States. When she convinced them she was a refugee,
one of them replied, "Aren't you glad you're in the
United States where there's freedom and democracy?"
This anecdote, retold in the film, is also one of its
more outrageous ironies.
While the arrest is the one event highlighted in
the documentary, there were many incidents of ter-
ror in the Rasmussens' life, including the unexpected
appearance of 30 carloads of hooded armed
Klansmen at their front yard to tell them how to
vote, and cross-burnings near their campus home.
The Rasmussens' three sons, who were raised in a
black community and grew up with black playmates,
were subject to name calling by white people at an
early age. They were also the only whites in their all-
black Boy Scout troop.
There were five "refugee scholars" at Talladega at
different times, says Donald. One of them, also fea-
tured in the film, was Dr. Fritz Papenheim, who
arrived in 1946.
An avowed socialist, Papenheim would later be
denied tenure and dismissed during the height of the
McCarthy-era anti-communist "witch hunts" of the
1950s. In protest, the students locked the university

board of trustees in their conference room. One of
Dr. Papenheim's students, a noted black author, later
dedicated his book to his former teacher.
"I only wish he could have lived to see it," says an
emotion-filled Calvin Hernton, professor emeritus of
African American studies at Oberlin College.
The twin threats of McCarthyism and later the rise
of black nationalism, which also contained anti-Semitic
overtones, ended the racial harmony that socially con-
scious teachers like the Rasmussens had enjoyed.
The Rasmussens left Talladega in 1955 to direct a
cooperative cultural center in Michigan, between
Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, called Circle Pine
Center. Future teaching positions took them to
Philadelphia, where Lore became a renowned teacher
of mathematics for young children.
The Rasmussens give the documentary a high
approval rating. "It seems to hit on a theme that simply
has something to do with the relations of Jews and black
people that is missing oftentimes and it fills a gap of
some sort that brings two groups together," says Donald.
They agree that the film's message is intended for
blacks and whites alike. "And the rest of hunianity as
well," adds Lore.

Friendship Put To The Test

From 1954 to 1958, Dr. Eugene Eaves, provost of
North Carolina Central University in Durham, was
a student at the same institution he now leads.
One of his teachers was Dr. Ernst Manasse, a re
scholar and professor of German, Latin and philoso- -
phy, who taught at North Carolina Central for 34
years. "I think he was a very hard taskmaster," recalls
Eaves. But "he had a very gentle way of saying, 'I really
believe you can do this.'"
In 1954, the university had
Opposite page:
an all-black student body of
Filmmakers Joel
about 2,500, with black and
Sucher and Steven
white teaching staff.
Fischler:
While the
Both Manasse and his wife,
documentary
is
Marianna, escaped Nazi-occu-
intended for general
pied Europe during World
audiences, Sucher says
War II. While the distin-
the interest from
guished professor from
young African-
Heidelberg University never
American students has
talked about his past, his wife
been extraordinary
told Eaves about her experi-
ence. A non-Jewish academic
yL Clockwise from top left:
colleague of Manasse's, who
Lore and Donald
was also in the military, helped
Rasmussen, pictured
Marianna escape from Italy,
during the 1950s at
where she was teaching at an
Circle Pine Center, a
orphanage. Manasse had got-
cooperative cultural
ten out first and came to the
center located between
United States via London. -
Kalamazoo and
Eaves characterizes his for-
Grand Rapids. "The
mer professor as a compas-
crime of fraternizing
sionate gentleman, a fine
with black people was
teacher and excellent scholar,
worse than prostitu-
who was world-renowned for
tion or shoplifting,"
his work in Platonic studies.
she says of the time the
Despite Manasse's impres-
couple spent in
sive background and creden-
Alabama.
tials, his petitions to secure
Current photo of
positions at colleges and uni-
Professor John Herz,
versities throughout the
with his wife, Ann.
United States was denied
Herz
was a professor
because he was Jewish. The
of
political
science at
only person who would hire
Howard
University
in
him, Manasse later told Eaves,
the
1940s.
His
letter
was Dr. James E. Shepard,
to the New York Times
founder of North Carolina
piqued
the filmmakers'
College (later North Carolina
curiosity about the
Central University).
period when black col-
"Like so many of the presi-
leges extended a hand
dents of these emerging histori-
to Jewish scholars flee-
cal black colleges and universi-
ing Nazi Germany.
ties, they went after the best

scholars they could find," Eaves
Ernest Borinski,
says. "And they found them in
professor at Tougaloo
many instances in the ranks of
College in
the immigrant Jewish popula-
Misssissippi, with
tion who arrived in America."
two of his students
Manasse was not only a great
in the 1960s.
scholar but also a loyal friend.
That friendship was put to the
test when the Manasses, who lived in what was then
an exclusive all-white community, invited a black col-
league and his wife to their home for dinner. After sev-
eral visits from the black couple, a contingent of
neighbors informed Manasse that black people were
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