“I am a man.” The words were simple, but the meaning was complicated. These words were just a simple phrase used to demand civil rights.The producer of the film “At the River I Stand,” a documentary of a civil rights movement in Memphis, will speak at the African-American and African Studies Community Extension Center today at 7 p.m. The center will show the award-winning film by Allison Graham, an associate professor in the department of communication at the University of Memphis. After the screening, Graham will speak about her upcoming documentary, “Hoxie: The First Stand.” The event is part of a lecture series sponsored by the department of African-American and African studies.Using actual footage and several interviews, “At the River I Stand” focuses on the struggles of 1,300 Memphis sanitation workers in the early 1960s who worked with low wages, unsafe working conditions and no benefits. Demonstrations followed after the workers were denied their requests. Shortly after, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other national civil rights leaders stepped in. The documentary traces the steps from the beginning of the strike to the assassination of King. The documentary calls this incident a turning point in the civil rights movement.”At the River I Stand” was nominated for an Emmy and NAACP Image Award. It won the Organization of American Historian’s Erik Barnouw Award in 1994 for outstanding documentary, based on how well the film depicts history. Graham’s next project “Hoxie: The First Stand” also looks into a little known civil rights event.”It is about a little known school integration process in Hoxie, Arkansas that she thought told an important story,” said Mary Galvin, an assistant professor in African-American and African studies. “This was before the more well-known school integration crisis in Little Rock.”On March 29, the department will hold its next lecture in the series, a lecture about the Yoruba revivalism.”At the River I Stand” is about an hour and the event is expected to last until 9 p.m. Refreshments will be provided. The event is free and open to the public. For more information call 292-3922.