Production Team
Tracy Berry
Subject
Biography
Tracy is the great-niece of Lloyd Gaines, the granddaughter of Lloyd's younger sister, Dorothy Gaines. Born and raised in St. Louis, Tracy earned a law degree from Washington University and is a criminal prosecutor with a focus on identity theft and elder abuse cases. Tracy grew up knowing nothing about her great-uncle, and now she's determined to find the truth.
Marc Shaffer
Director
Biography
Marc is a documentary filmmaker whose more than two dozen films have screened on PBS, National Geographic, Al Jazeera, on premium streaming platforms, in theaters and festivals. He is the recipient of the Writers Guild Award for outstanding documentary screenplay, four national Emmy Award nominations, and many other honors.
Fred Sweets
Producer
Biography
Fred began his career as a photojournalist at his family's newspaper, The St. Louis American. Fred's father, Nathaniel Sweets, was a friend of Lloyd Gaines and applied to attend the University of Missouri's journalism school the same year Lloyd applied for the law school, and like Gaines was rejected due to his race. In 1968, Fred joined the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as its first Black staff photographer before serving as a photographer and senior photo editor at the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press. In 2020, Fred was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. He remains a contributing editor to The St. Louis American.
Tracy Berry
Subject
Biography
Tracy is the great-niece of Lloyd Gaines, the granddaughter of Lloyd's younger sister, Dorothy Gaines. Born and raised in St. Louis, Tracy earned a law degree from Washington University and is a criminal prosecutor with a focus on identity theft and elder abuse cases. Tracy grew up knowing nothing about her great-uncle, and now she's determined to find the truth.
Marc Shaffer
Director
Biography
Marc is a documentary filmmaker whose more than two dozen films have screened on PBS, National Geographic, Al Jazeera, on premium streaming platforms, in theaters and festivals. He is the recipient of the Writers Guild Award for outstanding documentary screenplay, four national Emmy Award nominations, and many other honors.
Fred Sweets
Producer
Biography
Fred began his career as a photojournalist at his family's newspaper, The St. Louis American. Fred's father, Nathaniel Sweets, was a friend of Lloyd Gaines and applied to attend the University of Missouri's journalism school the same year Lloyd applied for the law school, and like Gaines was rejected due to his race. In 1968, Fred joined the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as its first Black staff photographer before serving as a photographer and senior photo editor at the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press. In 2020, Fred was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame. He remains a contributing editor to The St. Louis American.
Kyle Pyatt
Cinematographer
Biography
Kyle grew up outside St. Louis, where he is now based. A graduate of the University of Missouri's school of journalism, Kyle has shot, edited, and directed award-winning films that have screened at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the Camden International Film Festival, and AFI’s Meet the Press Film Festival. His work has been honored with the National Edward R. Murrow Award and nominated for a national Emmy Award.
Kyle Pyatt
Cinematographer
Biography
Kyle grew up outside St. Louis, where he is now based. A graduate of the University of Missouri's school of journalism, Kyle has shot, edited, and directed award-winning films that have screened at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the Camden International Film Festival, and AFI’s Meet the Press Film Festival. His work has been honored with the National Edward R. Murrow Award and nominated for a national Emmy Award.
Kevin Jones
Editor
Biography
Kevin is a veteran documentary editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His many documentary credits include the Emmy Award-winning A Lion in the House, Dave Chappelle Live In Real Life, and Vernon Jordan: Make It Plain.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Executive Producer
Biography
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has published numerous books and executive produced and hosted an array of celebrated documentary films exploring the African American experience for PBS, HBO, and Netflix.
Kevin Jones
Editor
Biography
Kevin is a veteran documentary editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His many documentary credits include the Emmy Award-winning A Lion in the House, Dave Chappelle Live In Real Life, and Vernon Jordan: Make It Plain.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Executive Producer
Biography
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has published numerous books and executive produced and hosted an array of celebrated documentary films exploring the African American experience for PBS, HBO, and Netflix.
Advisors
José Felipé Anderson
University of Baltimore
Biography
José Anderson is Founding Director, Stephen L. Snyder Center for Litigation Skills, and professor of law at the University of Baltimore. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Anderson is author of "Genius of Justice: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Reform of American Law," a biography of the legendary lead counsel in the Gaines case.
Michael Middleton
University of Missouri
Biography
In 1971, Mike Middleton became the third African American to graduate from the University of Missouri Law School. In the 1980s he was hired as the first African American law professor at Mizzou. Mike later served as Interim Vice Provost for Minority Affairs and Faculty Development and Deputy Chancellor, then interim president of the University of Missouri system. He then served as interim president of Lloyd Gaines’s alma mater, Lincoln University.
Gary Kremer
State Historical Society of Missouri
Biography
A fifth-generation Missourian, historian Gary Kremer has served as the executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri since 2004. An author of numerous books on Missouri history, including "Race and Meaning: The African American Experience in Missouri", Gary received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Lincoln University and a PhD in history from American University.
Thema Bryant-Davis
Pepperdine University
Biography
Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis is a past-president of the American Psychological Association and a tenured professor of psychology in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University. At Pepperdine, Thema directs the Culture and Trauma Research Laboratory. She is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
James Endersby
University of Missouri
Biography
James Endersby is a professor of political science at the University of Missouri and co-author of "Lloyd Gaines and the Fight to End Segregation", the only book to focus entirely on the Gaines case.
Clarence Lang
Penn State University
Biography
Clarence Lang is Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts and a professor of African American Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Among his many publications, he is author of "Grassroots at the Gateway: Class Politics and Black Freedom Struggle in St. Louis, 1936-75."
Keona Ervin
Bowdoin College
Biography
Historian Keona Ervin is an associate professor at Bowdoin College and a scholar of African American history and social movements in Missouri. Born and raised in St. Louis, Keona is the author of "Gateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis." She previously taught at the University of Missouri.
Major Supporters
