HCBA re-releases desegregation documentary

Hillsborough County Bar Association

W&M’s Dara Cooley helped produce a documentary called “Before the Law Was Equal” that chronicles the desegregation of Hillsborough County, Florida’s legal community. The hour-long film was created in 2013 but re-released this year to the HCBA’s YouTube channel so that more people in the community will have the opportunity to view it. 

Cooley, as a member of the HCBA’s Young Lawyers Division and Diversity Committee, worked to capture oral histories from individuals who experienced discrimination in the 1950s and 1960s. The film includes interviews with Judge Don Castor, William Reece Smith Jr., Judge E.J. Salcines, Judge John F. Germany, Judge Mary S. Scriven, and lawyers Lanse Scriven, Gwynne Young, Delano Stewart, Fraser Himes, Marsha Rydberg, and Warren Dawson. 

View the complete film on YouTube here.