Local high school to be featured in HBO documentary

Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science's African American studies class project will be shown in the HBO series "Our Town".

Be featured in an hbo documentary series.

Wtva's rhea thornton met with a teacher from the high school to discuss its national recognized program .

The mississippi school for mathematics and science has a class that undergoes a special project... catching the attention of big filmmakers.

Huck yarborough - history teacher at msms: "if they focus and learn the past, they can make a difference in shaping our future."

Chuck yarborough works as a history teacher at mississippi school for math and science.

One of his courses is african american literature.

Chuck yarborough - history teacher at msms: "for much of our history, the stories not been told completely."

To change that, yarborough and his students created a semester-long project giving them an opportunity to research those buried in sandfield cemetery.

He calls the project the eighth of may emancipation celebration.

Chuck yarborough - history teacher at msms: "this project is an opportunity for students to not only learn a more complete history of our county and our state, but also to share that with the broad public."

The project allows students to write scripts after intense research about each african american figure buried in the cemetery.

The uniqueness of the project caught the eye of hbo filmmakers... giving them a chance to see what columbus had to offer.

Chuck yarborough - history teacher at msms: "the students are all excited to be a part of this - to get the attention, but also to recognize that the work they're doing for a class project has a broader impact.

They love that."

Hbo came to film the 2019 performance and after years of waiting, yarborough said he's eager to see how the documentary turned out.

Chuck yarborough - history teacher at msms: "if we can make a positive impact on young people in columbus and in our classrooms here, we can make a positive impact on young people throughout the state of mississippi."

The documentary, our towns will air tonight at 8 pm.

Reporting live for wtva 9 news i'm rhea thornton.