Group Screens Civil Rights Doc Featuring Local Woman

POSTED: 09:16 AM MST Jan 12, 2012    UPDATED: 09:47 AM MST Jan 12, 2012 

The road to ending discrimination in Idaho is a long one, and one local group says, the journey still isn't over. On Thursday night, 2 Great 4 Hate gathered people together to take a look at Idaho's civil rights history, and its future.

The organization screened Idaho Public Television's documentary "The Color of Conscience" in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and the groups wants people to know how close to home discrimination hits.

"The Color of Conscience" includes the story of a local woman who fought for civil rights in the Gem State: Idaho Purce. Purce was involved with the Pocatello Civil Rights Committee and the local NAACP, and she served on the state's first Human Rights Commission.

"She is so gracious and open and loving and caring and active. She is a model for everybody, no matter what color." said 2 Great 4 Hate member Muriel Roberts

But in the film, viewers see a different side of Purce. She tours the former Aryan Nation compound in northern Idaho, and she reacts to being in a place where people harbored hate against her just because of her race.

"The Aryan compound was in Hayden Lake, but their followers were all throughout Idaho. They were here in Pocatello," Purce said in the documentary.

The film's director Marcia Franklin got in touch with 2 Great 4 Hate about the film, and the group was almost a part of the production, Roberts said. 2 Great 4 Hate member Craig Strobel said the group wanted to screen it to help people continue to think.

"The basic human community aspect of, you know, how do we treat one another? How do we speak to one another? How do we regard one another? How do we view one another? Do we understand someone else's experience?" Strobel said.

Purce's legacy helps to teach that lesson, he said, and to help keep groups like 2 Great 4 Hate working.

"We sort of consider ourselves to be part of that movement that so wonderfully Idaho Purce was a part of. So it's sort of a sense of continuity," Strobel said.

Purce is an Idaho native who still calls Pocatello home.

2 Great 4 Hate will be screening "The Color of Conscience" again on Monday at 7 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Pocatello.