Local filmmaker tackles historic black measure

Cathy Scott

Saturday, Feb. 21, 1998 | 11:08 a.m.

A documentary, produced by a local filmmaker and featuring the Civil War battle of Fort Pillow, will have a special screening this weekend at the West Las Vegas Arts Center.

Stan Armstrong is debuting his film career with this documentary. The release coincides with Black History Month.

"I grew up on D Street and lived in West Las Vegas for 25 years, and I wanted to bring something back to the community," he said.

For his research into the documentary titled, "The Battle of Fort Pillow and the Birth of the Ku Klux Klan," Armstrong and his research team traveled to Tennessee and Mississippi. He used KVVU Channel 5's studio in Henderson for editing.

A UNLV communications graduate with a minor in film and history, he said it's his "first time out with a film." Being a movie and war buff, he began researching the event 3 1/2 years ago after a UNLV instructor told him about it.

The documentary tells the story of a controversial battle during the Civil War that needed to be told, Armstrong said.

"This battle just really fascinated me," he said. "Fort Pillow was a place about 50 miles north of Memphis on the Mississippi River. About 200 black people, including children, were massacred after they surrendered. A film like this has never been done before."

The man who led the battle on April 12, 1864, was Confederate Cavalry Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was never charged with a crime.

When Forrest learned that 600 people, more than half of whom were black, were garrisoned at the fort, he and fellow Confederates confronted them, Armstrong said.

"They gave them an ultimatum to surrender," he said. "They didn't."

With Forrest at the lead "they went in and massacred them," he said.

Forrest had 45 of his own slaves in the battle. One escaped.

After the war ended in 1865, Forrest became the first Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, Armstrong said. But the Klan "got to be too much for him," and Forrest eventually "became a savior for blacks" by donating money for a church and championing black causes.

Forrest died in 1877 with some of his remaining servants outside his door, Armstrong said.

The film cost $17,000 to make, which Armstrong collected from loans and donations, he said.

Ex-UNLV student Jeanette Sadoski was the associate producer and writer, and Josef Meditz was a researcher and writer. The documentary is narrated by Shakespearean actor Walter Mason.

A 58-minute screening will be at 3 p.m. Sunday at the West Las Vegas Arts Center, 951 W. Lake Mead Blvd. Attorney and Civil War historian Joshua Landish will speak before the screening at 2:30 p.m.

Armstrong's second film effort is a documentary on black Confederate soldiers that he expects to release by the end of the year.

"We're looking at why blacks decided to fight with the Confederate Army," he said. "They stayed loyal to the Confederacy. We're asking why. Didn't they know any better?"