“It's Only Convincing If They Say It Is”: Documenting Civil Rights Progress in the USIA's <em>Nine from Little Rock</em>

Abstract

In 1964, the United States Information Agency (USIA) produced the film Nine from Little Rock to reshape the way international audiences perceived the 1957 Little Rock school desegregation crisis. The film revisited Central High School and several members of the Little Rock Nine to document American progress in race relations, particularly in the field of education. To advance this narrative, the agency manipulated documentary film's association with actuality, obscuring the sentiments and opinions of the Little Rock Nine and persistent segregation in the nation's public schools.