Special showing of 'Lines Broken: The Story of Marion Motley' on Feb. 28
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Stow-Munroe Falls High School and Bulldogs Taking Action will host a community-wide presentation of the PBS Western Reserve documentary film, "Lines Broken: The Story of Marion Motley," on Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. inside the Stow-Munroe Falls High School Auditorium.
The 26-minute film will be the culmination of activities held at the high school during Black History Month. After the film, there will be a Q & A panel discussion consisting of producers and co-directors James Waters and Shaun Horrigan; producers David Lee Morgan Jr., a Stow-Munroe Falls High School English teacher, and Eric Loughry, editor David Jingo; and narrator James Wells.
In 1946, Marion Motley was one of four African American men to break pro football’s color barrier when he joined the Cleveland Browns. Those men’s efforts to play a physically brutal game in the face of societal racism and state-sanctioned Jim Crow laws trailblazed a path for Black athletes in the highest echelons of professional sports, including baseball’s Jackie Robinson.
Marion Motley was recognized as one of the gridiron’s greatest players when he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968 in his hometown of Canton. However, five decades after being immortalized there, the memory of Motley and his great accomplishments on and off the field are beginning to fade in the city where he first made his name. This production tells Motley’s story of adversity, personal tragedy, and triumphs using rarely heard archival interviews and new interviews with historians, friends, and descendants.
COVID-19 protocols are subject to change; come to the event prepared.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Special showing of 'Lines Broken: The Story of Marion Motley' Feb. 28
