India Post News Service
The official Red Carpet Premiere Film Screening of “Because They Believed: Minority Athletic Trailblazers Who Broke Through the Racial Divide” will take place at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Avenue, on Wednesday, July 21, 2021. The walk along the red carpet begins at 6:00 p.m., and the film at 7:00.
“Because They Believed” documents the experiences of athletes and coaches who took part in club, collegiate, and professional sports throughout the Civil Rights Movement of the late forties, fifties, and sixties. Through archival footage, interviewees discuss participation in good ol’ American sports—baseball, football, golf, and tennis—and yes, even judo.(An in-depth look at some of these stories can be found in “In the Shadow of Obscurity: Toiling in a Reluctant Society,” ENH Publishing, 2021.)
“The book and the film were developed to explore systemic racism in America today, and highlight the struggles of black and brown athletes,” said Arif Khatib, founder of Oakland’s Multi-Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame and one of the film’s producers. “We need to study race and its effects on society, as we are at a point in American history where we have to come to terms with the contributions of black and brown people.”
Several Spartans appear in the film, including San Jose State University’s 101-year-old judo coach Yoshihiro Uchida. On the first day of classes during the winter quarter of 1946, Uchida recalls being seen as “just another Jap” when he encountered a couple dozen 24- and 25-year-old World War II veterans enrolled in judo. Uchida—who became the Spartans first “coach of color” once Spartan Mel Bruno relinquished his coaching duties in the spring of 1940—also remembers a student commenting,“ ‘My mother said I have to drop your class because, she says, ‘What can a Jap teach you?’ ”
The film also features Olympic Project for Human Rights’ founder Dr. Harry Edwards, and Spartan sprinters and 1968 Olympic Games’ protesters Dr. John Carlos and Dr. Tommie Smith. Spartan grad Urla Hill, who has spent the better part of the past three decades documenting SJS’s athletic program between 1920 and 1972, also makes an appearance in the film.
Other athletes make appearances in the 100-minute film, including Martial Arts Grandmaster Dr. Tae Yun Kim who was born in South Korea after the Second World War and moved to America as a young woman. She is the founder of the Jung SuWon style of martial arts and the first female to attain the rank of grandmaster in taekwondo. She was inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame in 2009. Grandmaster Kim is a CEO, author, lecturer, and martial arts teacher.
Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=714PusJHKgE
For more information, please contact Arif Khatib at AfroSportsHall@aol.com.
