Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power’ on Peacock, An Ode to a Self-Reliant Community that Fought for the Right to Vote

A new addition to the Peacock library, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power tells the story about one of the most overlooked but crucial places in American history. Directors Sam Pollard and Geeta Gandbhir bring the viewers to central Alabama, where people stood up for themselves not only for the right to vote in a free election, but to determine their collective fate beyond Election Day.

LOWNDES COUNTY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The film examines the social and political climate in Lowndes County, Alabama, which sits between Selma and Montgomery, during the 1960s. It was the longest stretch of land walked by protesters during the three Selma to Montgomery marches that were organized in 1965 by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committed (SNCC) and the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL). The county stood out because at the time, not a single Black citizen in the predominantly Black county – 80% of the population was Black – was registered to vote. Residents who grew up in Lowndes as well as the surviving members of SNCC described the movement to register Black citizens to vote despite predictably racist, hostile, and outright violent resistance from the county’s white leadership. 

What made the struggles particularly different there was the lack of assistance from more established organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which was spearheaded by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Though solely told from the view of SNCC and some of the county residents, the documentary explains the differing approaches and rivalry between SNCC and the SCLC.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The use of archival footage to frame both the history and the debates within civil rights organizations is a feature of nearly every major documentary about the civil rights era. Specifically, however, older viewers may recall Eyes on the Prize, the epic PBS 14-hour docuseries that aired in 1987. One particular episode featuring the famed marches and the struggles of the place unfortunately nicknamed “Bloody Lowndes” for the violent treatment of Black residents.

Ava Duvernay’s 2014 film Selma will immediately come to mind for a few reasons. One, it was the most recent mainstream lookback at the marches, with David Oyelowo starring as Dr. King. Secondly, it was an Oscar nominee for Best Picture and won for Best Song (“Glory” from Common and John Legend).

Performance Worth Watching: Some of the most stirring moments come from archived footage of the late activist Kwame Ture, better known by his birth name as Stokely Carmichael. He was instrumental in the founding of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, which was developed to take the next step in political power for the area’s Black residents. Carmichael’s name is more widely known in relation to his history with the Black Panthers, but here we see the lesser known but equally powerful speeches and interviews he conducted in speaking up for the Black residents of Lowndes County.

Memorable Dialogue: In the introduction, there’s a blend of footage from the horrific “bloody Sunday” during the second Selma-to-Montgomery march and an interview with the late Ella Baker, who was an advisor for SNCC in its early years. Her words essentially serve as the theme of self-reliance in Lowndes County. “People have to have faith in themselves, and they can only gain that faith by being given the opportunity to grow,” she tells the interviewer. “And when people value what they can do, they don’t have to look around to find some ‘great leader’ to do it for them.” 

Sex and Skin: None

Our Take: There are some uncomfortable truths in Lowndes County, and not just about the shackles of white supremacy that still maintain a strong grip over America. You can tell that some of the interviewed may have held their tongues a little bit when criticizing the approach from Dr. King and the SCLC, but there’s no question that there’s still some resentment in how the movement in Lowndes County unfolded without their assistance. It’s a crucial discussion, one best exemplified in a quote from Ruby Sales, who was inspired by Stokely Carmichael to join SNCC. “There’s a danger when you allow people to re-write your movement story and to tell you what you were struggling for,” she said. “We had not asked the follow-up question: what does it mean to be free? We thought freedom meant the right to live like white people. And we did not seriously consider what did it mean to integrate into a burning house.”

Our Call: STREAM IT! This is one of the most critical yet relatively unheralded stories in American history. Black History Month is generally viewed as a period where our country is supposed to look inward to see its imperfections yet also finding some optimism to overcoming its (largely self-inflicted) troubles. Increasingly over the years, however, we are learning more about those moments that don’t easily fit the exceptionalism narrative the nation built for itself. Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power is an uneasy, but necessary parable for Americans to learn.

Jason Clinkscales is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Whole Game, and his work has been featured at Awful Announcing, The Week and Dime Magazine. A New York City native, he is also a former media research analyst in both television networks and advertising agencies.