This documentary film was produced in 2012 by Dr. Jennifer Friend and Dr. Bonita Butner through funding provided by the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s School of Education – Kauffman Endowed Chair for Urban Teacher Education, Dr. Etta Hollins.
Dr. Eugene E. Eubanks, who died in 2011, was a professor in the UMKC School of Education and later its first African-American Dean, a post he held from 1980 to 1988. He later served as Professor Emeritus. Nationally known for his expertise in the areas of urban education, equity and desegregation, he was deeply involved in the community during his long career in Kansas City. He served as chair of the Desegregation Monitoring Committee, the court-appointed body overseeing the desegregation of the Kansas City, Missouri School District.
Eubanks was a consultant to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and distinguished himself as a consummate scholar, having published numerous journal articles and serving as the Editor of the Journal of the National Alliance of Black School Educators. He received the W.E.B. Dubois Award from that same organization in 1997. He served as both President and Board Chair of the American Association of Colleges of Teachers in Education and was presented with that organization’s highest honor, the Pomeroy Award. He also earned the U.S. Department of Education’s John Stanford Education Heroes Award.