Black Table: (dirs. John Antonio James & Billy Mack)

By: Adam Freed

For nearly three centuries an unspoken reality oppressively haunted one of America’s most selective institutions of higher learning.  Just as the ivy seems inseparable from the prestigious stone masonry buildings of Yale University, so too was the inescapable observation that a Yale education didn’t seem to be available to African American students.  Nestled deep in the intellectually rich soils of Connecticut’s collegiate talisman was a visible truth that amongst Yale’s future Presidents, CEOs, Performers and Professors, there was no room for Black America.  Riding the swell of momentum induced by President Kennedy’s 1961 executive order that first mentioned “affirmative action” and with the aim to counteract a bitter history of racial discrimination, Yale University began to slowly integrate in earnest.     

In the wake of the glacially paced integration efforts at Yale, an entirely new set of challenges faced the brave African American students who accepted admission at New Haven.  Exploring the complexities of this perilous invitation is the powerhouse documentary Black Table, the brainchild of directors John Antonio James and Billy Mack.  The interview based retrospective, told from the memories and experiences of the graduating class of 1997 is a masterful revelation of the juxtaposition of earning admission and the experience of belonging.  Named after the sociological observation that took place in Yale’s Hogwarts style dining hall “The Commons” in which many of the university’s black student population chose to sit together, often en masse.   Black Table pulls no punches and often delivers evenly balanced critique of societal inequities on campus and across the nation.

The power of James and Mack’s exploration is found both in its subject matter and in the voices of those who lend their experiences to its telling.  Notable graduates of the class of 1997, none more than Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times film critic Wesley Morris, provides a fair and ferocious retrospective of campus life in the 1990’s for a young black student, at times treated as an interloper amongst his white ivy league classmates.  Utilizing a few influentially timed and socially relevant issues as a framing device, Black Table frames an existence that many Gen X audiences will remember vividly, making connection to the film an experiential trip down a sad form of memory lane.  Ultimately, Black Table is a monumental success as it will certainly serve members of future generations of campus dwellers with a first hand account of what their mothers and fathers were forced to overcome, even thirty years post the boiling tensions of the Civil Rights Movement. Black history is American history and the record of its existence didn’t end with the passing of Dr. Martin Luther King.  Black Table delicately highlights the hardships and resulting triumphs of black America well into the 21st Century.  

Target Score: 9.5/10 - Black Table is a must see documentary for all prospective university and current sociology students.  John Antonio James and Billy Mack extend the black experience beyond more commonly held topics and provide a recent and relevant dose of reality from the lips of those who have lived the struggle and achieved in spite of its existence.

Black Table was screened as part of the 2024 Tribeca International Film Festival.