Distinguished Service Professor Gretchen Sorin 鈥75 and The Cooperstown Graduate Program (CGP) were recently recognized with an American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award for producing the documentary 鈥淒riving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America鈥 alongside renowned filmmaker Ric Burns and Steeplechase Films.
The Silver Gavel Award recognizes work in media and arts that is exemplary in helping foster the American public鈥檚 understanding of the law and legal system. 鈥淒riving While Black鈥 was specifically praised for connecting America鈥檚 past of slavery, Emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, 鈥渟undown laws,鈥 redlining and the Civil Rights Movement to the current racial reckoning happening in the United States.
Dr. Sorin and Burns accepted the award in a virtual ceremony. 鈥淚 was so excited to see that the American Bar Association recognized what this story was about," Dr. Sorin said. "This film couldn鈥檛 have come out at a more appropriate time, and I hope that it moves people so that they want to work in their own communities to bring about police reform.鈥
Students in the Cooperstown Graduate Program assisted Dr. Sorin with research to help bring the project to completion. 鈥淓mily Pfeil, one of my students, did her summer internship with Steeplechase Films,鈥 said Dr. Sorin. 鈥淪he was fascinated with documentary film and after she graduated, she was hired as an assistant producer.鈥
Pfeil has been working for Ric Burns鈥 film company for several years now. 鈥淓mily was able to turn a hands-on learning opportunity into a career,鈥 Dr. Sorin said.
Support for the film came from PBS, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, the 1772 Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, the Ford Foundation and Artemis Rising Foundation.
鈥淒riving While Black鈥 was based on Dr. Sorin鈥檚 book under the same name, which earned her recognition as a finalist for the NAACP Image Award in literary excellence in non-fiction.
To watch the full ceremony online, visit .