New Documentary Featuring B-CU Faculty And Students Focuses On Injustice And Racism

by: Daniel L. Hollar, Ph.D.

Department Chair and Assistant Professor

Department of Behavioral & Social Science Studies 

“Fighting for Justice” is a new Black history documentary that covers the killings of African American men and women in Florida, from Trayvon Martin in Sanford in 2012 to Marquis McGlockton in Clearwater in 2018. The 45-minute film includes footage from Dr. Daniel Hollar’s Professional Seminar class at Bethune-Cookman University where Psychology and Sociology students related their personal experiences and thoughts about Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, Black Lives Matter, and the continuing mistreatment of Blacks through systemic racism in America. Hollar is the Chair of the Department of Behavioral and Social Science Studies. 

This documentary also includes commentary from notable B-CU faculty, Drs. Tseleq Yusef and Richard Buckelew of the History Department in the College of Arts and Humanities (formerly the College of Liberal Arts) who provided expertise specific to the history of lynching and Jim Crow laws in the south. The film also contains footage of a survivor of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys; the 2018 White nationalist rally and protest in Gainesville; the Ku Klux Klan rally in Columbia, South Carolina; speeches by Attorney Ben Crump, the Rev. Al Sharpton; NAACP Chair Leon Russell; Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood; as well as input from students at Daytona State College and the University of Florida. The documentary was filmed and produced by Daytona Times photojournalist Duane C. Fernandez Sr., and debuted on Saturday, July 18, at Cinematique Theater in Daytona Beach, FL.