Simsbury Patch
January 17, 2011
Stephanie Riefe

Students Who Created King Documentary to Appear on CBS News
The film on Martin Luther King’s time in Connecticut got noticed by CBS

The cameras have turned.

The Simsbury High School students who put together a documentary on Martin Luther King Jr.’s time in Simsbury now find themselves in front of the camera. The story of their work is the subject of a report scheduled  to be broadcast tonight on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

“In the beginning it was all 16 of us,” said Nicole Byer, 16, a junior and a co-director on the project.

The students, camera crew and news correspondent Steve Hartman  watched the 15-minute documentary with the cameras filming, then it was just Nicole and co-director John Conard-Malley, 18, a senior.

“The rest of kids went back to class,” she said. “Then we went to the free library with them.”

The library partnered with the school to make the video. After the interview the camera crew went off to film areas of town and interview others for the news segment. The crew spent most of last Thursday in town and will edit all of that tape down to two or three minutes, said Nicole. The evening news begins at 6:30 p.m. and the segment should run toward the end of the broadcast.

Hartman asked the students how people from 2011 in the predominantly white, affluent suburb of Simsbury can relate to a figure such as King. Nicole responded that there are certain people who have an impact on others whether you are part of the oppressed group or not.

“Martin Luther Kind had such a big effect on everyone,” she said.

The documentary Martin Luther King in Connecticut, was screened at a black-tie gala at the Hartford Marriott over the weekend to mark the 25th anniversary of the country's official recognition of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

A free screening will be held Mondayin Simsbury at Eno Memorial Hall at 1 p.m.

In the summers of 1944 and 1947 King was working the tobacco fields in Simsbury as part of a local partnership with Morehouse College.