In preparation of Counts performance
By Justin Messner | Fort Scott Tribune

FORT SCOTT — Just one year after district and state victories, a Fort Scott brother and sister team, are looking for another run at the National History Day Competition Nationals.

Enlisting the help of fellow students Keenan Gregory and Grant Stucky, Reanda Simmons-Mims and Kai Mims are currently preparing a performance to bring the work of unsung hero Will Counts to light.

Counts, a photographer for the Arkansas Democrat newspaper in 1957, took one of the most famous civil rights photos in American history.

Following the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that segregated schools were unconstitutional, Little Rock Central High School allowed nine black students to enter the facility as students for the first time on Sept. 4, 1957. Counts was there, as were many national photographers, to capture the image of these students making history. Unbeknownst to him, Counts would take a picture of Elizabeth Eckford as she entered the school that would later earn him a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

When asked why Counts, a journalism photographer, was chosen as the subject of their play, Reanda said, "he was the one that was there in all the action. It showed everybody what the south was really doing and how the south was reacting to desegregation."

Kai and Reanda certainly know what it takes to build a victorious performance. The siblings traveled to Washington, D.C. last year after winning state with a play titled "Life of an Abolitionist: Spirit of a Fiddler." The performance revolved around the life of Frederick Douglass, an American abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer.

The group of four, found themselves searching the archives at Fort Scott's Lowell Milken Center -- the teams sponsor -- Monday, in an attempt to gather background information on the American civil rights movement. Included in their research was numerous speeches by possibly the most famous civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, jr.

"Their research is really expansive," said Lowell Milken employee Megan Felt. "They are required to put together a full bibliography as part of the project."

The students will be performing their play on Feb. 28, at Fort Scott Community College for the district competition. If successful against the numerous contestants for 10 counties, they will move on to state competition in April.

"We went to nationals last year," said Kai. "That is our goal again this year. And, with this subject we should do it."