New documentary 'Our Blues Make Us Gold' highlights history and success of N.C. A&T

A new documentary about the history and success of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, called “Our Blues Make Us Gold,” is available for streaming. 

The hour and 40-minute film opens with archival footage of a young Black woman being interviewed about her choice to attend N.C. A&T. 

"You could have gone anywhere. Nobody is forcing you to go here. Why did you only apply to Black schools?" the interviewer asks her. "Would you have liked to go to a white school?"

The interviewer continued to press her on it as if her decision didn’t make sense, even though racial segregation in schools had only recently been deemed unconstitutional. The clip is from 1978, but it’s not unlike an experience filmmaker Ashley Deese had roughly forty years later in a Hollywood writers’ room. 

“We were introducing a new character. And that character, everyone in the room kept saying, ‘Oh, she's highly intelligent. She, you know, she has a high education level,'" she said. "And immediately, you know, I thought ... ‘Oh, you know, wouldn't it be great to introduce an HBCU?"

Her fellow writers didn’t think so. She said they were confused that she would suggest a smart person would attend a historically Black school. 

"I was insulted, but I was equally puzzled because I was like, wow. Like, the most intelligent people I know, and really I dare to say, probably the most successful Black people in the country, have all mostly attended an HBCU," she said. "So I was just like, I think we need to talk about this more, because a lot of people just don't realize the impact that HBCUs have had on everyone.”

That’s what Ashley, and her husband Brandon, who together make up From A2B Studios, set out to do with their latest documentary, “Our Blues Make Us Gold.” 

They both grew up in the Carolinas. Ashley had family members who attended Spelman and Morehouse College. Brandon’s father, and uncles, were Aggies at N.C. A&T. 

The couple jokes that their only regret was not going to an HBCU themselves. But Brandon says they’ve seen first-hand how it changed the trajectories of their families’ lives. 

“There's so much more than what we're used to seeing from Hollywood. They do the tried and true band, they do the athletics, they do homecoming," Brandon said. "And we really wanted to show that there is a whole world beyond that.”

If the film starts with the question: Why attend a Black school? The rest of it, is the answer.  

The documentary highlights many successful A&T alumni — like Ronald McNair, an astronaut and physicist. Rev. Jesse Jackson, a prominent civil rights activist who ran for president in the 1980s. Janice Bryant Howroyd, the CEO of a multibillion-dollar company. 

Statistics flash across the screen too: 40% of Black engineers graduated from an HBCU. The same is true for 70% of Black doctors and 80% of Black judges.  

Viewers are also introduced to Leon and Ben Moses, brothers who attended A&T together and became farmers. Ashley says it was important to tell the story of that kind of success too. 

“A lot of times when you hear the term ‘Black excellence’ the picture of that is like a suit and polished and that is excellent," Ashley said. "But excellence also wears overalls, you know, and boots and a straw hat.”

In addition, the film delves into the school’s history with civil rights movements.

There are the four A&T freshmen who sat at a whites-only lunch counter and demanded to be served, launching a sit-in movement across the South. 

There’s also the story of the Greensboro uprising, where N.C. A&T students protested with local high schoolers over racial discrimination. 

Brandon says part of the reason these students were able to use their voices and fight for what was right, was because of the safe, nurturing environment their HBCU provided them. 

“They had to go out into a cold, cruel and harsh world. Thankfully, they had a place that they could return to while they were in the midst of a sit-in movement that they could feel, you know, protected and fortified by and supported," Brandon said. "If they had to go back to, say, at that time period a Duke University or a UNC-Greensboro, might not have gone quite the same. And so I think that if you can come back to an environment that protects, loves you and cares about you, you feel that extra boost of confidence to really stand for what you believe in.”

But, as noted in the film, during these protests, students were still expected to come to class.

“Very much like a family," Ashley said. "Like a mother or an auntie or something like, ‘Okay, yeah, but you still have to get this work done.’”

As Ashley and Brandon worked on the film, that theme of family kept popping up. 

There are two sets of brothers in the documentary. Ronald and Carl McNair. Leon and Ben Moses. But the couple learned that students who attended N.C. A&T found family with their fellow classmates and professors as well. 

“When you go to an HBCU, it's not run like a business. It's run like a true family unit," Brandon said. "And beyond that, I feel like one of the things that was important was like HBCUs care just as much about results as any other institution, but they also care about the character.”

The filmmakers say they heard the same stories over and over from the people they interviewed: teachers truly cared for their students, saw their individual potential and nurtured them to success. Now, they all have a little something called “Aggie Pride.” 

“Your die-hard Aggies, you know, it's like God's here, A&T is, like, right under, you know," Brandon said. "It's amazing to see that type of genuine love for an institution and the people that walk through those halls.”

Ashley and Brandon started the project back in 2019, and their journey wasn’t easy. Ashley says that’s in part because HBCUs are understandably protective. 

“When you think about going into a museum, for example, you have to be very careful and very delicate. You can't just go in there touching everything," Ashley said. "It's kind of similar with an HBCU, when you're telling a story that you do have to gain that trust of the institution that you're going to do right, you know, by them.” 

One way they did that was by hiring N.C. A&T students on as interns and production assistants to give them filmmaking experience and expose them to other professionals. 

But the couple had other challenges to overcome along the way. Besides a global pandemic, loss of family members, and the birth of their two children, they were also met with skepticism and resistance to the film. 

They say it took years to find people who believed in their vision. But Ashley says, like the insulting comments back in the writers' room, other peoples’ doubt has fueled her as a creator. 

“It's just really important to keep going and tell the stories that you want to tell, even if you know, you've been told, ‘Hey, it's not a viable story,' 'Oh, this won't go,’ it's so important to press through because, you know, Brandon and I, there was no shortage of adversity that we faced doing this," Ashley said. "And so I think that's my biggest takeaway, is that it can be done. It may be difficult, but it definitely can be done.”

“Our Blues Make Us Gold” is available for streaming on Comcast Xfinity, and Xumo Play. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.