Attucks
The School
That Opened a City
A new documentary by Ted Green Films and WFYI
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intendent of Schools -­ Oct. 27, 1
– C.N. Kendall, Super
W
hen black students were forced
into Crispus Attucks High
School in 1927, the Ku Klux
Klan ran Indiana and its capital. The
Klan was bigger in this state than any
other. The governor, the majority of
Congressmen, the mayor, most of the
Chamber of Commerce and the entire
School Board were Klan members or
Klan-­backed.
Those students overcame a system
designed to belittle them. They became
surgeons and teachers, scientists and
authors, world-­class musicians and
athletes. Oscar Robertson, Julia Carson,
David Baker, Janet Langhart-­Cohen and
Maj. Gen. Harry Brooks only scratch
the surface of success stories. Over time
these successes -­-­ and the grace that
accompanied them -­-­ became a grass-­
roots agent for integration, winning over
the younger generation of Indy’s whites,
changing the way many thought about
race. Changing the face, quite literal-­
ly, of a society. A 1945 graduate was
asked why Attucks achieved so much.
She replied, “Because they told us we
couldn’t.”
Attucks was built to separate, to isolate,
and to fail. A school designed for 1,000
housed 1,380. Desks, other equipment
and musical instruments were beat-­
up castoffs from white schools. There
was no gym, which was no matter;; the
IHSAA ruled that Attucks couldn’t
compete in the association because it
wasn’t a public school, because it had
no whites.
For 22 years by law and 20-­some more
in practice, Attucks was black Indianap-­
olis. Just as the exploding black com-­
munity was kept penned into the city’s
least desirable areas by hate groups
such as the White Supremacy League
and the White People’s Protective Asso-­
ciation, virtually every African-­Ameri-­
can in Indianapolis came of age inside
Attucks’ brick walls. Every one of their
faces still adorns those hallways in
class portraits -­-­ the mothers and fa-­
thers, grandmothers and grandfathers,
great-­grandmothers and great-­grandfa-­
thers of today’s black residents.
Asked how Attucks was able to achieve so much, a 1945 graduate said, “Because they told us we couldn’t.”
It’s not an easy story. It’s at times an
outrageous story, at times a beautiful
and uplifting one. It’s ultimately a
nationally important story, a microcosm
of the injustices faced and overcome by
African-­Americans in that time frame
in general, and it’s time it was told -­-­
pegged to Indiana’s 2016 bicentennial
celebration and while some of the earli-­
est graduates are still here to tell it. Not
the story of the Crispus Attucks bas-­
ketball team, though its triumphs will
be prominent, but the story of Crispus
Attucks High School: the school that
opened a city.
A new documentary by Ted Green Films
and WFYI.
Partial Cast
Maj. Gen. Harry Brooks Jr.
A 1947 Attucks graduate,
Brooks capped off a
groundbreaking military career
by being promoted to Major
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American Hoosier to attain the
rank, and the sixth in history.
“Attucks was my foundation,”
he says. “Without Attucks,
none of this would have happened.”
Janet Langhart-Cohen
A 1959 graduate, Mrs. Langhart-­Cohen gained
international fame as a model, newswoman
and author. She recently co-­authored Race and
Reconciliation in America with her husband, former
U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen. She speaks
of an early run-­in with the KKK and her deep pride in
attending Attucks. “It’s my home,” she says. “It’s my
heart.”
Oscar Robertson
Called by many basketball’s
greatest player ever, Robertson’s
favorite years were at Crispus
Attucks. He led the Tigers to the
1955 and ‘56 state championships,
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a segregated school won an open
state title anywhere in the nation.
“Attucks (gave me) a sense of
optimism,” he says. “A sense of life
and joy.”
Edwena Bell Payne
“That Tech is tough / That Tech is rough / They can
beat anybody / But they can’t beat us!” Those words
from the Crazy Song, penned by Mrs. Bell Payne
in 1945, did more than signal another basketball
victory. They sounded Attucks’ coming-­out party in
general after years of being belittled. “Heart,” she says
now, looking back. “That’s what Attucks had. Heart.”
David Baker
Dr. Baker has won nearly
every jazz honor imaginable,
including the Living Jazz Legend
Award from the JFK Center
for the Performing Arts. The
1949 graduate glowingly recalls
his days at the school and on
Indiana Avenue, and proudly
speaks for Wes Montgomery,
J.J. Johnson, Jimmie Coe and
the scores of other famous Jazz
musicians Attucks produced.
Joy Nolcox Shepherd
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principal, Matthias Nolcox, Mrs. Shepherd vividly
recalls her father openly defying the KKK-­backed
school board to ensure his students received the
same advantages as white students. “He was
determined that black children should be educated,”
she says, “even if it meant his life.”
A’Lelia Bundles
The great great-­granddaughter
of Madame C.J. Walker, Mrs.
Bundles has been a national
advocate for civil rights for
decades, as an author, TV
producer and president of the
Foundation for the National
Archives. Her father and several
other family members attended
Attucks. “Attucks,” she says
simply, “is a story that needs to
be told.”
Albert Spurlock
Mr. Spurlock, 101, began teaching at Attucks in the
early 1940s and later was the assistant basketball
coach during the Tigers’ championship years. In
between, he served in World War II and helped
persuade IU to break the Big Ten’s basketball color
barrier. “Attucks was everything to me,” he says
now. Says Oscar Robertson: “Mr. Spurlock is living
history.”
Alberta Stanley White
Tired of picking cotton in
Georgia, Mrs. White’s parents
moved to Indianapolis in 1923,
and she started at Attucks in
1930. She dropped out during
the Depression but returned
and graduated in 1937, and
went on to serve as a WAC
in World War II. Now 97, she
fondly recalls Attucks’ greatest
resource, its teachers. “Our school was supposed
to fail. They were bound and determined that we
wouldn’t.”
MORE INTERVIEW COMMITMENTS
• Dr. James Madison
• Wilma Moore (’69)
• Dr. Stanley Warren (’51)
• Nancy Johnson (’37)
• Gilbert Taylor (’55)
• Dr. Richard Pierce
• Betty Crowe (’48)
• Fmr. Ind. Supreme Ct.
Justice Ted Boehm
… and many more.
ATTUCKS
The School that Opened a City
Project details
What: A 90-­minute documentary about the history of Crispus Attucks High School, co-­produced by
Ted Green Films and WFYI.
When: To be released in 2016 as part of the state’s bicentennial celebration.
Starring: Oscar Robertson, David Baker, Janet Langhart-­Cohen, Maj. Gen. Harry Brooks, A’Lelia
Bundles (Madame CJ Walker’s great great-­granddaughter), historians James Madison and Richard
Pierce and many more. The music will be composed and performed by Dr. Tyron Cooper, who
learned under Dr. Baker at Indiana University.
Premiere: Special screening in a major Indianapolis theatre TBD. The most recent Ted Green-­WFYI
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of 2014.
Distribution platforms: Broadcast (aiming for national distribution), DVD
Production budget:ÀQDQFHGWKURXJK:)<,DF
Sponsorships: Title sponsorships offered at the $100,000 level, contributing sponsorships at the
$50,000 and $25,000 levels.
Sponsor recognition: Prominent, custom spots, commensurate with funding level, at the front and
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and Green appeared on several local TV and radio shows.)
Production company: :)<,3XEOLF0HGLD,QGLDQDSROLV·3%6DIÀOLDWH)XQGLQJUHFHLYHVWKHEHQHÀWV
of 501c3 donations.
ATTUCKS
The School that Opened a City
About the producer
,Q7HG*UHHQVZLWFKHGWRÀOPPDNLQJDIWHU\HDUVDVDQHZVSDSHUMRXUQDOLVW6LQFHWKHQ
KHKDVSURGXFHGÀYHGRFXPHQWDULHVPRVWUHFHQWO\Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story and Bobby
“Slick” Leonard: Heart of a Hoosier, all in collaboration with WFYI. Undefeated was recently licensed
by ESPN.
Ted’s honors include:
– Five regional Emmys, including for Best Documentary.
– First place in the national Associated Press Sports Editors contest.
– The Fourth Estate Award from the national American Legion.
– The Dick Schaap Award of Excellence from the Center for the Study of Sports in Society. That
was for a print project on Crispus Attucks High School, which culminated in a town-­hall meeting
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Basketball Hall of Fame. He holds a BA from Princeton University and a Masters from the Medill School
of Journalism at Northwestern University. Ted and his wife, Jenny, the sports editor at the Indianapolis
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1630 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46202 • (317) 636-2020