Back to School—Three Legged Stool
On Friday the 28th I participated in the Third
annual Back to School program coordinated by The HistoryMakers and arranged by
211 schools in the United
States
Back to School is one of three legs on the THM stool. The
second leg is the “An Evening With” series, which is the primary fundraising
activity. Our fellowship, with few exceptions, is concerned with interviews and
programming records processing—the third leg; our perspective on what THM does
is therefore skewed. Although the two THM fellows from the program’s first year
were involved in the implementation of BTS, the fellows in the field joined the
HistoryMakers in the area and represented THM. Julieanna passionately believes
in the archives but within the greater context of THM’s purpose to educate and
preserve. I chose to emphasize these goals in my remarks.
I arrived at Annapolis
High School
Because a couple hundred of the ninth graders were on a
field trip, only a few hundred were at the assembly. Eugene Whiting, the ninth
grade principal, and an interested Junior girl opened the assembly and
introduced me. I was floored to see how young these Freshmen seemed. Although
the majority of the students were listening or, at the very least, not talking
during my remarks, a large minority engaged in a novel disruptive activity:
They clapped. They clapped when I came to the podium, they clapped when I said
hello, they clapped when I began my remarks, and they clapped two separate
instances when I finished.
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| Carl Snowden addresses 300 freshman |
These same students were more respectful to the
HistoryMakers. Chief Judge Robert M.
Bell of the Maryland Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, and Carl
Snowden, the director of the Office for Civil Rights in the Attorney General’s
office, knew each other from way back despite their generational difference.
Upon meeting them in the conference room, I was first struck with their
immaculate dress. Judge Bell, in his late 60s, was dressed conservatively with
a tan two piece suit, matching shoes, and a well groomed moustache but
nevertheless gave it a flair with a gingham shirt and matching pocket square,
which were complimented by his expertly knotted bow tie. Although long removed
from his native North Carolina
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| Excuse the blur: I didn't want the flash to detract from Judge Bell's remarks. |
Since both men are veteran public speakers and celebrities
of a sort, they held the ninth graders’ attentions better and longer than I was
able. They used entertaining and edifying anecdotes from their own lives or
others to emphasize the importance of education. The assembly broke after all
students recited The HistoryMakers “Commit” pledge. After a brief return to the
conference room we dropped in on very different classes: The first was IB World
History and the second was Theory of Knowledge. Our minders, for reasons I will
not attempt to fathom, emphasized the audience differences between the courses.
The World History course was ostensibly for tenth graders on the International
Baccalaureate track but was “mixed” with Juniors and Seniors. Judge Bell and
Mr. Snowden employed several well rehearsed scripts but also coolly and
thoughtfully replied to repeated questions about the death penalty. Despite Annapolis
The Theory of Knowledge class was, as I expect is the case
everywhere, composed of ambitious seniors. Although Judge Bell and Mr. Snowden
again performed well, the students were somewhat intrigued by me since I
admitted to taking ToK exactly 10 years ago. I was a professional, of what it probably didn’t matter, with
recent college experiences right at the time they were applying to colleges.
The teacher used one of my remarks about archives and the integrity of
information to discuss information literacy. Using an anecdote of my own, I
explained how significantly the Internet changed the information universe
during the course of my lifetime. I emphasized the importance of primary
documents, meaningful research and critical thinking beyond simple
verification, reading or listening to diverse sources, following fact checking
organizations that resist the media tendency to create false equivalence, be
suspicious of free information, and consider the motives of news givers.
We Are All Kunta Kinte
The Saturday following Back to School was largely devoted to
representing the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland
We were working with new display materials, which required
significant troubleshooting because of our small table and Mother Nature. The
wind played tricks with our poster display easel, our tiny easels for mounted
want ad reproductions, and every piece of literature we had; it felt as if the
entire project could be hurled into Ego Alley with the dozens of yachts. By the
time my morning shift was over the booth expanded to an unused adjacent, our
vulnerable displays were taped down, and our tiny table became a demonstration
zone for the database.
A very poignant moment took place at the end of my shift. A
speaker, whom I could not name or see because of an obstruction, reminded
everyone about the historical context. “It’s important to remember where we
are,” she began. “Here at the City Dock where people sit and watch boats in the
bay, slaves were brought for sale.” In fact, it was exactly 245 years since the
published arrival of the slave ship Lord Ligonier, which Kunta Kinte was
allegedly aboard, and advertisement for the slave auction to follow.
