Last Disintegrated School tells the story of the journey of Thurgood Marshall and the Hillburn striking families’ fight for equal education at Brook School, the last segregated school in New York State to be closed in 1943.
Identical twins Alice and Alicia Crowe are first time filmmakers and lawyers. Last Disintegrated School tells the story of a segregated mountain community in upstate New York. They were inspired to tell this incredible story when they met Dr. Travis Jackson, a Brook School student. The Crowe Sisters have been advocates and educators for nearly two decades. When they learned that Justice Thurgood Marshall was the lawyer who advised Hillburn striking parents, they knew this was a story they had to tell. Their passion for telling this story stems from the fact that, as Mr. Marshall, they too are graduates of Howard University School of Law and trained under Charles Hamilton Houston, Dean of Howard University Law School, and NAACP’s first special counsel. Hamilton is known as “The Man Who Killed Jim Crow.” His legal strategies played a key role in almost every civil rights case that went before the Supreme Court between 1930 and 1954, Brown v. Board of Education. The Crowe Sisters share a common bond of advocating for justice and equality.
A lawyer’s either a social engineer or … a parasite on society … A social engineer [is] a highly skilled, perceptive, sensitive lawyer who [understands] the Constitution of the United States and [knows] how to explore its uses in the solving of problems of local communities and in bettering conditions of the underprivileged citizens.
Charles Hamilton Houston
We believe Last Disintegrated School will spark lively dialogue about America’s current education system. We aim to educate viewers to understand that segregation was not just a “southern problem.” -Alice T. Crowe and Alicia M. Crowe.
Last Disintegrated School is written by Alice Crowe and directed by Alicia Crowe, identical twins, first-time filmmakers, and attorneys. The film is narrated by Chuck D, a member of Prophets of Rage, and leader of the legendary hip-hop group, Public Enemy, a rapper and Hall of Fame music artist. Music is composed by Sam Waymon, award-winning music composer, and brother of music icon Nina Simone.
Last Disintegrated School is the first segment of our Black History Series, Secrets of the Hollow. This untold story happened eleven years before Brown v. Board of Education. For schools, colleges, libraries, and organizations, you can order Last Disintegrated School distributed by Infobase. Last Disintegrated School is produced by A Crowe Flyz Productions. Get Last Disintegrated School here.
Last Disintegrated School was made possible with funding from the Arts Council of Rockland, The Rockland County Legislature, the Rockland County Women’s Bar Association, the Julius and Eleanor Kass Family Foundation, and the Puffin Foundation, and friends and family support.