The Spencer B. King, Jr. Center for Southern Studies held a public screening for the documentary “Acts of Reparations” at the Douglass Theatre in downtown Macon on Friday, Sept. 19. The film follows Macky Alston and Selina Lewis Davidson, who co-directed and co-produced the work, in their search to trace back their lineage and personal connections to slavery. The pair spoke with extended family at kitchen tables and back porches to locate ancestors' graves.
In the documentary, Davidson, who is Black, followed her family line through Monroe, La., while Alston, who is white, determined that he has family ties in Penfield, Ga., the birthplace of Mercer. “Acts of Reparation” revealed Alston’s connection to both Penfield and Mercer University, showing that he is a descendant of Mercer's first president, Billington Sanders, who was also an enslaver.
This documentary “tells stories of everyday folks experiencing healing and repair in their lives, their relationships, their families, their communities and their institutions,” Alston said. The film encouraged viewers to become the record keepers of their families’ stories, images and documents throughout generations.
“While the film explores what reparations could look like, it also forces the viewers to examine their own sense of what racial reconciliation might look like within families and between them,” Douglas Thompson, chair and professor of history at Mercer and director of the Center for Southern Studies, said.
The film switched back and forth between Davidson’s and Alston’s families attempting to make reparations. Davidson and her “sisterhood of her great aunties” followed their history and located multiple ancestors' graves. By speaking with her extended family, she was able to learn more about the family she had never known. Alston spoke with his extended family about what they can do to “dismantle privilege they inherited from enslavers and support Black leaders nearby.”
Douglas Thompson, chair and professor of history and director of the Spencer B. King, Jr. Center for Southern Studies speaks to the audience at the "Acts of Reparation" screening on Sept. 19.
After the film, both Davidson and Alston, along with Thompson, held a panel for audience members to ask questions.
Alston, recalling a story his mother told hundreds of Mercer students at the annual Pilgrimage to Penfield one year, told the Mercerians of his ancestors who enslaved people.
Pastor James Goolsby of First Baptist Church on New Street attended the event as a way to help make sense of his world. “I have to always stay Christ-focused, but it's hard being a Black man staying Christ-focused with all this foolishness,” Goolsby said. “But somebody has to do the work to make those connections.”
Ryleigh Sandefur '28 is a Journalism and History double major at Mercer University. She loves writing for The Cluster and photography, and she enjoys watching movies, hockey and baseball, as well as crafting in her free time.
