Members of the Colorado State University communications studies department, the CSU Office for Inclusive Excellence and the broader Fort Collins community gathered Oct. 21 to watch a documentary titled “Black Table” directed by Bill Mack and John Antonio James.

The directors made a special Zoom appearance for a Q&A session after the screening to further engage with their viewers. The event took place at The Lyric theater and was sponsored by the communications studies department’s ACT Human Rights Film Festival, the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery and UCHealth.

“Black Table” centered on six Black students at Yale University between the classes of 1994 and 1997. The class of 1997 had the largest number of African American students admitted in the university’s history, with alumni in attendance sharing their experiences as Black Ivy League students in the 1990s.

During the students’ tenure at Yale, there were multiple racially motivated incidents. One notable incident was a 1994 controversy in which a group of Black students went to buy pizza at a restaurant called Naples but were threatened, kicked out and followed by police after an employee accused them of being drunk. This sparked hundreds of Black students to protest, but no action was taken by Yale.

“’Black Table’ transcends Yale. … If there’s a minority population, there’s most likely a Black table. Whether it’s at your high school, your college, your place of business, … so one of the things that I hope by watching the film demystifies it. Maybe you’d be motivated to say, ‘I want to sit there and just hang out,’ or, you know, ‘I understand why they’re doing it.’ Maybe not have the prejudice you might have. … It’s like you’re sitting at the Black table for a minute.” -Bill Mack, “Black Table” co-director

There were racial tensions throughout the United States during that time, fueled by reactions to affirmative action programs implemented decades earlier as well as the LA riots and the OJ Simpson trial.

“You’ve got prop out in California, which would send a chilling effect throughout the country,” James said. “You’ve got the OJ Simpson trial … and, preceding that, the LA riots. Stuff is happening, and the drama, the world we create in that 95 minutes — we wanted to tackle all of it.”

The documentary takes this context and illustrates the community created by Black students at Yale in response, exemplified by the “Black table.” Black students would push together multiple tables in the Yale Commons Dining Hall to eat and commune together. The film centers around the idea of the “Black table,” using it as a symbol for finding community when facing adversary.

“’Black Table’ transcends Yale,” Mack said. “If there’s a minority population, there’s most likely a Black table. Whether it’s at your high school, your college, your place of business, … so one of the things that I hope by watching the film demystifies it. Maybe you’d be motivated to say, ‘I want to sit there and just hang out,’ or, you know, ‘I understand why they’re doing it.’ Maybe not have the prejudice you might have. … It’s like you’re sitting at the Black table for a minute.”

The directors said they believe “Black Table” remains especially relevant following the 2023 Supreme Court decision to strike down affirmative action in higher education, 26 years after the class of 1997 graduated.

“The sort of uniform topic would have been affirmative action, so we knew we had to go there,” James said. “I don’t think we knew we were going to lean in to it as much as we did, but when the SCOTUS decision was handed down, it felt like it was a responsibility on our part, but it also felt like a way to elevate the discussion and to move this film in a way that, like, more people would nationally.”

Reach Isabella Becker at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.