Dudnick’s 2012 documentary film “Alice’s Ordinary People” will be screened at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Minot Public Library. The showing of the film will be followed by a online presentation by Dudnick. The film is a public viewing that won’t be shown online. However, people will be able to view the virtual presentation by Dudnick from anywhere.

Dudnick said in an interview on Feb. 17 that Tregay, who died in 2015, told him to call the film “ordinary people” because so much of what people accomplished in the second wave of the civil rights era was done by ordinary people.

Tregay taught political education classes that taught people how to run for office and how to manage political campaigns. She was involved in grass roots political campaigns voter registration drives and the early days of the civil rights era. People built on those early classes on the importance of getting involved in government and they led to the election of more people, particularly black people, to political office.

Dudnick said he had first made a film about the history of African Americans in Evanston, Illinois, which included a segment on Tregay’s brother, who had been the first black firefighter hired in the city’s fire department. Tregay’s brother wasn’t allowed to eat with the white firefighters when he was first hired and used separate silverware. Tregay liked the first film that Dudnick made and that he had focused on ordinary people. This led to the documentary film focusing on Tregay.

Submitted Photo Alice Tregay, pictured with Martin Luther King Jr., is the subject of the film documentary “Alice’s Ordinary People” that will be screened at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Minot Public Library in celebration of Black History Month.

Tregay was bright, hard-working, and tough and not only had a dream but had the tenacity to see it to completion, said Dudnick.

Minot Public Library Director Janet Anderson said the library has been celebrating influential African Americans during Black History Month. They have asked black business owners, professionals, organizers and others in the Minot community about African Americans who had a powerful influence on them. The stories have been shared on the library’s social media. The library director hopes other people will also submit stories about people who have influenced them. Anderson said the library also plans to continue the “Ordinary People” series after Black History Month and will showcase other groups such as Native Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, and Latinos,

“You don’t have to have a lot of name power to be an influencer,” said Anderson.