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HOLA Lakeway and RHiTA hosted the premiere of Morristown Voices, a documentary that exposed the experiences of racism and prejudices that local Hispanic students have experienced.

The premiere was hosted in the Walters State Community College’s Foundation Room Monday evening.

RHiTA is a WSSC Program that offers support and access to help students succeed in post-secondary education, especially to Hispanic and pther minority students.

HOLA Lakeway helps meet the needs and improve the overall quality of life for the immigrant population in the Lakeway Area.

The two organizations collaborated with Brian Myers, the film’s producer, to create a documentary bringing light to stories of racism the students and other community members have faced.

The Lakeway Voices project consisted of 16 students who have been meeting weekly since February to research the Morristown community.

Students gathered stories and images from people with ties to Morristown about their experience of racism. Students then helped combine the stories in one singular film to present to the community.

Throughout the documentary students recalled these stories as clips of Morristown played in the background.

Many students said during the Trump Presidency the racism towards the Hispanic community escalated as many of the group said they were called slurs and told “to go back to their country.”

“Immigrant and Illegal Those are the words that they think of when they see people like us,” a student said.

One student told a story about how she was working at a local factory and another worker came up towards her and several other Hispanic workers and told them to go back to their country. She said the other Hispanic workers didn’t speak English so they smiled at her, thinking her words were kind.

A few students described the 2018 ICE Raid and how the event that separated many families brought the Hispanic community together.

The raid which was originally an IRS raid on a meat processing plant in the area, had a federal judge formally approve a settlement that provided more than $1 million to workers who were detained in the raid earlier this year

The approximately 100 workers who were detained during the raid, alleged that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Internal Revenue Service officers illegally targeted them as the warrant was related to the tax evading actions of the plant’s owner.

The case, which alleged unlawful policing and racial profiling, was certified as a class action in August 2022.

U.S. District Judge Travis R. McDonough of the Eastern District of Tennessee preliminarily approved the settlement in October 2022 and set a final approval hearing for Feb. 27, 2023.

As the documentary concluded, community members were asked to leave sticky notes, around the room on how they would like to see the community address to the issue.

After everyone finished with their sticky notes a few were invited to speak about their experience and how they wish to help.

At the end of the event Myers thanked Betsy Hurst, HOLA Lakeway executive director and the students for their dedication to the film.

“Thank to Betsy who works constantly to make the community a better place,” Myers said. “I was so happy that when I presented this idea to them they didn’t shoo me away but agreed to tell their stories.”

“It’s been great these past three months working with these young folk and having these hard conversations.”

Myers then presented the 16 students with certificates honoring each for their participation in the documentary.

“We want to thank you so much for coming out and hearing our stories,” Hurst said “There is change that needs to happen here, Morristown is a great place and this is where we belong.”