Eric Elston

Trauma is used to describe an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening and that has lasting adverse effects. The majority of children experience at least one potentially traumatic event before they graduate from high school.

When a federal judge rules that the small town of Cleveland, Mississippi must consolidate its two high schools because they are in violation of Brown vs. Board of Education, the community grapples with self-reflection and moving forward. The Educational Divide: The Story of East Side High reveals that in America, culture and history are complicated and our past is never that far away from the present. Covering issues of race, public education, civil rights, poverty and more, what can America learn from this small town in Mississippi?