Sisters in the Voting Booth

Standing on My Sisters' Shoulders details the astonishing struggles of female civil rights crusaders who, to use a Fannie Lou Hamer quote, were "sick and tired of being sick and tired." In 1964, Hamer addressed the Democratic National Convention's Credentials Committee, chronicling the atrocities she'd endured while attempting to become a registered voter. She pointedly asked her audience, "Is this America?" President Lyndon Johnson concocted an "emergency" press conference to divert media coverage from Hamer, but the networks rebroadcast her speech, leading to an outpouring of support that helped catalyze the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Sisters' Shoulders screens at the YWCA's Black Box Theatre (1017 North Sixth Street in Kansas City, Kansas, 913-371-1105) at 7:30 p.m. as part of the "Colorblind" film series, which ends at the same location at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday with Sisters in Law, a documentary about a feminist judge and lawyer in patriarchal Muslim Cameroon. Admission is free.
Sat., Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m., 2008