Students attending tonight's free showings and discussion of the film Glory will see a different side of American history.

The film, which is about the first black soldiers in the Civil War, depicts a history ignored in most textbooks, W. Terrell Jones, special assistant to the provost for underrepresented groups, said in news conference yesterday.

Students grabbed up about 280 tickets yesterday in less than half an hour, and about 75 were turned away, said Sharon Mortensen, assistant director of Campus Life and an adviser to Project Growth.

The two showings and discussions come at an appropriate time for the University because of current diversity course debates in the Faculty Senate, Jones said.

Free showings are being held to provide students with an opportunity to discover this history and realize the contributions different groups made during the war, he said.

Gary Gallagher, associate professor of American history, said aside from a few historical inaccuracies he attributed to Hollywood's need for drama, the film gives an honest portrayal of black soldiers in the Civil War.

"There's been a perception and continues to be a perception that somehow blacks were just passing observers of the Civil War," he said.

Although historians have started writing in the past few decades about the contributions of black men and women to history, films such as this bring that realization to a much wider audience, he said.

"I see this movie as evidence that Hollywood has finally tumbled to that fact," he said.

Film showings and discussions will take place at 7:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. at Cinema 5 movie theater, 116 Heister St. The program is sponsored by Project Growth, a group concerned with diversity issues on campus.

Last semester, the group sponsored a similar program built around Spike Lee's film, Do the Right Thing. About 400 students, faculty and staff members participated in that program.