Minnesota’s Triumphant African American Community: Documentary Screening

Overview

Minnesota's Black Community Project's (MBCP) Minnesota’s Triumphant African American Community documentary. This documentary, sponsored by Minnesota’s Black Community Project, highlights what African American success looks like in Minnesota in the 21st century. Since the earliest years of the Minnesota territory and statehood, a small population of African Americans in Minnesotans has lived and thrived in communities in and around the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and beyond. Since the mid-20th century, distinguished Black Minnesota scholars and researchers such as the late Walter R. Scott Sr., Dr. David Taylor, and Dr. William Green began documenting and publishing the historical accomplishments and contributions of African Americans in Minnesotans throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

However, in the 21st century, documented, published and digital research remains scant that highlights the contemporary accomplishments and contributions of African American professionals, throughout Minnesota. Led by Minnesota’s Black Community Project (MBCP), a prominent African American-led non-profit organization in Minnesota, this documentary spotlights the accomplishments and contributions of several distinguished African Americans thriving in Minnesota in the 21st century in the following professional fields: business and entrepreneurship, community service, education, entertainment, fine arts, the film industry, government, health and medicine, journalism law, media and communications, religion and churches and sports.

This documentary builds off the earlier and groundbreaking work of the late Walter R. Scott Sr., whose renowned self-published publications highlighted the Black men and women working and thriving in a variety of fields in Minnesota during the pre- and post-Civil Rights eras. Scott self-published published three such publications on Minnesota’s Black community over the span of three decades which are entitled: Centennial Edition of the Minneapolis Beacon (1956), Minneapolis Negro Profile (1968), and Minnesota’s Black Community (1976).