MOLINE, ILLINOIS - In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, WQPT will be holding a special screening of the American Experience documentary "A Class Apart" followed by a panel discussion at the Moline Public Library. The event is scheduled for October 4th from 6:30 to 8:00 pm at the library. The panel discussion will be moderated by Alfred Ramirez and features panelists Bob Ontiveros, Ernie Rodriquez and Henry Vargas to discuss the Hispanic experience in the Quad Cities in the 1960's and '70's.
"A Class Apart" tells the little known story of how a band of underdog Mexican-American lawyers take the Hernandez v. Texas case to the Supreme Court, challenging Jim Crow-style discrimination. The full documentary will air on WQPT on October 11th at 7 pm.
"The committee that WQPT formed to work on their April Freedom Riders event and the upcoming Freedom Riders event in October, felt like we had more work to do," said Dr. Tammy Werner, a professor at Western Illinois University. "We didn't want to let the momentum end and decided to highlight some of the challenges and opportunities that our Hispanic neighbors deal with locally by focusing on this particular documentary and having the opportunity to hear from these panelists."
The screening and discussion event and Hispanic Heritage Month programming on WQPT has been underwritten by Ascentra Credit Union with additional support from The Moline Public Library, Greater Quad Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Western Illinois University. WQPT is a media service of Western Illinois University.
