In a new documentary, a Pulitzer-winning journalist examines the integration of his own Mississippi public school

ATLANTA MAGAZINE — In the fall of 1970, Douglas A. Blackmon’s first grade class was the first in Leland, Mississippi, to have both Black and white students. For a time, it looked like a civil rights success, but the documentary illustrates the many ways that new forms of segregation in public schools were created.

Atlanta journalist and Douglas A. Blackmon has a distinguished career working at the Wall Street Journal and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In 2009, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Now, the Georgia State University professor is tackling a story very close to home as writer and producer of a new documentary, The Harvest.

Debuting September 12 on PBS’s American Experience, The Harvest explores the story of first integrated public school class in Leland, Mississippi, of which Blackmon was a part of. The film is produced by prolific Oscar-nominated filmmaker and producer Sam Pollard (Citizen Ashe, Black Art: In the Absence of Light), who also worked on the documentary adaptation of Slavery by Another Name.