Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored

Released 1996
Stars Charles Earl Taylor Jr., Willis Norwood Jr., Damon Hines, Al Freeman Jr., Richard Roundtree, Phylicia Rashad, Paula Kelly, Leon, Isaac Hayes, Bernie Casey, Polly Bergen
Directed by Tim Reid

Well-meaning saga of a boy's childhood in a tight-knit black community on the Mississippi Delta, spanning the 1940s to the early '60s. Sometimes suffers from schmaltz and heavyhanded symbolism, but there are some lovely moments. Freeman and Roundtree are standouts.

Summary by Leonard Maltin

It's odd watching something like this and thinking how fast the civil rights movement succeeded. I know it was a long time in coming, but I was born in 1966 when there was still segregation. By the time I was old enough to know anything, it was gone. I grew up in the north, which may have made my experience different, but if it weren't for books and movies I'd have no idea it ever existed.

The one thing that makes me sad when I see a movie like this is how the civil rights movement has failed the black community in many ways. In this film, we see the sense of community, the dignity, and the work ethic which are all gone today. They've been replaced with a sense of entitlement and the playing of the race card. I watched NightLine with Ted Koppel last night, and the topic was how some police forces across the country have switched to passive policing. This is where they sit in the precinct or parked cars and wait to be called, as opposed to patrolling high crime areas and performing traffic stops. They've had to do this because black leaders have led crusades against police targeting minorities, which has led to thousands of civil lawsuits and investigations that have cost policemen a lot of their own money (for defense) and emotional distress. There were riots in Cincinnati this summer, and the Cincinnati police have publicly stated that they would start passive policing. The results in three months have been a 50% drop in arrests, and a 600% rise in violent crime. Out of 60 murders in this time period, all but one have been black on black crimes. I don't think there has been any good black leadership since Martin Luther King Jr., and I think a movie like this shows how quickly the promise of desegregation has failed. There's no question many blacks are better off today, but many are worse off. We need black leaders who will have the guts to push for a renewed work ethic and for dropping the race card. --Bill Alward, July 22, 2001