Flats. Kyle Johnson remembers that when production began there was a circus in town. As a result, the circus scene in the film features an actual circus rather than a staged one. Moreover, the circus scene included citizens of Fort Scott, who were there for the circus in town anyway. Additionally, Johnson recalls that his “most enjoyable work as an actor” was done under Gordon Parks. Specifically, Johnson says, “I really enjoyed The Learning Tree; for me it was like being part of a tight-run ship, a well-oiled machine. You do your part and you recognize its importance and relationship to all the other parts, cast, crew, director and so forth.” Parks is said to have followed his instincts while filming, and also encouraged the actors to follow their own instincts while acting. This ease while filming arguably contributed to the fact that scenes were shot in very few takes. During the film production, executives from Warner Bros. often visited the set. Warner sent representatives over to check up on Parks and to make sure that production was running smoothly, allegedly because Parks was an African-American director. Exodusters In 1879, many African Americans migrated to Kansas and they became known as the "Exodusters". Among those who traveled were the ancestors of Gordon Parks. His father, Andrew Jackson Parks, was a tenant farmer in Kansas. Given that Gordon Parks was born in Fort Scott, Kansas in 1912, he was the "issue of the second generation of exodusters". His ancestral background played a role in choosing Fort Scott as the filming location for The Learning Tree. The Exodusters earned their name after nearly 6,000 black Americans migrated to Kansas after the Emancipation. Their exodus was prompted by the 1879 Windom Resolution that encouraged African Americans to leave the southern states where they were still met with much hatred, even though the American Civil War had ended a little more than a decade earlier. Kansas promised a fresh start for the Exodusters, who wanted to begin a new life, in a new land, away from the southerners who had once enslaved them. Depictions of black manhood The Learning Tree juxtaposes the lives of Newt Winger and Marcus Savage, two former friends that are trying to find themselves in a white-dominated Midwestern society. Though these two young men have different personalities and different goals in life, both characters represent two examples of black manhood.