With All Deliberate Speed
In the powerful documentaryWith All Deliberate Speed, producer-director Peter Gilbert commemorates the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. the Board of Education. The landmark ruling overturned the doctrine of "separate but equal," but Gilbert takes issue with the phrase "with all deliberate speed" added to the 1955 court order. It meant that schools could take as long as they wanted to comply or, as Julian Bond of the NAACP puts it, "with any conceivable delay." Gilbert, who producedHoop Dreams, interviews some of the key figures involved with the decision and recreates the original case by having performers read the words of participants, like Alicia Keys as student activist Barbara Johns and Mekhi Phifer as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.With All Deliberate Speedis a stirring, thought-provoking look at one of the most significant achievements of the civil rights movement. Narrated by Emmy Award-winner Jeffrey Wright (Angels in America).--Kathleen C. Fennessy