Sportswriter, and sometime political commentator, Mike Lupica once wrote that a movie about a barbershop was “stupid.” Lupica was referring to the Ice Cube-directed film and its eventual sequel.
He, and many people in White America, has no idea what the barbershop means in the world of Black America and what it represents. As Cedric The Entertainer’s character so eloquently put it, the barbershop is one of the few places where a Black man can feel free and feel like “somebody.” It’s also served as the proverbial community center, town hall and gossip magazine in human form. Discussions about sports, music, life, politics and civil rights are had around barbershops countrywide. Much of our countries history involving civil rights occurred not only at churches, but at barbershops.
James Armstrong is one of those men who have witnessed and participated in American history. The short documentary about Armstrong titled “The Barber of Birmingham” demonstrates exactly what it means to be Black in America.
The documentary opens up with Armstrong sitting in the barber’s chair inside the barber shop that he’s owned for decades. It’s the day before Election Day 2008 and Armstrong tells the camera “Growing up, I always thought that the worst thing a man can do was nothing.” Armstrong’s life, as shown in documentary, was filled with lots of movement. Whether it was joining the foot soldiers as they marched from Selma to Birmingham fighting for their civil rights, including the right to vote or Armstrong’s grade school children having to display the discipline of a martial artist as the first Black kids to integrate a school, “Barber” displays Armstrong as a man who is proud of his accomplishments, but is ready at a moment’s notice if an issue were to pop up.
“If we start a march tomorrow, as bad as my feet hurt, I would go,” Armstrong said on the days following President Barack Obama’s election night victory.
While the short film could’ve easily gone ridden the cliche gospel music and footage of police brutality and fire hoses (and those elements are there), it also shows the strength and dignity of those who fought for civil rights and the right to have their voice heard at the polls. These aren’t the cowering Black people that Hollywood loves to depict in period films about the South. These are Black people who knew death might be around the corner, but didn’t care because they had a mission.
In 2011, while American politics is stuck in a cluster-you-know-what, it’s easy to forget the importance of Barack Obama’s election for those who got tired of being sick and tired in the mid 20th Century. “The Barber of Birmingham” a portrait of one man who loved this country so much, he wanted to see its true vision shine through despite its ugly history.
“I love this country. I love Alabama and I love Birmingham,” said Armstrong at one point in the film. He then tells one of his customers that he knows he’s going to heaven when he dies. The customer then asks him how he knows. His repsonse: “Because I’ve been through some hell down here.”
“The Barber of Birmingham” will be screened at the IFC Center in New York’s Greenwich Village neighborhood from Aug. 12 through Aug. 18 as part of the prestigious “DocuWeeks” that will qualify the film for an Academy Award.
