially Jamaicans, and Puerto Ricans.
The culture here, the food that we have, and institutions like the Cricket Hall of Fame exist because of those laborers who came here to work. Connecticut would be a completely different state without the infusion of people from different places in the world. So, I hope that the audience will learn a little bit more about history and a little bit more about what makes Connecticut special.
