One More River to Cross

A film by Glen Pearcy

This 23-minute documentary was filmed in 1968 and 1969 by Glen Pearcy, an experienced photographer and novice filmmaker, while he and his wife were working for the Southwest Georgia Project in Albany, Georgia. In 2012, he digitized the film, added captions and commentary, and posted the video on line.

His documentary is a stark portrayal of political conditions and racial tensions in southwest Georgia, seven years after the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) first began doing voter registration and grassroots organizing in the region’s African American community. Its special relevance for CLT practitioners is that it features two of the architects of New Communities Inc.: Charles Sherrod and C.B. King.

Charles Sherrod, who assumed the leadership of New Communities after the death of Slater King in 1969, makes his appearance three-and-a-half minutes into this video. At 6:22 minutes, he speaks eloquently about the importance of land as a source of power for African Americans and talks about trying to acquire the acreage that will eventually be owned and farmed by New Communities.

C.B. King, the older brother of Slater King and the attorney who wrote the bylaws for New Communities Inc., appears at 17:23. He delivers a measured three-minute oration on the denial of justice for African Americans in the Southern courtrooms of his day.

We are grateful to Glen Pearcy for preserving the images, voices, and words of these CLT pioneers and for granting permission to include a link to One More River to Cross on our website. More of his fine work can be found at: www.glenpearcyproductions.com