Kaukauna and King: film in production 50 years later
History comes back to life. That’s what's happening with a true story that took place here in Wisconsin more than 50 years ago.
FOX6 sat down with the producer of "Exchange in White America: Kaukauna and King, 50 years later" -- a documentary remembering events that took place in 1966.
"This story is about a high school student exchange," said producer Joanne Williams.
Fifty-five years ago, two Wisconsin high schools made history during the civil rights movement.
"A social studies teacher in Kaukauna Wisconsin wanted his kids to have a broader view of the world. To that he wanted them to perform a play, the play he chose was ‘In White America’ the history of African Americans from slavery to civil rights. But in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, there are no black people," said Joanne Williams.
So that teacher and another from Rufus King High School in Milwaukee, an all-Black school, came up with an exchange—students from Kaukauna would swap lives with students from Rufus King for a month so each school would be able to properly portray the play.
Joann Williams has thought about this moment in Wisconsin history since 1966.
And on the event’s 50th anniversary, she realized this was a story that needed to be told.
Joanne Williams
"I was cleaning out my garage and I found a copy of my high school newspaper which had the pictures of the kids from Kaukauna and it said 1966 and I found this in 2016. And I said ‘this was 50 years ago,’ it's time to tell the story," said Williams.
So then began her journey as a small filmmaker, meeting up with students from the past and also interviewing students of the present who are now performing the play in a new era.
"This is an important part of Wisconsin history that nobody knows about and I think we should all know about it," she said.
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Thursday’s showing at the Wilson Center in Brookfield is the first time a rough cut has been shown to an audience.
With the film being very dear to her heart, she hopes it can impact people as much as actually living the events that impacted her.
"Through this film, if I can convince two or three people that they should get to know people who are different than they are, then it would be a success," said Williams.
Williams says the goal is to submit the film to the Milwaukee Film Festival, which means she hopes it will be completely finished by the admission deadline in February of 2022.
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