Documentary featuring African American stories of Elkhart’s Benham West neighborhood to be shown Nov. 29
Published: November 22, 2023
By Annette Brill Bergstresser
ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) 鈥� What Happened at Benham West: African American Stories of Community, Displacement and Hope will be shown in Goshen, Indiana, on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, at the Goshen Theater at 216 S. Main St.
Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (bg真人) is hosting the screening, with sponsorship by Goshen College鈥檚 . Doors will open at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, and the screening will begin at 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
The 80-minute documentary chronicles life in a predominantly African American neighborhood in Elkhart 鈥� known to many residents as 鈥渢he village鈥濃�� featuring the voices of 17 local elders. Interviewees also recount experiences of segregation in the city; the city鈥檚 eventual clearing of their neighborhood; and their hopes for the future of the area. The film premiered at the Crystal Ballroom at the Lerner Theater in Elkhart, Indiana, on May 19, 2023.
bg真人 has sponsored the Benham West project through the collaborative work of two faculty members: Nekeisha Alayna Alexis, MA, Intercultural Competence and Undoing Racism coordinator; and Jamie Pitts, PhD, Professor of Anabaptist Studies and Director of the Institute of Mennonite Studies.
The Goshen screening will feature a period for questions and answers with Alexis and Pitts, who have served as the project鈥檚 creative directors, and two elders who were featured in the documentary, Rev. Willie Jean Mayes and Rev. Dr. Plez Lovelady. (MDiv 2008), Executive Director of the Center for Community Engagement, worked with Alexis and Pitts to bring the film to a Goshen audience.
鈥淢y hope is that the documentary will continue the education of Elkhart County,鈥� Millsaps said. 鈥淲hen we don鈥檛 know our history, we are doomed to repeat it. What Happened at Benham West is a great follow-up to A Sundown Town, a documentary that screened last year. Goshen College is excited to have this documentary as another resource for our students.鈥�
The importance of knowing a community鈥檚 history is behind the project, which emerged from bg真人鈥檚 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day program in January 2020. The theme was 鈥�Repairing the Harm: A Community Conversation on the Systemic Exclusion of African Americans in Elkhart,鈥� and Rev. Mayes and Rev. Dr. Lovelady served as panelists on the topic.
Alexis recalled a comment by Rev. Mayes at the event: 鈥淭hese stories are disappearing of the Benham West neighborhood 鈥� not just the clearing of it, but all the things that came before the clearing. There鈥檚 no documentation about the South Side School or about the life that was there, and once these elders pass away, it鈥檚 going to be gone.鈥�
In response to strong community support at the January 2020 event 鈥� and with the encouragement of elders and allies both within and beyond Elkhart 鈥� Alexis and Pitts received approval from bg真人 to lead an effort to produce both a documentary and a book on the topic. Pitts researched the development of the Benham West community and the social and economic pressures 鈥� including racist practices such as redlining 鈥� that concentrated African Americans into the area just south of the railroad tracks. He also pieced together the decision-making processes that led to the tearing down of the neighborhood, starting in the 1960s, and the conflicts that arose between the city and the residents.
鈥淭he entire neighborhood was cleared with a promise that it would be renewed,鈥� he said. 鈥淩esidents were asked to come up with a plan, and they did, but some of the people who worked for the city rejected the plan, and no plan was ever put in place.鈥�
Since its premiere in May, What Happened at Benham West has made waves in the local community, Alexis said. Several organizations have invited Alexis and Pitts to screen the documentary and lead discussions with their staff about what the history of Benham West means for the work they do today.
Levon Johnson, Executive Director of the Elkhart Chamber of Commerce, also cited the documentary as a catalyst for recent development plans in the area. In August 2023, Johnson and Elkhart Mayor Rod Roberson formed a partnership between the Elkhart Chamber, the City of Elkhart and the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture to lead an intensive planning process for the South Main, Tolson and Benham West neighborhoods. The charrette included several public meetings and brought together architects, neighborhood residents and community stakeholders to focus on strategies for affordable housing and future economic development. Several documentary interviewees also participated in the conversations. (See 鈥�,鈥� published Aug. 15, 2023, by Marek Mazurek of WVPE 88.1 Elkhart/South Bend.)
What Happened at Benham West was filmed and edited by Oliver Pettis of Black Lion Cinematography and features interviewees Bonnie Clark, Phyllis Davis, Christine Edgerton, Arthur Fisher, Travis Jackson, Nadine Johnson, Glenda Love, Steven Millsaps, Sondra Mose-Ursery, James Otterbridge, Esther Pettis, Elkhart Mayor Rod Roberson, Jean Robinson, Leroy Robinson, Jr., and Charles Walker, alongside Rev. Mayes and Rev. Dr. Lovelady. Former bg真人 student Patrick Obonde (MA 2020) served as project assistant. An advisory committee 鈥� including Rev. Jon Brown, Daniella Panetta, Jason Shenk, Rev. Mayes and Rev. Dr. Lovelady 鈥� oversees the project, which was made possible with funding from the Community Foundation of Elkhart County.
Located in Elkhart, Indiana, on ancestral land of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs 鈥� all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God鈥檚 reconciling mission in the world. ambs.edu
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