Robert Monson: Okay. Robert Monson: So black, disabled man has been tasked with making a way out of no way for themselves and others. Usually we are absent from the public, and a culture that defines anything that Isn't. Typical. They define it as weakness. Right Robert Monson: poor disabled black man have much to offer the national discourse around. How. Robert Monson: divesting from capitalism and anti racism efforts Robert Monson: right. I cannot say how many times I have sat through sermons
or policy discussions Robert Monson: lifted up by people who would be quote unquote, able-bodied. Robert Monson: and I have thought to myself. if only they would have run this by a black, disable man. Robert Monson: all right, so we we've got things to say. The South has something to say. Black men have something to say Robert Monson: so, since the inception of this makes him black. Men have labored along with black women to survive and to right, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention disabil
ity in our narrative. Robert Monson: as I recognize one of the major defining factors that still persist Robert Monson: is racism. It is white supremacy, right? And of course, ableism, too. Robert Monson: Yes, there are people that are born in the society with disability. Robert Monson: But racism has has played a a a huge part, right? So Robert Monson: racism has made many black men disabled during the height of American settle slavery. We know that through heart punishment, through lack of nou
rishment, through lack of resources. Robert Monson: various mental health struggles have come up Robert Monson: and have been executed by a society that does not love us. Robert Monson: And still black men have persisted. Robert Monson: Black men have overcome, and in risen Robert Monson: and sometimes risen with, and in spite of those things that have disabled us. black men were. Robert Monson: and our cast with surviving after the cruelty of slavery Robert Monson: in our society. Robert Monson
: And as a theologian. I pause there to reflect on the remarkable nature of a generation of black people may disabled, and who rose from the active and obtained their freedom, built their families, made wealth, and clung to their concepts of the fine. Robert Monson: the divine. Robert Monson: and that brings us to our current day. And another bit mass disabling of that that has struck black communities Robert Monson: right in the form of the COVID-19 F. Robert Monson: I'm. On Robert Monson: Kell
y Brown, Douglas, the theologians, as and her book, Resurrection Hope. He speaks to the various ways that black people have found themselves Robert Monson: and for themselves in this crisis He knows the need of a God who is black. who identifies with the struggle of black people? Is she right? Robert Monson: As Black Death was becoming more and more routine in the nation. whether at the hands of the police, or from COVID-19 virus. She talks about her son Robert Monson: challenging her. My son is
my faith in a black Christ. Robert Monson: and a God who actually cares about Robert Monson: black people. Robert Monson: So we know that this pandemic has painfully illuminated the underlying disabilities of black man. Lots of conversations about co morbidity seem to flatten out the experiences of black men already existing with disabilities Robert Monson: when systems of care and prevention were put into place. Robert Monson: Governmental agencies, church body schools, all of those seem to by
pass black men Robert Monson: in various walk Robert Monson: of light. And then, Floyd. Robert Monson: what would black men were disabled have to say about how to sustain by vibrant community. Robert Monson: knowing that we already have to cultivate those for our so one wisdom to black, disable men bring to churches that found themselves tacked with creating digital communities. Robert Monson: I heard a lot about that. I didn't see a lot of round tables of blind, disabled Matt. Robert Monson: an
d so we are tasked with creating a better future. a new future. Robert Monson: And as articles and governing bodies push to return to normal, black, disabled man Robert Monson: know that this is impossible. Robert Monson: normal, wasn't working for it, and it's not working for a lot of you. Robert Monson: right. And I want to return to the question that I asked you earlier about name any prominent black, disabled, met. Did you find that difficult to name and imagine black, disabled men, both in
in in society Robert Monson: and celebrity? You know Hood and the Academy. Robert Monson: What do you think that says about? Robert Monson: What do you think that it said about your own interpersonal relationship? Knowing that one in 4 black Robert Monson: adults are disabled. What do you think that means in terms of resource, allocated Robert Monson: right? And so we know that if you cannot see us. if you cannot envision that I know that Robert Monson: we are not included in the the conversatio
ns around patriarchy and around masculinity Robert Monson: right Robert Monson: when I think about the rest, that I, as the theologians need to obtain. I think, of obtaining rest for the black, disabled man, both now with the resources of our society and our community, and in the afterlife. You know Jesus pumps the disciples Robert Monson: resources both now and then the aids to come right. And so I want to leave you with some words from Robert Monson: dear brother. Robert Monson: who talks abou
t his work with toxic masculinity and patriarchy, as well as his own disabling. Robert Monson: You said, after spending most of my morning at the Dog Park. I promptly sat down, and my Macbook in it. I attempted to unlock it Robert Monson: so I could begin writing. so it was much later, and then I preferred, and had intended. Robert Monson: as i'm most in to type my password. It's still stiff from what felt like Arctic wins. my hands refused. I had been diagnosed with most people over this nearly
a decade before, and this is a typical symptom. Robert Monson: Oh, perfect Robert Monson: story is moving to me as he talks about being a black man. Robert Monson: disabled Robert Monson: and not heard in society. Not listen to. Robert Monson: Huh! Robert Monson: Black, disabled men we serve in spaces that we're not met for, and we strive along with the rest of our community Robert Monson: to make meeting. to create liberation, and out of thin air, and we cry painful tiers when our disability R
obert Monson: runs up against capitalism and white supremacist. Robert Monson: When our disabilities are not freezed with tender care by other black men or women. Robert Monson: we are here, we have been, and we will be in the future. Robert Monson: and here are a few resources that I would recommend for you all, and Robert Monson: thank you for your time. Thank you for listening, and I hope I was able to make much Robert Monson: black, disabled man. Presenters: Thank you, Mr. For raising our aw
areness of the need to see black, disabled men. Presenters: Our next discussion is, I'm. Going to try to make a better pad Presenters: for the new era of us Critical conversations, spaces as consciousness, rate and context Presenters: on black women. This Presenters: discussion with with Gabriel Kobe. I hope I'm. Pronouncing that you're a male gang, Nara Johnson, Jamal S. Matthews. It will be presented to us today by Miss Miss Kooby. She is a doctoral student at University of Michigan's combined
program in education and psychology. Presenters: She is interested in the development of intersectional awareness among black girls and women as well as young black people's development of a critical consciousness as they navigate educational institutions. Presenters: and how young black people, from their conceptions of race as they as they develop and navigate in the aforementioned by. Presenters: Do I need to? Presenters: Yeah, you will Presenters: click on the Powerpoint, I? Presenters: The
re'll be another one of. Presenters: And then, yeah, you want to share your zoom. Okay. Presenters: Okay. you Presenters: Okay. So good morning. Everyone as was mentioned before. My name is Gabriel Kuby. I'm. A 30 year, Phd. Student and Education Psychology at the University of Michigan. and today i'll be presenting findings from a project of mine entitled I'm going to try to make a better path for the new era. That's critical conversation spaces as consciousness raising context for young black
women. Presenters: So first day i'd like to walk you through a little bit of the research that kind of underpinned my programming and the analysis that I conducted. So firstly, let's kind of reach a common definition of critical conversation spaces just so that we're all operating from the same framework. Presenters: So critical conversation, Spaces or Ccs are affinity groups that are facilitated by, and for black girls and girls of color, with scaffolding for black women and women of color educ
ators. Presenters: And these spaces center thickness can ship through a reflection on a common issue, or team, oftentimes having to do with gender race or the intersection between these things and focusing on we can how we can kind of feel these familiar bonds, even with people that we may not be related to through these sorts of conversations. Presenters: So the original work on critical conversation Spaces was posed by Carter, Andrews, and colleagues in 2,019, and she discusses these intervent
ions or methods as a one time instance. So researchers came in. They had these conversations with young girls during schools, and then they left. But then there were resulting tensions, because the girls were wondering when the researchers would return to continue having these conversations with the girls, but timing and personnel constraints that school space kind of preventing the realization of this need. Presenters: And so Carter, Andrews and colleagues recommended that future research. Look
into what it would mean for girls to have these conversations in our current sort of continuous manner. And so, since i'm 2019, research has kind of investigated what it looks like to have these repeated conversations for girls, and how this has utility for their development. Presenters: So, in order to kind of expand on that research, and to justify the need for these sorts of spaces and schools, I thought that an evidence based curriculum. That kind of Presenters: 6 plants or helps to facilit
ate Ccs. Would allow schools to see their merit, and would also allow educators to continuously draw out. Presenters: Excuse me, these rich understandings about social systems, justice, race, and gender that black girls possess, but that we don't always get to be a witness to if we only have these sorts of conversations with them one time as opposed to continuously Presenters: These lines are speaking. Okay. So this is what made my partnership with the rising High School sort of a perfect opport
unity to pursue investigating these questions. Presenters: So in November, of 2,021, the assistant principal of horizon high, reached out to my faculty advisors at the University of Michigan, looking for a graduate student who would be interested in doing this identity based on consciousness, raising work with their girls and their students broadly. And that was me Presenters: Another thing that made this partnership with Verizon Hi very timely in particular, particularly of worth. What's the pr
esence of something? During the school day called seminars? Presenters: So at horizon the last hour block of the school day is reserved for things that would traditionally be after school activities or extracurriculars, to kind of excite the students and keep them engaged during the school day following the resumption of in-person instruction As the pandemic subsided in. Presenters: So, despite horizon being a predominantly black high school, the seminar offering separate for girls focus more so
on topics of professional development and financial wellness, and so they didn't have a specific space to meditate on their identities, and when this sort of socio-political content was engaged. Presenters: it was oftentimes done through a masculine lens. So a teacher made an anecdote about college access and inequity, and the exceptionalism in parent in those sorts of topics and issues for black men in that. Oftentimes they're socialized or told explicitly that they won't attain that college a
ccess. If they don't get athletic scholarships Presenters: and so talking about college inequity through this traditionally masculine months of sports was not as engaging for the girls in the space they became quieter. They weren't involved in these conversations. And so, even during the sort of off moments when these sorts of topics were being engaged, the girls weren't necessarily getting to participate. Presenters: So thinking about my classroom observation interactions. I've started to think
specifically about what I wanted my programming to do and how I would have tied these objectives back to you know existing research. And so the main theoretical frameworks there which I did was the positive youth development model for girls of color. Presenters: And this model articulates that these green or traditional positive development. Assets, like confidence in confidence, for girls of color should radiate from a central ecosystem critical consciousness. Presenters: And this is an idea o
f marginalized young people being able to critically analyze social systems, make systemic attributions for inequality, and eventually develop a desire to resist against these forms of oppression. And so when these girls develop these traditional positive use development assets Presenters: through this you goes to critical consciousness. They're able to resist depression, as I mentioned before, and to be resilient in the face of it. Moreover, I wanted to center Collectiveism as a framework in my
programming, which is a tenant of radical healing psychology. We're in marginalized people, heal from oppression, not just in isolation, but do so in community with others who share those marginalized experiences. Presenters: And I was also thinking constantly about refusals in my programming and my analysis. Presenters: So what community knowledge that I think it was necessary to keep between myself and my girls, myself, and my school partners and myself and my research teams as not to extrapo
late these narratives to other parties in the Academy, who may misuse them, and who may be more interested in deficit narratives about our young black people. Presenters: So here I want to show specifically how the objectives of my programming aligned with that main framework of the positive use development for girls of color. So, in developing a sense of sister plan and collective identity, the girls would cultivate the tenants of connection and caring and being able to develop a sense of self
value that aided their connection to our community, the girls would cultivate the asset of confidence. Presenters: and being able to define their identities on their own terms, and while still understanding how misguided notions of who they are, maybe help others. Girls would develop competence as well as character. Presenters: So I've talked a little bit about how you know theory, and the actual practice of being in the school community impacted my work, but I also wanted to talk about how my s
ubjectivity and my own identity is kind of played into this project. Presenters: and these are Presenters: so when I think about my positionality, the 2 words that come to mind specifically our relationality and purpose, and so that positive youth development for girls of color model articulates the importance of relationality. Where, in girls are forming testing relationships with adults in their lives. Presenters: where they can derive a sense of purpose in our personally as well as a sense of
purpose like throughout their development, more broadly Presenters: so. Similarly, as I began my graduate research career, I was looking for the sense of purpose and relationality in my work because I started graduate school during the pandemic. Presenters: My first year of graduate school was entirely online, I'm. From Northern Virginia. So in going to Michigan I was moving 10 h away from home, and I didn't really have any social connections to other folks. Aside from the ones that i'd already
had prior to the pandemic. Presenters: So as I got further along in my research career and my graduate program and I have this space to in pursue research questions that were intrinsically motivating to me, and not to engage in projects just because I felt a pressure to produce or achieve or serve my work as a black woman in a predominantly white space. Presenters: I thought about how those ideas about my work that my competence are already inherently assumed, like when i'm spending time with m
y family. Presenters: so as the youngest daughter to my parents, as a baby sister to my 2 older sisters and my brother in laws, and then, auntie, to my geniuses who are in the back today, and I love you all. I think about how I can replicate the care and the Presenters: they'll be try to afford to one another in my work with black youth in schools and Blackro specifically when they're in the schooling context that are steeped in white supremacy, and may not hear about or celebrate them in those
in. Presenters: So these are the findings of my work. I'm thinking about my positionality on my school interactions and the theory altogether. If you'd like to talk about the methods and the specific analysis, we can definitely do that during the question and answer. Presenters: So the specific question that will or Can' it? But the specific question that was guiding my mind, Evaluation of my programming was, what means wants and ideas of black girls should have critical conversations based curr
iculum, foreground, and there were 6 themes that I developed in response to this research question, the first of those being 5, Presenters: followed by diversity, critical consciousness, resistance, and resilience, assurance, confidence, and confidence, as well as revisions and improvements. But for the sake of time today I'll only concentrate on a few of these schemes and stuff. Presenters: So the first one i'd like to talk to you all about today is by best relation month. So when we were begin
ning to start this programming and I was having conversations with girls. they were saying that something was important to them was a space where they could kind of have the advice with people and catch a good by, and that's the space that we created. But when I ask them. What does that 5 mean? What does it feel like? They were saying it was undescribable. It felt like they were around their soul mates. Presenters: And so we began to think about Vibe as something that spiritual or psychic that a
llows us to sort of disarm ourselves. One we're in the presence of people that we get along with, and because we are, there's not a sense of power differential in this space. Presenters: And so this by that relational, was achieved through feelings of rest and welcome. We're in the space centered communal Feelings and Co. Construction. And so here we have a quote from one of my girls named Violet for research purposes Where? And she said, When i'm connected to my ancestors, it's just amazing. Pr
esenters: I'm like all the blood sweat and tears and trauma y'all went through. I'm going to try to make a better path for the new era of us like when I connected to all my people as a color person, it's like a different vibration. It's a different energy or a that I love. Presenters: So here we see violent articulating the importance of connection and caring and building this relational vibe, which is a specific asset spoken to in the positive use development for girls with phone model. Present
ers: Moreover, she talks about this relationality, not just as one that she feels with her peers or her facilities in the program. But that's something that allows her to reach back and connect intergenerationally to her ancestors. So we can think about this vibe as relational, not just as folks getting along in the present moment. Presenters: but doing so in such a way that allows them to spiritually connect back to their ancestors, and then to re-orient their futures towards wanting to build t
hose caring communities for others. Presenters: Another way through which we achieve this relational device and sharing our astrological signs with each other. And so, when I would do something to be like, oh, gabby's like that, because she's a gem, and I. Presenters: So when we think about those astrological signs and the personality traits that are assigned to them, that's also a means through which the girls were able to kind of understand or anticipate what they might get from one another, a
nd that helped us to kind of co- construct norms for how we wanted to interact with each other as Presenters: the second theme i'd like to talk to all about today, was critical consciousness. Wearing girls were critically examining their social world in a way that was orienting them towards a commitment to social justice. Presenters: So here we have royalty articulating the nature of anti-black racism in the United States Presenters: talking about how viracial black white people are kind of pose
d as a buffer class in this racist system, and how this buffer class status is derived as a remnant from Presenters: slavery, where, in lights in folks Presenters: reported the privilege of domestic labor and so here we have royalty, relying on these socio-historical attributions when explaining her thoughts about racing color, and her peers did so as well, and engage in this sort of reflection about topics of gender and desirability as well in her specific individual interview. Royalty relied o
n these critical attributions when explaining how she presented or prevented herself from internalizing colorist messages about life in those Presenters: about dark, same folks and all the girls in the Space communication, a form of localized critical reflection where they were articulating their lived experiences with racism in such a way that motivated them to want to resist that racist oppression in their lives. Presenters: So it was not just the case that girls were kind of analyzing things
through a singular lens of racism, but that they were exhibiting their intersectional awareness. And so girls were particularly examining their social world through an interceptional lens, and highlighting the interlocking nature of multiple courses of oppression. Presenters: So here we have here articulating that not everybody lives in a big house when they're black women. The way that society sets us up is harder for us. I don't see a lot of white women get pregnant early. I see a lot of black
girls have that happen to them like it's sad. It's just like partner for us. Presenters: And so here Kira is explicitly mentioning the interception between multiple social forces she's naming the specific impacts of classism on black women by virtue of the gendered racism that's endemic to the United States. Presenters: and she's saying that these material privileges of like a high socioeconomic status, are something that is kind of reserved for white women, despite them, sharing a gender ident
ity with black women by virtue of you know, the privileges afforded by whiteness. Presenters: She also poses early pregnancy as a specific intersectional challenge for black women that white women do not face by virtue of this system of class-gendered racism. Presenters: She says that early pregnancy is something that happens to black girl she doesn't say they get pregnant early, because they're fast or promiscuous, or they're making for life choices. She attributes it to this specific intersect
ional system and the specific privileges that you know white women are recorded in that they don't have to contend with the specific challenge. Presenters: Still, though we saw girls who are beginning to pull today are just struggling to articulate this intersectional awareness. So Royalty says that sometimes she believes that want to reach the black. Girls are jealous of mixed girls because they're prettier or better, or their skin will get all of the guys. Presenters: So, even though on the pr
evious slide we saw royalty making these systemic attributions for racism and colorism. When I was asking her to think intersectionally about gender colorism. She went back and made these sort of individual level attributions about jealousy. So girls were at different points in this intersectional awareness. That was something that was being cultivated and meditated upon in this space. Presenters: And lastly, girls had several ideas for revisions and improvements. They wanted to see to the criti
cal conversations based in order for it to better meet their needs. Presenters: So they wanted to collaborate more, be more creative, learn more about women's rights, and they were also interested in learning about beauty, standards, and desirability. As these topics have warnings on black women's, conceptualizations of themselves. Presenters: And so. Lastly, I just like to leave you with a few takeaways and a little bit of a orientation about where my work is going to go. Presenters: So, in doi
ng this sort of consciousness. Raising work with young black women is very important that we listen to and learn from them in the ways that are not hierarchical, that we be attentive to gendered and gender racial differences and their schooling experiences, and the way that they're treated. Presenters: that we provide them unique resources where they can feel cared for, and where they can engage in this kind of learning alongside their friends. Presenters: and that we focus on cared in this work
something that came very organically out of the programming was a sense of communal care and an understanding of the importance of self care. And this is something that i'd like to continue to investigate, as I include new facilitators in the program, and see how they care for girls, how the girls learn to care for them as they Co. Construct these projects about identity belonging and racism. Presenters: So Presenters: yeah, show me one more slide. Okay, yeah. So i'd like to say, thank you all
for your care and attention today. Thank you specifically to the girls with whom I did my programming, my school partners, my research team, Mara and Mel, especially my research assistants and my peers at the University of Michigan, as well as my funders. Presenters: And this is my contact information, and i'll be happy to hear some work from you all during the question and answer portion. Thank you so much. Presenters: Thank you, Gary. You're working with the Verizon. Hi, girls, is fascinating.
Thank you for raising their voices today for us Presenters: from this project. Presenters: Our next speaker is Dr. Greg Suzanne Ferguson. She will be speaking her title of CRT in Education, and the just names Project. Presenters: Dr. Ferguson is the founder of Mothers of Diversity, America and director of its just names project working across the country to eradicate the symbolic violence of public schoolings, honor, and white supremacy in the Confederacy. Presenters: She is a director for a Fe
deral program at Hampton University, with articles published in the Washington Post, Richmond, Fresh Free Press, Charleston, Kazan, and the Southern Poverty lost in our periodical teaching tolerance. Presenters: She also Ea in the history of Art and Architecture, from Harvard University, and in a masters in school counseling and a doctrine in education and leadership studies from Marshall University. Presenters: Thank you all for having me Presenters: going to start my time. Okay. Presenters: go
od morning, stuff. So good morning. Presenters: My presentation is about a trying of it. Struggle I should, I'll say, try not to. Now. We we have been victorious in in part in our struggle, but it's a it's a personal journey in a way for me. Presenters: and I just want to go over briefly some of the steps that were taken by what turned out to be a coalition. Presenters: Thank you Presenters: to get the name of some schools in West Virginia and in Virginia changed from those honoring white suprem
acists they've had, you know, didn't swing all the way through to those in some cases to those honorary Presenters: African American heroes and heroin, but they were neutralized at the very least. Presenters: so it's called the just names prop just names project, and it's a short for equity and justice in public schools Names Presenters: it's presented by Mothers of Diversity, America, which is a nonprofit that I found it to use as a vehicle for this project. Actually. Presenters: so, for all of
you researchers out there, it's a great opportunity I want to say this was this was like fire shut up in my bones, and it and I had to do it. I had to do it, and I had to find a way to do it as a public educator for over 25 years, coming out of Presenters: like underserved neighborhoods, cut my teeth in Harlem schools, and I found myself in West Virginia West by God, Virginia, at some point when my parents that's where they retired, and I went there to to help them navigate their their golden y
ears Presenters: after. It's a refuge there because of this, you know. If you colleague Wilderness and wow, wonderful, you know natural setting. But there was a lot of unconscious bias, and i'll say unconscious. Why? Is because West Virginia is kind of allotted as a state that was created out of the secession from Virginia during civil war. But it was a secession that was Presenters: that was Presenters: out of necessity, because Western Virginia could not. Basically they could not benefit from
the plantation lifestyle of slavery for Jada, because it's it's in the Appalachian Mountain. So they were not getting any economic value from the whole industry of. Presenters: And so, however, it's Constitution actually adopted the Virginia Constitution. So there was slavery in West Virginia during the Civil War, so I I found myself in West Virginia. Presenters: carry on with my counseling role in the schools there in Canal County, West Virginia. Not so problem. Presenters: I saw a problem when
I was asked to go to a school on the west side of Charleston, which is kind of, I call it herbal. It's Urban and Appalachian. Presenters: and Presenters: so it has a social world of being in inner city, but also the you know, regional laws of being in a distressed Appalachian region. But this area of of of West was Charles Did had school, and had been named in 1,940. After Presenters: the pre eminent Presenters: historic figure in West Virginia, who happened to be Stonewall Jackson and I walk i
nto the school. That's a Wait a minute. My history. Excuse me, I was an art, Major. I was counselor, but what's his Stonewall Jackson? A Confederate general. Now, mind you, in 1,940. When the school was name. Presenters: it was touted as a proud name, given to a school in 1,940, not not not 18, 80, 1940, during the massive resistance and culprits of massive resistance were united dollars of the Confederacy, and they went around the United States trying, you know. They They perpetuated the loss,
the lost Cause Presenters: narrative of the Civil War, and they wanted to honor all of those who were lost in in the war on the Confederate side. Presenters: So they probably did this narrative. They try to change textbooks to to to, you know, perpetuate the myth, that it was a lost cause. It had nothing to do with slavery. It was about, you know, people coming in and trying to Presenters: take away States State rights to cover. Presenters: So I walk into this school, and I saw nothing in the la
wyer that would tell me who this guy was. Now, mind you, this area had been on the hills overlooking the blacks Presenters: in the hills had been a segregated area of Charles in West Virginia. The flats had been where poor White and slaves had lived. There were salt mines in the area, and the the hills were where the plantations and the big houses were, and it had been segregated up until 1,954. Presenters: So, however, after Brown versus board of education, when they had about Presenters: 7 bla
ck students bust into this school to integrate the school, the school, this, the demographics in the area changed. There was white light, and the neighborhood had become Presenters: a very large percentage of African Americans at 20%. Now in West Virginia. That's a lot of African Americans, because they only has 4%. But in this particular school Presenters: there were 54% of that of African American populations or people of color in this school at this time in 2,000, and I was just like what is
happening here. Presenters: and to my I guess my. I guess mine Presenters: had joy and disappointed. There was nothing to say. Why, the school in the 4 year there was nothing being homage to Stonewall Jackson. And I wonder you know how the school system in this now, i'm coming from New York, so I have to be very careful hatred. But I wonder how Presenters: how how how folks could to abide with this. So I went around and asked people, you know. You know why. Why this is going on. Why, the school
is still named after this person. Presenters: and there was just no Presenters: great awareness. There was just no consciousness about it. People were really concerned, especially my educator. Peers are really concerned about what's being taught in this holes, and I get it. They said they're big if it's fish to pry how you we just need to. We just need to go in and do the work which I did, until one day when a young man from the football team had to be a sweater, and on the session was this: You
know, very coops, gentlemen, in that hardy style can better have it. The cross source is really bucked. Presenters: But his face was a black guy. Presenters: and I said, this is the mascot of our school. It's a Confederate African American rapport. We're in the Confederate em one. We've gone too far. I'm sorry. I just you know I know it might have been low hanging through, but I was. I was just concerned that we were worried about, you know, ferreting out unconscious bias in our testing and in
our facilities and in our diagnosis of disabilities, things of that nature and and and but this you know. How could we tell our students that we had? We were on their size for sure Presenters: American students if we let this continue. So I found a problem. I started writing about it and started walking around with petition, and you know I was met on the quarters and went on the west Side talked to the guys on the corner, and they were really angry Presenters: that they didn't know who could sto
ne what Jackson was. They were very angry, and they were also more more in their that they they had, You know Presenters: their lack of this education that calls them to, you know. Go into fields where they couldn't really write their names on the on their back, on the on the Presenters: petition, you know, because they wanted to maintain the anonymity, but they were angry. You know they were embarrassed that their lack of of knowledge about. Presenters: You know who they had been honoring with
their talents with their skills, and I would go to track me in here over the last speaker. Stonewall Jackson wins again and see a beautiful brown girl running across the finish line, and I look up in the bleaches, and i'd see some people have 5 and and some other people low 5. And and I just wonder. Presenters: is this is this something that is is being done? Is it? Is it a map, a mockery. Is it? Is it just hapless, or is it purpose? Presenters: And so I started writing articles. Presenters: and
so it's doing that. I I wrote for the Washington Post over the years I I got in the early 2,000 when I started this mission just as a immediate campaign. I got Presenters: a lot of a lot of notoriety. I got a lot of notoriety, and my safety was was in jeopardy. So I retreat. Presenters: My My peers at the University said, You know the pen is mighty than the silver curl. This is. You need to come inside the cubicle and right, which I did. Presenters: cannot believe that with 10 min talking about
this, and I started writing. I started writing, and I wrote on research that would contribute to an analysis of where public school naming fits into the contemporary cultural landscape. I wanted to contribute to a potential battle in in the courts about the constitutionality of public schools there are over 200 schools. Still. Well, at this point we've had some successes Presenters: right now. There should be somewhere in the midst of a 100 5,260 schools, mostly across the South, still named af
ter Confederates and white supremacists in the nation. Presenters: And so the premise of the of the research was that educational leadership programs have an ethical responsibility to interrogate these systems, and we wanted to evaluate the subtleties of school names and culture and shaping the identities of students teachers and their communities. Presenters: I thought this work I I I did work around critical race theory as a bad work. I couldn't believe that I saw cnn state critical reason. I
thought I was the only one to do, but CRT was at all state, and then cnn with somebody in Florida, and to stand to to somebody started, you know, targeting CRT: I mean. But really just puts it puts live in context. So basically that's all any could, you know, Critical work, does it's put it. It puts. You know our existence in context of the times, and Presenters: and I don't understand how people don't know that. And I also work with Derek Alderman, who is a cultural Dr. For in Tennessee I use a
lot of his work, and we do presentations on on on on these issues Presenters: across the country. So I decided to do it all ethnography. So anyone who doesn't know that that's when you aren't part of the participating sample of your work, because I wouldn't my voice to be heard in those rooms as well, and I named the the the research, the perception and effects, the schools names and on black professional educators and your students. So it's qualitative and all ethnography. Presenters: And we h
ad a race center convenient sample from the black caucus of the nda from some of the Panhellenic sororities and fraternities, and then from teachers on the west side of Charleston. Presenters: So we started started local, and then we branched out to to look at some national issues. So we wanted to see what their perceptions reveal Presenters: and do the Presenters: through the prism of cultural geography. There's 3 tenants. There's symbolic capital, symbolic resistance and symbolic violence. So
naming places and land and landmarks can present those effects on people that can we use this to model capital, especially schools. Presenters: It could be used as symbolic resistance where people are check trying to change the times, or they can be present violence. Whenever you go into a place or room through Parks, and you see landmarks, you know, honoring Presenters: people who should not be honored. So. Presenters: as a lot of our educators that I interview had gone through segregation segr
egation themselves. They had been educated themselves in segregated institutions, and they found that, you know there are always ways of doing critical race curriculums. They were critical race pedagogies that they miss when they were integrated. When they were forced to to integrate, they found that Presenters: that it helps to shave the consciousness and pride as students. Presenters: and then it helped them to, you know, be specifically engaged Educators who saw that Presenters: schools renam
ed after prominent blacks, You know. There was another school in the same area that we thought to get named after Mary C. Snow, who was an educator, a local educator we wanted to honor, and it was really hard by. Presenters: Well, we find, had had a named after her. We were able to introduce Crc. It current crp which enhance student engagement and community engagement, and they were able to get back more readily to the black community. And in the school that was named after snow. Law Jackson, wh
ere some of the teach, some of my my participants were from it. It it did. It did cause symbolic violence to them. It was a micro again crash every time they walked in, and Presenters: they didn't want to have their name as teacher of the year. That's still on Jackson for a lifetime, and it also presented those challenges as a high school for a lot of the young people who would forever be attached to the name of a of a white supremacist, you know, or with their diplomas. Presenters: So it gave.
It gave them also an emotional area to giving back an exacerbated tensions created by racial microaggressions of their colleagues. So it was already in an environment where, if someone may have had a microgression, it was isolated. It just exacerbated that Presenters: and then it question America's ideals. So Presenters: I'm just gonna go quickly through this. So I want it in the in the interest of time. Presenters: So when when there were schools named after prom prominent black. Presenters: It
socioeconomic factors were overarching challenges in that black inner city communities were reveal the significance of the name predicated on Crc. And communities. Cultural awareness was made more prominent. Presenters: and it was about a capitol that framed the hidden curriculum of a positive school of vibrating culture. It was uses the Spring Board in schools that were named after my services. They did none of that. And so the reason that I did this work and it, and and I have some. I have so
me Presenters: QR. Codes. If you're interested in in in looking at it, it's because I wanted to use it going forward, as the Clark doll studies were used. The Clark do all studies, Kenneth and Mimi Clark in 1,939. They were commissioned by the Naacp to do the dull studies. Presenters: And if any of you are aware of those dolphins, how many of you are aware of the doll studies? Okay, and the dolls were. One was white, one was black, and they were introduced to have African American on children, a
nd they were asked to select what they like better, and they all chose the white golf. So Presenters: that was the Dolphin. It was like. So there is behavioral realism in the Supreme Court because Supreme Court use that to to justify their their brow versus Board of Education ruling. Presenters: and it in so saying that the Brown Court concluded to separate black children from others of similar agent qualifications fully because of their ration. There's a feeling of inferior feelings that never
come into the Supreme Court before that, and so I wanted to express the feeling that Presenters: working in our schools, named after the white supremacist created in Presenters: black professionals Presenters: and even white professionals. In all all you know, conscious human beings of going to school and honoring them with your talents and skills as as an educator where you know you are honoring the name of someone who the Confederacy wanted to modify by naming them in the 1,900 fortys. After P
resenters: these these public institutions. you know, education is a public trust. So so I've been hoping that we can continue. I'm going to go back if I can. Presenters: I worked with a a couple of of of wonderful organizations they had. The Virginia Naacp was one of that Presenters: Mr. Barnett. Presenters: We were able to turn over to schools, names in hand over county with with this, with this information, People across the country have been using this study to have these local fights Presen
ters: in our district. You know we we had the Washington Lawyers Committee come and help us, and in hand over help us fight. And just to make sure that this Presenters: school boards, where i'll notice that we were willing to take it to the next level to to the court system, and unfortunately, with the martyrdom of George Floyd in 2,020. It was an idea whose time is finally come, and so many school boards across the country willingly change the names. But we want to have this as a a constitution
al, a negative. We'd like it to be, you know, if I we proceeded as a violation of the equals Presenters: people, protections, clause, just as an integration was so we're still fighting the battle with the National Education Association on our side. If we can get the Washington Lawyers Committee to do some more propo. No work, but will be on what we'll be cooking with fire. Presenters: But there are lots of implications for future researcher practice. We can study the experiences of educators acr
oss the country. Presenters: In some populations make sure that we have a consistent Presenters: factual narrative of what the Civil War was, and although many all of the educators, you know, would would, were gracious enough to admit that those 4 years of the Civil War, you know Reed, havoc Presenters: for you know, for society in general it does not Presenters: supersede for 100 years of you know it's like African American, so I mean, it cannot supersede that. Presenters: So we want to work, y
ou know, large to the reconciliation groups across the country, I mean. So we're working on a toolkit right now that we can. We can. We can distribute across to anyone who's interested in battling in and this in their own local areas. Presenters: Thank you. Presenters: Thank you, Dr. Ferguson. We appreciate you helping us to understand the implications that having schools named after competitive leaders leadership is the need to Confederate leaders Presenters: and the need for the project that y
ou have. We look forward to hearing more about that project. Our last presenter is Frederick Gooding. Presenters: Frederick is an Associate History professor, and and the Doctor Honolulu, and that Professor of humanities at Texas, Christian University, and Fort Worth, Texas. He will be presenting black statues what they stand to tell us in our nation's capital. I'm going to use virtual. So. Presenters: Frederick, do we have you? Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Yes, I believe so. Good morning. Frederi
ck Gooding (Dr. G): Good morning, everyone. I am not with you all in person, because I am at Pre-view, Texas, and I was like Sister Gabrie was saying about feeling welcomed and connected. My daughter Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): did not take just one gap here, but 2, Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): so we are very excited over the prospect of this child being able to fly out the nest if you know what i'm saying. So, I had to be here. I had to be here, but that being said, I just want to go ahead and put
some thoughts on the table with the time we have left, and if you're curious you can read a little bit more about this book project i'm working on instead of black statutes. As I was researching with the National Gallery of Art, you know, when I started a couple of years ago so real quick this y'all. Can anyone name me the name of the statute? Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): I'm: Sorry. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Oh, okay. Alright, so we passed that testing Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): What's the name
of the statue Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): up top here? Yeah, you'll see this building before. Remember January 6. You may seen it in the news Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): it's called what Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): see? That's the thing that's just so odd, you know it's it's it's right in front of us. But a lot of people don't know the name of it, right? It's actually called the Statute of Freedom. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): And so what I like to suggest to everyone is someone. See how to section
a liberty? Was this beacon of light for incoming, You know, immigrants. This idea that the American dream was, you know, a possibility for many, and we all know the qualifications of that right Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): that you know. And again, my brother Robert once was talking about a society that doesn't love us back right. And so we all know about the racial friction. We had to endure the idea that I would like to deposit that for many African Americans, who moved North with the great migr
ation, particularly to Washington, DC. In the in the advent of World War Ii. That the Statute of Freedom Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): personified this idea that if there's one place you could go in the country to get a fair shake, it would be DC. Arguably the one place where the business is about democracy, freedom, justice. I I think you all heard this before, right? Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): And so the reason why I focus on black statues in DC. Is because Washington, DC. Has a unique or what I
call constitutional responsibility to the public right. One of the very few cities I know that has a street name after every state in the country. Right is this idea that it represents all of who we are, and, as you see here by this quote. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): What we cherish is an ideal for our nation as a whole must today be honestly exemplified by the Federal establishment that was none other by President Joint Dean Eisenhower. He said, this right? And so that's the reason why I focus o
n Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): black statutes in DC. Because I think this is a a project of national imports; but as the African pro goes, the elephant is eaten one bite at a time, and so this is the first bike that I would like to start with right as far as okay. Well, what's happening at the nation's capital when people come from all over the world and all over the country, and I focus on on this idea of Well, we will first let me just backtrack a little bit. We talk about DC: Frederick Gooding
(Dr. G): one of the primary areas that people go to visit is the National Mall, as you know, and I think what's so fascinating about the National Mall is that historically, for longest time there's virtually no African American presence, and for those of you who remember. Yes, there is a museum of African art as part of the Smithsonian. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): But African art is different than African-american presence, right in so the African American, the National Museum of African American
history and culture was just newly installed in 2,016, and if you wanted to go see a museum dealing with black culture, you had to Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): take it, Metro. Then take a bus and cross the river to the Anacostian Museum. Right? So African American presence was very minimal. The Mlk memorial was installed in 2,011, so very very minimal and so what fascinating is. But when you do go, what is very, very ample and plentiful is this idea of the neoclassical style right? And this is so
so very fascinating, because if you go to Europe you'll find chairs older than the United States of America. So when America was creating it's Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): image, if you would, as far as you know, what it wanted to represent, you know, in the capital, you know, back when it was building. You know they they tell you with their own English that they wanted to park in after this Greek and Roman style from back in the day that that they felt was the the pinnacle of civilization, right
? And so, when we talk about you know what my sister Ferguson was talking about, as far as cultural geography and symbology and messaging, the question is, well, where do we fit in this African Americans, who arguably Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): had a hand in building this country, if not the capital itself, and for some of those of you, you know, not too far from DC. What was the nickname of DC. In the seventies. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Chocolate City Looks more like a Moca swirl now, right.
But the idea being that that's how how many African American presence was in the city, right. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): you know, and so and again going back to like. If you go to the Smithsonian Museum, you'll find the statute of George Washington that actually was out in front of the capital for many years, right, you know. And again you see how he looks more like a Roman emperor than a Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): democratic free leader. But then, again, a democratic free leader Arg. We wouldn
't own enslaved individuals right. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): But that's the story for another set for another day. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Mount Vernon was a plantation, by the way, and so it was also fascinating is that when you talk about this idea of you know image. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): even the the the actual literal white sculptures that we see Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): are a fiction in a fabrication. You know, researchers have found that the the if you do want to hearken back to
Greco Roman times that they're actually patina, that they they're actually painted images. And so there's this idea of everything being all lily White, and this white ideal, you know it is something that we absolutely have to challenge and think critically about right. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): So just really, quickly. So I know time is short. Reason why focus on statues is because they are built to last, and they are made for maximum viewership, right and so inherently as public works. They a
re political works right. You don't just Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): slap up a statute overnight. You don't you don't just do that right? You know there's this is a system of processes as as a how that that happens is some very fascinated with all the conversation about Confederate statues being taken down. Well, what statutes remain, what statues were actually erected in our name and in our honor that that's what i'm curious about. Right. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): all right, you. And so my crit
eria is this: They have to be not just free to access, but really accessible right? So, For example, there's a statute that Freddie's Douglas in this, in the center, at his home in South East, DC. Is free to access. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): but it's not freely accessible meaning that you can only access it between the hours of 9 am. And 5 Pm. When the sensor is open. Unlike the Lincoln Memorial in the National Mall. I can go there any hour to night. 3 M. Is there is out for everyone to see sam
e thing like with the statute in the center of town by the courthouse is freely accessible. And so I think that's a distinction in terms of what was intended to be truly a part of our public fabric. Right? So that's what I'm looking at, interested to see, and they'll just my third bullet point. I'm looking at 3 dimensional standalone. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): exclusive human sculptures not abstract. And again, I nothing is black sculptors. God bless them right! But i'm talking about three-dime
nsional human figures, because it is it it it gives us information about who we value, and who's visible in society, particularly with respect to African American influence. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): And so how many Statutes are black statues are there in DC. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): What? I'd be a fool to tell you. I mean, this is the cliffhanger. You have to get the butt right. It's great. It's a present. Okay, but really, really, quickly. What I like to do at the time I have remaining is j
ust talk a little bit about a couple of backs that is to highlight. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): you know, so fascinating is the first black statute of Federal lands was of Mary Macleod Bethune, with anyone like to guess what year the this the statute was installed Presenters: 1974. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Yeah, try 1974. Only think about. Think about this. What does this say If it takes nearly 2 centuries before you have a statute of a black individual on Federal land again. Frederick Gooding
(Dr. G): I mean I I know we have all this discussion, and and on controversy over CRT, but I find it virtually impossible as a historian to tell the story of American history without invoking African American history. You're talking about nearly 2 centuries. Really. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Oh, that's interesting, but was so fascinating is this. You can find it in Lincoln Park, which is a mile east of the capital. Remember that building in January 6. We talked about this. Okay, and what's also
in the same park. Is this statute? Presenters: Hmm. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): That is right is right. Now I got no one on time, but beer with me. I'll bear with you right, you know, Sam, you know i'm, you know. Bear with me clearly. What do you ask? Tell you. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Your eyes tell you that the brother, it says emancipation. So the brother might be free. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): But, ladies and gentlemen, he is not equal, free, but not equal. And and if and if you were con
fused about whether there was some sort of you know, a hierarchy here, what's interesting is behind the the the kneeling. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Well what Frederick Douglas called that dedication couch it individual right barely closed with shackles on his wrist. Right behind him is what's called a pillory, and if you don't know what a pillory is. I'm glad to explain it to you As a historian it's a whipping post. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Now notice the Iv. The ivy is there to symbolize Sis
ter Ferguson that it is old and antiquating. Okay, hold that thought totally thought. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Okay, all right, we will be about to land this plane real quick. Okay. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): So here's how we're going on the plane. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Anyone here at Penn State University. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Well, here's the deal. You probably would not have heard of Penn State University. We're not for the football team. No offense, right in terms of billions of
dollars, generated television contracts, paraphernalia, you know the admissions, etc., etc., through the roof. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): They had a statute of Joe Paterno, their coach, who led them to 704 victories. He's the all time leading coach of football and fbs. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): This is the date where they took down his statue, despite his significance to the University. Why? Because this is 30 days, ladies and gentlemen. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): 30 days after his assistant c
oach, Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 14 counts of child molestation. So once the University realized that this statute was no longer in sync and commensurate with their values. Guess what had to happen? Statute had to go. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): So Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): when we talk about image here's recent current events. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): This brother, named Afro man, is a rapper out of Ohio and police, with a warrant busted down his door, and you know, with guns and and and
gear right as you see. The the right here, you know, came through his house. He had a recorded in camera, and what he did is he took a sour situation when ticking lemons he decided to make lemonade and made a song out of it. This idea, you know, making fun of us officers who came rated his home. Because this one officer, you see, with the glasses actually did a double take at the lemon pound. Kate. Presenters: Okay. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): now, speaking of image here here. You all Frederick
Gooding (Dr. G): guess who is suing? Who Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): for humiliation and defamation? Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): You got it right. The police are suing him for public defamation and humiliation, and you talk about this idea of image. So I say all that to say. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): That's what we're talking about, ladies and gentlemen. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): and that's what we're talking about. Why is the statue still standing? What is it still communicating? Frederick Good
ing (Dr. G): So in conclusion. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Because I know one time I appreciate your's patience. So Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): statutes are more than just mere art in the park. We would do ourselves a disservice to merely jog by these these edifices, thinking that you know they're they're just there for art to 6 sink Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Quite the contrary. There are pliable political portraits, right that tell us much about the value and visibility of African Americans and
society. We need to critically ask the question, Who is that we Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): that represents us because we have an opportunity, influence the future, and Khindi Wally props to him for those of you in Virginia. You know that in Richmond there's this installation that they put in the New York Times Square that challenge. This idea is still Mall Jackson right in terms of image. So we have that ability to to do this, using our moving forward right. And for many people this was, you kno
w, considered, what are you doing right? Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): But at the same time, when we talk about image, we have to look very, very carefully about the political implications, because when you look at that statute of freedom Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): I hate the bear. Break the bad news. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): But, yes, the ultimate irony is that only do we have a country whose first President Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): own individuals if there's such a thing. Well, he you know ri
ght. But the statute of Freedom was actually cast and built by an enslaved individual. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): His name, Miss Phillip Reed, Thomas Crawford, gets the credit as the sculptor. Park Mills was the one who cast it, but Cart Mills employed or used the labor of an enslaved individual named Philip Reed, to cast the statute of freedom. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): So what do black statues have to tell us, Ladies and gentlemen. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Time will tell. Presenters: you kn
ow. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Thank you. Thank you, Frederick, for an engaging discussion. That was very, very nice. I'm going to look to Presenters: my partners over here are we doing? Q. A. With the time that we could do a. Little Q. And a. It's like lunch. Now, okay, the next presentation is until 1230. Okay, we want to go to as well. That' be best fine, and if anybody wants one so right, so so right now is is lunch for those of you who would like to to do that. But if anyone wants, if they
want to stay behind, if our of our panelists are. Presenters: they're able to do so. If you have any questions for our panelists, we'll do a. Q. And a. Session. Now Presenters: I have it. No, I'm: sorry. Okay. Yep. In the back going. Presenters: I I wanted to ask the panelists how they see their work in forming or interacting with each other. Presenters: We have to work on the inside, and we have. We have many fronts. These battles have many fun individually. Presenters: girls of color, just ico
nography symbolize them in which we surround ourselves. You know we all want to be Presenters: so. Presenters: Okay. Presenters: Another question. I think, yeah. Presenters: this is for Dr. So we may have to. Can you hear her? Okay, okay, good. That was a very engaging presentation. So thank you for that. I guess I have a 2 part question. One is, Have you ever looked across the country to see where statues of African Americans Presenters: particularly. Presenters: And then, secondly, what would
Presenters: you think as a historian would be the most appropriate for a a statue of African, American Presenters: or African American history tied to Washington. The what would that look like if we were to put it Presenters: along the National Mall? Presenters: What would be your first idea of incorporating a statue Presenters: on the National wall. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Well, thank you for your question, and you know, for for listening in terms of the first question. Yes, I I definitely s
tarted looking at nationally where satches are located. But again in terms of the book project. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): You know, I had to start small. But but this is hopefully something i'm looking to expand, maybe developing even a an app, you know. Get getting the public involved with the charting of their own history. Geo. Caching. Because what I found is this was so fascinating is that you're You're probably gonna find, You know. Dr. Martin Luther King and Harry Tudman is probably 2 lea
ding, you know, individuals who have statutes of of them all across. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): but we'll also there's this other qualification of when you do find if and when you do find a black statute most often you're gonna find that they may be connected to entertainment or sports right? And and also they are what I call quasi public right, meaning that, you know they're out in, maybe in a, you know, maybe a university settings or out in front of, you know stadiums, you know. So still. Not
that that full fledged the whole entire public and environment has said, this is a person who's a part of our community. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): this so very valuable, and so we want to represent them as a part of our community and values, moving forward in perpetuity. So I think it will be fascinating to actually map and chart where exactly they're located in town, and we're across the country, and also to see what the trends are, and how many of women you know how many of non entertainers a
nd athletes that do we have right? But going back to your second question, we do actually have Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): of statute, if you would, of an individual in the National Mall, and that would be of Dr. Martin Luther King right, and that by the title Basin. They installed it in 2,011. And here's the catch, though Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): what I am going to talk about in the book is technically now again they don't shoot the messenger, but technically, according to the research and the
books in the National Gallery of Art. What you see in the National Mall is not a statute. It's actually high bass relief. So, in other words, when you see Dr. King, he's like half chiseled out at a stone, and Apparently it was like the symbolic, and a message of the work is still not finished or done. He's being home hewn out of a mountain of despair, but was so fascinating is this idea that Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): he's still not 3 dimensional in the round. Unlike Thomas Jefferson, who has a
memorial in the title Basin, and also a Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who has 2 statues of himself and a 7 acre plot; also in the title Basin, and also when you go to Dr. King's memorial. A monument was fascinating is, in contrast to say, the Jefferson Memorial, and also the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. The lack of storytelling that's involved right so there's still a bit of a hierarchy. He has 14 quotes that are kind of randomly scattered and outdated, and also there is a Frederick Gooding
(Dr. G): controversy over the quote that was installed on the side. You know it was like truncated, the drum major quote, and finally there was controversy over his furrowed brow. So you know when you go to the the monument, there's virtually no context about what was he fighting against? Right? He was just giving speeches because he just loved poetry. No, that he was fighting against white supremacy. And and there's really no contextualization of that, and an idea that he had a furrowed brow,
and that was considered to be too militant. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): Well, of course he had righteous indignation. You should be angry, or the fact that you pay taxes. You're you're you're born into a country where you we hold these shoes to be self evident. And then, if that's not shaking out, of course, you'd be frustrated. But they had to revise the the you know his. So, in other words, it's so fascinating. How there's, you know, layers to this in terms of how we're still. You know, represe
nting our ourselves and our image, you know, even down to the classroom, in terms of how we tell the story, and how remember our own history when it comes to say critical race theory or simple African American history. the advanced placement level in Florida. Presenters: 1 one more real quick question. Yes, sir. Go ahead Presenters: Daily I drive through another section. That's a divided by the street called John Tyler. Presenters: who was the tenth President of the United States, and all displa
ys. Presenters: Why can't we take this change in street? Presenters: Yeah. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): what we can? But the question is, who's the we Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): right? And so this is where true concepts of democracy come to play in terms of really, you know, so fascinating how small groups of people make decisions that affect large groups of people right? And so to the extent that you know we are not involved in these conversations we don't have access to. We don't know when the m
eetings are and where they're held. Then then you're right there there. But there are processes there. There are ways in which we can, you know, raise our voice, and you saw a glimpse of that open up Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder in 2,020. But you know the the the question is, how do we sustain that type of momentum where people are activated and wants to stay involved. Many of us are, you know, under stress and oppressed. And so it's very difficult to take
time out of today to, you know. Show up at the meetings and in in and when you're just memorable you're really trying to survive right, you know, I mean, and many of my other pan panelists talked about this in terms of, you know, disability, society, and feeling welcome to one it, Gabby, and you know, and the messages that we see in school. Frederick Gooding (Dr. G): And so you know it's a very complex issue. But I think for me what i'm trying to do is, you know, with the first step is the awar
eness of like, okay, you know, here's something that we still need to talk about, because statutes are not static, they are pliable, and we have the opportunity to change them as we move forward in time. Presenters: Yes, I'd like to answer Miss Swanson's question. Thank you. Back Committee. This is Dr. Burke, and the school with the school was changed from Stonewall Jackson to West Side West Side Middle School, and we wanted it to be Kathryn Johnson, but pendulum just stopped in neutral. And Pre
senters: to answer your question a little bit, too. In my presentation there's a QR. Code about the coalition that was built around it. I don't know if I can get get back to it, but Presenters: I can give you the QR. Code really quickly if you wouldn't mind the right here. Interesting? Presenters: Oh, it's not a QR. Code. Okay, it's got it with QR. Code in here, but it's called what's in a it's my West Virginia bill. And so it's a 15 min documentary about the coalition that was built, including
a lot of allies, but other nonprofits to change that name and get to a board meeting. Presenters: And and you know you have to know where the meetings are and into some research. Okay. Presenters: Thank you for everyone. Thank you for your attention. Thank you for your participation on Calendar, and then I will not return for lunch. Presenters: Hi. All right. How are you? Presenters: Oh, yeah, good. I don't. Yeah. Presenters: no. Presenters: But I Presenters: So it just may be something. Present
ers: I think she did as well. Yeah. So i'm gonna to brand. But I'm: I'm certainly going to grab you. I'm going to get back to you here. Okay. Presenters: Is that actually what is our Okay? Presenters: Okay? Presenters: And it's hard because it's like the knowledge it's there at the Presenters: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. okay. I don't know what that would be right. That's what we're saying. Presenters: We can keep running like Presenters: they tried to do that because I was rain on the so, you know,
trying to get rid of that and the come and grow and Presenters: all the little Presenters: Yeah. Presenters: Yeah. Presenters: there you go. Presenters: Okay. Okay. Okay. Good. Well. Presenters: no business. Presenters: Okay. Okay. Presenters: Okay. Okay. Yeah. Presenters: Okay. Presenters: building on the question. There we go. of course. Okay. Okay. Presenters: Okay. there you go. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let me. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Now. cool. Yeah. It's great. Presenters: It is like a powerpoint or a
nything. No, we don't. Okay. Okay. A lot of you on it. Presenters: Yeah. Like you? Absolutely. Presenters: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. yeah. Presenters: Okay. How will this? Okay. Presenters: Thank you so much. So we you that. Oh. okay. Presenters: yeah. Presenters: Oh, thank you. Morning. Presenters: And yeah. Oh, so let me. Okay. Presenters: that's what I do. Okay. Okay. Presenters: yeah. So Presenters: Yeah. Presenters: Is there any question on this? It is okay. You want? Presenters: Okay. Yeah. Okay.
you Presenters: is here a moderator. Okay? Okay. Presenters: Whenever you want to get started. Okay? Well, then. Presenters: hello, everyone. Good afternoon and welcome to honoring authenticity and exploration of undergraduate student research of campus iconography. Presenters: We're gonna have a wonderful panel discussion this afternoon with the leadership of the committee, or contextualization of campus, landbox, and iconography known as Ccl. And so during today's conversation we're going to l
earn what Exactly. Ccl. And I is what sort of work these students are doing on campus. Presenters: We're gonna talk about what they've achieved so far. What challenges these days, what triumph they've had. We're also going to talk about their research process, their guiding research philosophies, and they're going to get a sense of what CC. And I is looking forward to doing in the future what their plans are moving forward. Presenters: My name is Abby Comey. I was chair of the committee last yea
r, and I'm, now a graduate student here at the School of Education, and I'm. Honored to be back with my committee members who have taken over the committee so wonderfully, and then so much incredible work in this past year. Presenters: So we're gonna get started with it, you know. Just a reminder that at the end of the session in the last 15 min. So starting at around 1 30, you're gonna have a chance to ask questions. So why you're listening. Please keep in mind what you might want to ask about.
We might want to follow up on that. This panel has talked about what you're wondering about what you might want to hear more about. Presenters: but we'll get started by having our PIN number to introduce themselves. So if you all can introduce yourselves, tell us your name your year. It will, Mary, your Major, where you're from, when and why you joined the committee, and what your rule is on. Presenters: I'll start my name's Adamanta Cisco. I am a junior I'm. An I'm an a major. I'm originally f
rom Charles West Virginia, and I joined Ccl. And I my sophomore, year and so my role on the committee is co-chair, and how I got involved with Presenters: I was actually talking to a friend, and he was he was sort of like we're talking about like we see involved on campus. And he was like, yeah, like i'm trying to he's still in. I it's not really not a lot of people know about it, but it's a really cool way to sort of get involved, especially if you care about. You know racial justice matters Pr
esenters: which we'll go into later in terms of what our which does. And so that's how I Presenters: I am, Julie Allison. I am a senior pepper industry, double teacher of Lou, Mary I'm. From New York. and I got involved with Tc. And I Presenters: my the beginning of my junior year. I had third stop here. I served as a presidency for half to grow with the founder of C 2 and I to exchange Moran. Presenters: and we had talked a lot about that year. The black lives. Matter, protest, and it's over to
what's funny and what to the building of the heart. Presenters: And after after last meeting, and having all these discussions. Sh you up to me. Presenters: I just want to be part of this committee like we do a lot of potentializing in history, and so they would be interested. I was like, yeah, like that sounds really Presenters: really interesting and really impactful. So then, the next semester, when I start seeing a lot more about it in like zoom happening. So that's just for Abbey. I got th
e Forum. And so first meeting, and I've been there ever since. And now I serve as the publications chair. Presenters: Yeah. Hi. My name is Ann Wellman. I am a junior and a double history, double major history and religious studies. Presenters: I'm. From Saint Paul, Minnesota, and I started the and I as a sophomore, and I kind of was a little Presenters: when I found it on student happening. I was seeking out different ways to get involved in campus and connect with Presenters: especially Present
ers: the the research that was happening on campus. And I. I kind of just understood this happening, and when I so I didn't really know what it was. But I was I was, but I showed up. When I got there I was really impressed to find that it was in line with what I wanted to be doing as an undergrad, and I was really excited. Presenters: Join? And now I am a research chair Presenters: in my Presenters: awesome Thank you all for choosing yourselves. And now i'd love for you to just explain what exac
tly is, since you know what it's history. What does it stand for in? And what sort of work are you doing? I'll pass that to? Presenters: Yeah, so and I a very nice acronym for a very long name the capabilities of landmarks and iconography, and so CC. And I was started spring 2,020, by a student of the name of shame, Oran, and he started it, I believe, with the attention of really like Presenters: contextualizing, but also posing a question of sort of like the values of the school, which is very
clear in the names that the school chooses to mobilize buildings and statues Presenters: also like landmarks. So that's when it started. And then, after the summer of 2,020, and the murder of George Floyd, C. Santa, I was unbloed by the school under something called the Plan, with 5 other committees, which include References Committee Presenters: right? And so it was mainly meant to be like. The whole purpose of the plan is to really question question also billed towards like a a better future i
n terms of racial justice. And so we're part of that. And so what we do is we Presenters: we primarily started on old campus is that was that was really the focus. So we're talking about the run building Washington Home and Roll Hall and start contextualizing them, and that includes doing a lot of first, a lot of primary source research on those people. So spend a lot of time in special collections, because the school does have a very large database in terms of a lot of the more more famous figu
res on this campus. Presenters: And so initially, the research was meant to be much more holistic, and then we came to conclude, I leave around like spring. Last year we were sort of like one narrative has been pulled for so long. There really, Isn't, something holistic when you have to take into account Presenters: a history which erases a history of specifically back and indigenous people on this campus. And so from then we sort of wrestle with this notion of objectivity, like if it really exi
sts. And Presenters: and then from there we just have been trying to find a history that Hasn't been told in terms of this narrative, which you can also see on our website. But so we have. We will probably talk more about our output in terms of what Exactly. CC. And I does, and it is because he is our Prq. Presenters: Yeah. So we output. We have a website right now, which we put a lot of our research. It goes by every building and stat to an area on campus that we have completed. Presenters: and
that we've had a committee of we work on it's gone through lot of edits live here, being which aable does, and nutrition as well, and Presenters: we it's like Presenters: how many 6,800 word essay on the Building, or the statue, and how the history of that specific place, how that came to we marrying how it functions as well as the first of goods named after. So like I did James, where all, or did the change in class to rather probably talk a little about the jazz or statue, and then a lot abou
t James Blair himself as a person, and that's all from our website as well as we have an Instagram account to get a lot of more student engagement for kids who don't have time or Presenters: don't have the energy to sit and read through a whole, you know, like 20 pages on a website. So and we I, we also make videos and post lots of stuff. So Presenters: our output I didn't talking to groups like at the we were so graciously invited to. I know Dr. Thomas, and so we we put a lot of out different t
ypes of outputs to get all our well. I think it's really important research out to the community. Presenters: So research is obviously a really really important part of what it does. So, Anabel, what does that research process look like? Presenters: Yeah. So we were really lucky in that. Shane left us a lot of of a plan to work with and and set those for us very, very early on that he left behind when he graduated, and one of the things that he left us was this Presenters: this outline for the p
rocess of how he wanted the research to go, which is, we've adapted and changed to it. But really we've stuck to the bones of it, which is really really nice Presenters: and kind of how that goes as we begin Presenters: at the beginning of each semester ideally with the project assignment. Sometimes we have people who are continuing an old project that turns out to be bigger than we thought, but by and large at the beginning of the semester we need to. Presenters: and we begin with Presenters: d
epending on how well known your figure is. Sometimes you don't need to go into kind of Presenters: secondary source information about them, because, like Thomas Jefferson, is a figure that wouldn't Presenters: take it Presenters: a lot of knowledge about American history to already be familiar with, but some some of our figures are more obscure, like really small, which Julian did very recently, and we just posted to our website. Presenters: So, depending on how well you are. So your figure is i
s how you start, and but after you kind of get the who, what? When? There, why of it. We really want you to get into Presenters: primary sources deeper dial into the life of those people, their own words, their own letters. We spend a lot of time at special collections, and Presenters: from there we start discussing. We really discuss our research a lot in in the committee. And so we we have discussions where people present the biggest things that they found. And then we can ask each other quest
ions and kind of figure out where there's there's roles. Presenters: and from there you write up your first one draft. Presenters: which is kind of a big. It's a big day. People come. They've got their first draft, and Presenters: from there Presenters: I encourage people to go through their bibliography, and in a more casual way than if you were doing it formally to a professor annotate and source Presenters: what which of your sources you are using, the most of. Get a gauge on that, and whethe
r or not those are your most, we need strongest sources, and then you do your second draft, and then you do peer reviews amongst each other. Presenters: and then it. When you're feeling ready, it goes to me, and I read it, and I need comments when I text the first i'd say i'd like to balance it may go, and they go through it, and I read it again after they've made the comments, and I tried to do this at least twice. Presenters: Sometimes it happens more, sometimes it happens less, and once that
process is done, we send it to thought for publishing. Yeah. Presenters: So as a committee of undergraduates, i'm sure you might base some skepticism about the credibility of your research in this academic world that you're operating within. So how do you, as a committee, ensure that you have as much credibility as possible with the research that you put out. Presenters: Yeah. So we we get some questions. some Presenters: less of those comments and feedback of some of the stuff we put out. But I
think that you know we have a very I think it's very rigorous process. You know. We send most of us that a year, a year and a half of the people we're researching. So Presenters: we kind of we. I I think we tend to know a lot and catch mistakes, or have or get people to it's just so. They're probabilities of the facts. I think we do a lot on the back end to make sure we can kind of prove what we're saying is true and happened. So I think most of what people say Presenters: and what I've heard.
That's sort of negative about us has not actually been all about the facts we're saying it's like, oh, that didn't happen it's more just well. We know that we know Tom's shepherd's in sling people, but like just move on like, Why do we care like he tell these great things, or like specifically, with James Blair, I had a comment that was like, yeah, Jamesler may have enslaved people and introduced slavery to thing in the church, and we'll be married and down to the plantation that we're married n
ow with quarter. But he also found what we marry so like. Presenters: Move on like, Why do we care? So? I think that to me I kind of take that as Presenters: like people are listening. They're figured out Presenters: these things as they Presenters: don't want. If they weren't going to be on our side and engage in the conversation. In the first place Presenters: that I don't think that, like a group of students, can change their mind properly. I think that it's really good to get this informatio
n out to the people who want to listen, and don't already know to of all these things about the people that James, they're really small. I've done Presenters: and looked at. And you know we've gotten really great feedback on that, and I've had a lot of students who I don't think the most common response that I've gone at least has never been like. Oh, my God, I can't believe it's all like yeah, like that makes sense like I didn't know that. But I understand Presenters: which to me, when I showed
that a lot of students really want to know this, they expect that this conversation, that about the people like change their Washington and Thomas Jefferson in a row. They all the names that we're familiar with on this campus. You know, students and faculty that I've talked to already now. Presenters: and so I think they see us, as you know, a credible resource. And then the people who don't I it's never for me really good about the facts. It's all just been about like viewpoint and audiology.
So Presenters: yeah, I think we do what we can. And i'm very proud. Presenters: I've always yeah, let me do lots of combat. It's: Well, yeah, I think really have a good point, because at the end of the day it's something where it's like. Do you believe that systemic racism is a reality and a reality? Reality, or do not? And Presenters: for for for most of the because we have a lot of positives on this, and that's where it comes back to this isn't this this isn't a thing this isn't real, and so a
nd almost like those are the minds where those aren't. Necessarily the minds are trying to change as well. Because Presenters: we're we're more so trying to engage with students specifically, and and it's it's nice to see, you know. Students. Presenters: you know, take out an interest in this from like the members that come in and out with a few members here today, but also just like the things that we talk to when we try to do our pr videos drilling and probably go into more detail about later.
Just sort of see them, you know. Be receptive to you know Presenters: our mission, but also, like like receptive to the idea that we can't change. So I think, at the end of the day that that's who that's where it's Presenters: we're starting to get into the community response to the work you are doing so. I'd love to get an overview of what has been the response from students from faculty, from community members from the people that you can, putting on your Research board. Presenters: Yeah, we'
ve kind of gotten Presenters: You've got some really great responses. We've gotten some. Presenters: not as great responses. And but I would say that, like Julie and a lot of people Presenters: our more middle of the road. They're They're unsurprised by the skeleton that we're taking out of the closet, and they're on some level, a little bit annoying that we took them out. They want to stay in here. They know they're there with their Presenters: They're not comfortable with facing it, though. An
d so a lot of what we're doing is we're trying to make people, especially on campus more comfortable talking about the legacy of what we see on our campus, and why it is an institution that upheld, and a lot of ways invented key parts of what? Presenters: And then from there, trying to make a better future for related area a better, really, and Presenters: some people are resisted to it, and some people are neutral to it. But I would say that by and large, especially when students, the the react
ion has been Presenters: grateful that somebody's doing it, and then it's that it's being done. Yeah. Also, I think it's that so important to note that a lot of these larger figures which Jefferson role, even Washington, sometimes is used as a tool by the schools that claim to legitimacy. And so that's something that's a big option Presenters: we tend to run into in terms of how do we wrestle with. Presenters: You know, coming up, not coming up, but but Presenters: framing this research in a way
where they would also be receptive, especially if we're trying to get, for example, aims changed, which we're sort of now talking about in a separate class that we created some of morals and icons with the director of Maya. Dr. Schroeder, who's been a great tool for us. Presenters: So yeah. Presenters: yeah, I think I I think I think for the most part, you know, as we're sort of pivoting who we're framing this, for we're also keeping in mind that we're also working with the institution. Those a
re some things that come up as well in terms of our audience. Presenters: I think the institution Presenters: his willing. For the most part, I think our administration a lot more than other schools of the people that I talk to is at is very open to this conversation, because if they were, we wouldn't exist, the hard wouldn't exist. Presenters: so like Presenters: I think i'm happy that we can have these conversations, even if everyone's not always at the same point as having the same thought, w
e can. At least Presenters: people are open to talking about it, because I think that's that's what we're trying to do in that. It's just start. We're starting point these conversations. I don't think we can business at the end goal. Presenters: But at least we're able, like students, want to talk about it. Professors to the administration, too, which I think is good, that as long as we're willing to do to talk. Presenters: Then we can hopefully get some of the future. Presenters: Hmm. Presenter
s: So with all of this noise, all these responses, all these outside factors. Could you talk about? The guiding Presenters: philosophy is Ccn. How do you all approach your research? What lines do you take? What sort of values guide you guys doing this important work. Presenters: someone's of honesty and integrity. I know it can be a lot, especially the stuff that we research. It can be. Presenters: It can definitely bog you down in terms of that very heavy material Presenters: given the people t
hat we're speaking about. But I think at its core there's definitely it's something rooted in some semblance of like radical empathy. We're not necessarily doing this solely for us, and I don't mean this to put us on some kind of with some great, you know, apertures of of social justice. But but to to some extent we're doing this, for you know, lives that Presenters: have been erased because this school chooses to make space for the lives that have done the erasing. And so I think, and demystify
ing these larger campus figures we're Presenters: creating hopefully a space where these narratives that Haven't been toll can then be told and can be found as well. I know a lot of project is great work with finding those people in those narratives, but a lot of it, unfortunately, has been erased in time and industry. Presenters: I would say also that we're very in. Presenters: We really do believe that the names matter, that the the historic landscape of the campus matters that they can, that
the the full contextualization of it matter is not Apache contextualization. The difficulty with the schools of force that while it's a public institution, it's not a museum. Presenters: And that's a very complicated relationship of a historic space that is, on some level open to the public, and presented to the public as a historic space, but is not a museum in the sense that it's main in institutional wall. It is to educate students. It's not. It's not to present Presenters: a contextualize an
d the museum. So what we're doing is kind of 2. We really believe in in spaces that especially ones that are being presented as on some level of Presenters: a symbol of of definitely early Virginia. Presenters: to be presented as they actually were. And then from there Presenters: to be something that people care about improving for the Presenters: because I I do think that those names matter that they that they affect things, and then they don't just die Once you make that we could just put a n
ame on the building, and then kind of expect it to lose the connotation of that and go sale and just exist. I I don't think that's how Presenters: landscapes work, and I don't. Presenters: Hmm. Presenters: Julie, did you want to speak to that? Talk about your research philosophy? Yeah. I I agree with everything that just said. I think that Presenters: going into it you. We kind of have been told, and just by the just, by the nature of a building or a statue being built to a specific person or a
need for a specific person we have an idea of. Oh, they must be great. They must have done something amazing, at least, as I call my first one. Presenters: But so I Presenters: feel like going into it with already having this late an idea of like I should be respecting this person because they have a named building because they have a statue. I try and kind of Presenters: look for the other story that they were talking about and look for. Well. Presenters: whose lives did they affect in while th
ey were alive? What did people think about James Blair while he was alive? And what did he do that I can that that we should be talking about, and I think in one of our classes bottom, since something that I thought was really powerful, we we should have Presenters: a common, a common moral office throughout humanity. Where I. This is why this is not around history spaces that I really don't agree with, which is like what we just it have to can't judge them, because it's we' to judge them in the
ir time. And I think that's you know it's for certain things. Yes, but there's also the point of Presenters: When do we draw? The line of Slavery is wrong. Enslaving people is bad. Treating people as second class citizens is a is wrong, and we can, you know, judge people and take that as a factor in their in looking at them as people, and whether to honor them or not, with the building or statue Presenters: throughout time. But why do we have to limit ourselves so that's kind of what I look at?
And I think you know Presenters: i'm like Thomas Jefferson's the me these days. Pr. Like I don't think he needs me to be like saying how great he is to like diminish his reputation. So I think that Presenters: in us kind of presenting why? Because of the fuller narrative. And you know we're at right about these people. We're just kind. I I try both this like: how do they affect the very, how, what they do so about the people here on this land in this space Presenters: so. Presenters: and that we
're all right Every single fact from the we for specific things like the they engaged in slavery that they engage in. What's the coming system. Did they do something that is unexpected? That's like a good thing that I would have thought when they're probably someone in this time period. So stuff like that, that is. Presenters: you would Presenters: expect, or you would want to know. But or just to get a full picture of the live that these people touched that we don't know that we don't know the
names of. Presenters: Yeah. So I did wanna touch on that. So this symposium is about Presenters: black life, black history, black culture in this panel person. So far we've mentioned a lot of white dudes, a lot of white names that we do research on as part of this committee. So I love you to speak to for some of the black lives that you come across in your research. Right? So I believe the Lemon project has, or at least has documented, 199 names of black people who enslaved by the college. Prese
nters: Since this college, founding black indigenous people have been on this campus. They've been inside of the rooms where people were or what since you are being educated, and and that's a history that that that's very tangible and provable. Presenters: but in terms of like specific names that I can think of. Now we have styling, having we wasn't necessarily here, but was touched by Thomas Jefferson, as you know, was educated here, which Amel has done phenomena, research on her family. Lemon
himself, who is Nick, who the nomen project is to the the namesake from Henry Phillips, who was here during like a very Presenters: interesting time of the late nineteenth century, to middle twentieth century, and he was the bell ringer for about, I think, 60, some years Presenters: for the college, and also more contemporarily, Carol Hardy and the party Hall is named after, who did great work, and I believe the nineties and initiatives and diversifying the school, and I believe created the step
program. But I think Presenters: I think a lot of the black lives that we come across are black lives that we're unfortunately touched by. You know the the Heinous and the Braves Institution of slavery, but that doesn't necessarily diminish them. When we say black people, this country mean literally. Presenters: Thomas Jefferson would never have time in his day to write. For example, a declaration of a dependence if he wasn't a part of the gentry class which happened to do which he was a part o
f that class because of of of his exploitation of of slate labor. And so I think that's something that's something that is a tangible reality of Presenters: You know the the enslavers of that time with a lot of people tend to look over when we try to connect that to this campus Specifically, as we said again, the school wants to, you know, create these names around Presenters: and in, and tends to in doing so forget about the logic of Mar, but also the systemic implications of of those options.
So blockbusts are definitely here. They've always been here, and like we said, we're trying to, I think, at the end of the day and create a space where they can hopefully be immortalized. Presenters: I think we should also look at. You know our history is taking the space, like the round building which was built. Presenters: I'm pretty sure we don't buy the slave labor. We I I think Presenters: the Robertson and the Pestant's house most likely are. We're also both isolated labor. So those 3 in m
y mind there is evidence of how Presenters: black people have Presenters: created this school without it. We wouldn't be here without black people. We wouldn't, you know, be able to exist in this school, and without you know the money that James Blair got from Penny for count on tobacco. Tobacco was obviously the biggest export from Virginia annotations. Presenters: So I think it's. Presenters: You know we're it's unfortunate that we don't have as many physical names of individuals as we do when
we look at building spaces on any statues, because Presenters: what most I think it's something like Presenters: 5 buildings. Presenters: Our names for black people, so it's the low tab most are named for white man. I think Presenters: it is not yeah pretty. Yeah. it might be obvious, but Presenters: because we don't have the actually individual in their story because they've been lost to history. I think they have to look for those pieces of evidence like the ground building like in the Charte
r, when it says a petty for for tobacco, and look at those spaces Presenters: to kind of bring that out, and how Presenters: I think the school try like sort of makes it look and talk about it, that. Presenters: like people didn't come to school to 1960, the 1960 S. Where you for submitted students. But people don't have to be students and professors to have a paper found impact on the school and all its history. So I think that Presenters: we've been trying to kind of influence that narrative a
nd change that there that you have to have done some great academic work to have been some of the influence out there Presenters: we're talking about green license. Presenters: black lives and talking about challenges of the dominant. What is it like for you all as students on this campus to do this Presenters: difficult but rewarding for complicated work. I'd love to hear from all of you about what your experiences may like as a member of the library. Can you be doing? Presenters: Yeah, I think
I think, in terms of like the legacy of slavery here, I guess, as a black person, or pulled myself into believing I lived in a society where it was, you know Presenters: where where there wasn't like system of racism or white supremacy. And so I think. Presenters: in terms of tackling. This research, like this is work that needs to be done, and there's a clear avoid in that. Presenters: And so I guess, as a student at William and Mary. I think it's important to be cognizant of the fact that you
know the the backlash over here before is paved way not through sacrifice, which sometimes the school literally likes to call it, but because you can't sacrifice you have no autonomy, but through force Presenters: we're we're forced to in a way. You know, create this this landscape that we call when we marry at the end of the day, and it's important to remember that, and try once again. Try to create space to when we realize that an honor. Presenters: Yeah. Presenters: I think that you know I P
resenters: have some level of the luxury of coming together and being shocked by the things that I learned about its history, in part, because Presenters: especially because i'm not from Virginia. So I didn't have a lot of that context, growing up as much as I've learned about. I think a lot of my peers about. Presenters: But we discussed in, in the class of the phrase that Dr. Shudder coined. and the and dread you talk about it a lot, and the sense of Presenters: of feeling the the Presenters:
landscape that we're in, and the more you know about it, the more you can stop talking about it, and the more you you sense it in a way that I think a lot of other students have tuned out, not through much fault of their own, but in part because they just don't know a lot about the history of it. Presenters: and Presenters: it's it's shaped my my college experience definitely. Presenters: Yeah, I don't think I would have felt this way on any other campus on Presenters: in the country. But for us
similar, but not the same. Presenters: Yeah, it's it's it. It changes your perspective where you live. Presenters: and it doesn't really go away. Presenters: and your roommates get a little tired of you. Presenters: Yeah, I I think I mean, obviously like the white guy. I think the the most version for me is a little less than it would be. Presenters: I don't speak for you, but I I feel like even so I have it. It can be a little heavy sometimes to keep reading about all these horrible things tha
t the school you did you really go to did, and to feel like I like by benefiting directly from slavery. Presenters: you know not indirectly directly benefiting from slavery because of the horrible things we'll marry, and we very students, and full of hypocrisy have done. But I think you know I we're asking, Why? Why are you here? What are you doing like? Presenters: I can say, oh, it's interesting. I'm interested in it. I just think it's the right thing to do. I think this is important work to d
o. Presenters: And Presenters: you know, I don't honestly think we're all special like. That's why we're here because we're like, call to a higher power. I just think it's. We all all 3 of us. Everyone in in the committee feels like this is the right thing to do to talk about this history, even if it's so heavy until you know it can be taxing as a as you know. Presenters: burden to be thinking about all the time like Anna. Both said Presenters: all these horrible things, and like Yes, it'd be ea
sier to ignore it. But that's not the right thing to do so. You know we take we we, we have fun with us with each other. I think we like any out, I think. But you know I have these moments of like Levy to kind of Presenters: exist in it. But I think we take this work very seriously, because it can be so. Presenters: for it is somewhat sometimes, but I think we we really care about it, and we just Presenters: just keep talking. Presenters: So some of you have alluded to this sort of been talking
around it a little bit. It was a shift that happened in CC. And I last year when the committee began. We're really focused on doing incredibly of our subject the possible research of just presenting the facts in a clear, clear, cut way to the community. Presenters: So I was wondering if you can speak to the shift that happened last year, and how it's changed and transform the community system. Presenters: I think research wise. We realized that Presenters: the problem with presenting completely
unbiased research, as I'm. Sure, a lot of people don't know is that you have you? You ultimately have to make a decision about when you, including what you just you can't. You can't go through somebody's entire life Presenters: to present exactly as it was, even even if you could, you wouldn't. Presenters: The phrasing of it would affect it anyway, and we kind of we. We came to terms with that, and we also realized that the Committee's Mission. It's about. Presenters: pushed us to Presenters: tr
y to balance the knowledge that the public has. And so we definitely put an emphasis on Presenters: the Presenters: the hidden parts of a lot of these people's lives, which is often the on Presenters: Hello. Presenters: the morally bankrupt parts of their lives. It's the phrase that I would use. So we we ended up shifting to Presenters: a more. Presenters: We have a point to our research, and it's it's to to prove to somebody that there's more going on on the campus than they originally do, and
that was not originally the idea of what Ccl. And I would be doing it. It was originally the concept was just Presenters: link context. Presenters: and often. The blank context for the most part speaks for itself. We're not like putting. We'll. We'll quote someone, and there's no way of going around. But Presenters: that's that. So Presenters: yeah, we don't have to do that much to do it. Presenters: I don't know I was just going to say, go back to that point of like some collective human moral.
I think we really drawn a line in terms of, because typically the narrative is all like. Yes, they did. Excellent! Yes, yes, they own. You know they own people, and benefited off of that labor, and contributed to you know, the creation of the system within this country, but they did X, Y. And Z, and that's an inherent contradiction. And so I think that's something that we really want to highlight. Presenters: And so we sort of drew the line at that question of the collective sort of human moral
, and from there, I think, is really where we sort of gone from. There, in terms of, you know, producing our research. Presenters: which I think is an important distinction to make, because it's just too contradictory. Presenters: and we all just kind of look at that, like we can't hold us any of this. This is also subjective like it's just like we're obviously we all feel certain way we can feel it. I mean, like Abby kind of let the charge to say like, No, that's okay, like we can say how we fe
el because it's how we feel. It's the truth, and we shouldn't find that because again, like Presenters: that feeling, has we that that idea and didn't think you know, like finding people who have felt this way about people like Thomas Jefferson and James, but in George Washington haven't really been the majority a lot of the time. I don't think we are the majority still. And so I think that that was important for us to say like we can be. Presenters: you know, still based. In fact, it's so based
in what actually happened, but we don't have to kind of couch it in language of like. Well. Presenters: you know, Thomas Jefferson enslaved over 600 people. That was. Jefferson also wrote the decade. Like you. We can have some critical analysis there, and there are some feelings in it in an academic, incredible way. But that still kind of has that I think power of acknowledging Presenters: the the role that they played in this formal decision. I do think you could let that so credit to you for
that. Presenters: Thank you. And you guys are a huge part of that, because you will. What you will bring to the table wasn't objective providing research. And so we're sort of forced to make that shared another conversation. And since then Presenters: the committee is just exploded in so many wonderful ways, and become so much bigger than I ever imagined. It being so, I love for you guys to speak to what sorts of accomplishments that CC. On, and I have. You been talking a lot about your philosop
hy, your ideas, your thoughts and feelings. But I love to hear you just talk comfortably about all the amazing things that you can accomplish. Presenters: Yeah. So we have. Presenters: I think, if my numbers are correct, we recently update our website. I think we have 13 full write ups on our website right now, all across campus, mostly on the older campus. I know a couple of I just did Presenters: is on there as well, and that's huge, because it takes a really long time to get even just one tim
e. It doesn't obviously look like a year's worth of research on the website. But it is a year year and a half words of really digging into the first day of getting everything we want to know, thinking what we do, and don't Presenters: that's huge for us on top of that we I I really could Sc. I like to think of thriving so for me. That which has really engaged with a lot of students. Presenters: and I've I have people to go up to me who are my friends who are not my friends. Presenters: Are are y
ou involved in this one in C Cli, like? I think I've heard something about like you will from this, where I have I have professors who will give me after an article comes down the flat at that was a palace, or that was phone. I also wrote one together and emailing me. Why, I would talk to you like a year. It's like I want to say your article like like. Thank you so much for doing all this. So Presenters: I think we've we've done a really. I think we've done a good job of getting the information
out there, because most of this isn't new. We're not like. I don't think we've discovered any like new piece of information that no one knew before for 3 years. It's just putting it in a way for Presenters: not just academics. But for students really to engage with who are especially because history students are only a few 100 at this campus Most people are gonna sit down, and we go to special collections for hours and read time resources. So I think Presenters: what I think our business is is b
eing able to find a way by multiple ways through our way of play, through Instagram, until other social media, like Tik, tok and other videos, and going to classes and talking and actually having people come up to us. And here and listen and start this conversation. I think we've been really effective in doing that. Presenters: So we also have some other stuff that you can talk about in our class that we've been working on right? Right? Yeah. So for our class that we created, which I think, is a
lso a big accomplishment with Dr. Schroeder Memorials and I it's about, I think, 7 of us who are working towards. Presenters: We will. We realize that there's a lot to do outside of class, and those are very dedicated. It's easier to have a class to sort of guide us in this, and not sure, is a great job in terms of getting us readings that are that would be helpful, and also just like a place to converse. Sort of talk about. You know where we on this campus in terms of this, and I, how I want, C
and I to look like in the future, but also like what limitations are in our way, how to get around them. So for the class Presenters: coming up, we have a trip. We're taking the Uba to sort of talk about. See how they haven't done their memorialization there, which I think is going to be very rewarding. Speak to some people there who, I believe, are heading Presenters: the Naming Committee. I think that's on the schedule. So we have that coming up. We also have a write up coming up hopefully. P
resenters: although although we don't typically do this within Ccl. And I. This class, as we sort of come to this conclusion, that to sort of to, to, to to show the campus, the the canvas that we want to exist on our campus to see in the future. We need to do something tangible in order for that to Presenters: to come to fruition, and so we are trying to present at the final. We will be meeting up this semester hopefully a right off in terms of what we wish to see on this campus in terms of nami
ng and renaming. So we know. I think we have 3 buildings renamed, but there's a much more to go. Presenters: especially as we, as in that cost, done like a monument audit also like a building audit, which, like we're coming to like very like concerning numbers in terms of the amount of Presenters: buildings on campus named after people who have been slave to people, which is very problematic. And so I think I think those are big accomplishments that we have done. We've also spoken to, you know,
various groups on campus. She just did a tour with sharp scholars and get to ours. Yeah. Presenters: And then also, we are going to speak to the posse scholars later this month Presenters: or new, sometime next month. So we have a whole whole bunch planned. And of course this is a pretty pretty nice. So yeah, that's that's what we've really done. But that's really it said like even like 1 one. Right up, I think, is the mass of accomplishment given the fact that it takes like a solid year. If, on
top of like every other active. You're doing classes that's a lot to do and a lot to ask of people. So kind of have a high turnover rate. But you know, we have, like a solve of like 7 10 people who are very dedicated to this, which we really appreciate. appreciate some. Presenters: I would also say the Presenters: process of boiling down. What could be a year's worth of of research into a person into one? Write up that we can put onto the website, which is primarily where my work is Presenters:
in in researching and adding to the website is really hard to do, and it's hard to do it. In a way. Presenters: We're not speaking to Presenters: academics. We're speaking to a public as much as that we can get them to listen, which means that we're not trying to ready Presenters: super convoluted, and Presenters: difficult or dense information. We're trying to present information in it the easiest, most digestible way possible, and that's a really hard thing to do, and i'm very, very proud of
the the committee members when I read their White House, and I see that they've done every time I like. Presenters: I'm. I'm impressed by it, and I i'm always proud. I we have a few freshmen on on the committee that i'm really proud of, and that I see their their research and their abilities, just like Presenters: turning over Presenters: within, like the semester, which is really impressive, because that is not the point of our committee. But it is actually a good learning tool for definitely m
e. And so many of the people that I am, I'm editing their work. Yeah. Presenters: Speaking of those freshmen thinking about the future you alluded to and talked about some of the short term plans for CC. And I think you are coming up, but i'd like to be about the long term vision for Ccn. I going forward. Presenters: Yeah. So I actually sat down with the person, the person yesterday who's going to be the next co-chair. Unfortunately, other culture can be here. We we have 2 coaches, and we're sor
t of talking about you know things we have for the future, and I think my biggest. Presenters: my my biggest plan, especially for next year at least. At least, the biggest thing that I want to focus on is specifically trying to further engage with the communities we really only started like properly engaging, I would say, like middle of last semester, when we started to ramp up our social media. And so I think that is probably the most important thing for me, because we do have research there. I
t just needs to be seen and needs to be, you know, highlighted. And so I think that's easiest way for students in particular to get that have access to that Presenters: via social media. Presenters: Unfortunately, interest tends to sort of fluctuate in this sort of topic, and it's really unfortunate that you know, like a murder someone's murdered by, you know. Please brutality has to insight, you know, interest in things like this, and so I think sort of maintaining, you know. Presenters: some s
ense of interest, but also emphasizing imports of this work, and trying to, you know, have people make a sustain effort into this something that I really want to, you know. Make sure we have, especially for next year. We have a whole bunch of more sites we need to tackle. Presenters: and so that's for you for single. That's our but i'm not sure, because we're leaving campus after this we're unfortunately losing him. So i'm not sure you have planned in terms of like, like, what I see one of them.
Presenters: Yeah, yeah, I Presenters: I'm. Perhaps meeting My, it won't be me. Because personally, I think that we are leaving a lot of you know Presenters: things in place Presenters: for you guys to pick up. I don't people after us. The Camille who's the go to your account Presenters: what I was talking about to kind of pick up where we're Leaving off the at the end of this year we once we complete the building and monument audit we'll have basically like a whole jumping off point for every s
ingle building and statue on this camp owns by going married. I just on this campus. Presenters: which is in the 100. So there's a lot of work, a lot of work, a lot of years with the work to do there, there we go towards that. But I think yeah, just increasing our presence and keeping that momentum alive, making sure. Presenters: because even you know, we're under Student Assembly and the Zoom Assembly Administration turns over every year Presenters: so making sure every year a new soon assembly
in a new zoom president. And when people with administrators, where here longer go, come, come and go, and new Board of business. When we go, make sure that we're still here, and still keeping this conversation alive alongside. Obviously the longer project who has given us so much support. It's very amazing. Presenters: you know, making sure really, students are keeping this conversation alive and knowing that you know there is a deep history here that needs to be talked about needs to be addre
ssed Presenters: for us to grow together. Because I think you know something that we've talked about is Presenters: we could see it. It could seem like we all kind of like Presenters: I'm a sort of paid. Well, this is campus, and we marry, but and I think there are definitely days, and i'll wake up, and i'll say I just need to hear. I hate the fact that, like we like to be all these horrible things. But those are very few. Those are the bad case, but Presenters: you know, on on, when it's a good
day. I I think that our work is really a labor of love for the community. And I really love the zoom body here and want us to be able to grow from this, from the history that we're learning, and in the first step is acknowledging it. I think that's what we do. I think I want us to have to start the conversation Presenters: together as a community be able to come together because there is, you know, there are all these UN discussed Presenters: tensions in about the zoom body. So I think that wha
t we do is we're the labor of love. They try to try the the tack. I think we do it because we love the creating. We want to be grow would be better. So I think, just for the future, keeping up that momentum keeping the conversation going is what we're Presenters: we're looking to do. Yeah, they covered a lot. I think that I think that one of our really big Presenters: moves this year, though, was to increase the amount of Presenters: the types of media that we are using to use this information.
And we kind of mentioned this, but thought it was. Presenters: was really smart in that. Presenters: She expanded our exec board, and included me and Julian, and and Presenters: and added the the roles of research, Chair and Pr. Chair and future is not something that of thought of Presenters: in that. How how successful it's been! Presenters: Because that's really out of my wheelhouse. But our our expansion into social media, especially in the tik, to Presenters: sounds very informal, but if we'
re trying to reach students, it's a really good Thank you. Yeah. Presenters: Before we open it up to questions, I just want to close by asking you what's been the most challenging part of the committee what's been the most rewarding part for you. Presenters: Oh, I think Presenters: I think it was challenging part. I hope no one in admitted from our administrations here, but the administration is probably the most challenging part, just because in terms of like changing minds. It's very, you know
. Presenters: Difficult, I guess, from that. And that's something that we've actually really wrestled with in terms of how you want to present this, and sometimes it's kind of frustrating. I have to bring things that you view as a truth. Presenters: and have to in a in a way make it more adjustable, for you know people where you have to sway their mind. And so for me personally, that's a big challenge for me, especially in terms of this. Write up that we have coming up, that we're working on rig
ht now. I think the most rewarding thing for me would probably have to be. Presenters: I think all support that we get from the lemon project from students. I think I think it's nice to see that people are receptive of this, and so I really I I I really enjoy, you know, feeling that. Presenters: but also like to to to some. Some some of of use, I think, is is something that's always important to me some some way that i'm, you know, at least trying to to change like Presenters: to change like Peo
ple's lived reality, and possibly change like the reality of not not seeing the country. But when there's a micro-cos with a much larger issue at hand, and so maybe changing on micro level and making fun changes there. I think Presenters: this is something that I find a bit rewarding in the ways that we have done, that. Presenters: I think it was challenging because the rat Presenters: of all information that we find, because it can be really hard to stay focused and stay on mission. And you kno
w Presenters: you, I like, I said. Presenters: how ours and special collections, just researching really small kind of full box themselves, and just reading like every single thing. And it can be hard to kind of stay Presenters: focus on what I what I actually want to talk about. What is the most important thing here to talk about because we can't cover. Presenters: I'd be that, like positive and negative, is that there's so much out there. But we just cannot cover everything. and we can't cover
everything that we where it has done Presenters: so, I think Stay focused. Presenters: I would say it's the biggest challenge that I've found. This is gonna get really distracted by like I like one piece of information like oh, I have to take into like trying to find this one person in this one like then I what I I I've got in the Quarterly that way. Install. I paid for a service which I talked to Dr. Thomas, and Presenters: we had decided that I was probably in safe person. Sorry I need to see
if there's any more evidence. So I read. Presenters: Excuse me. I read through his whole box in there. I got a lot of great things. But there was just that one line Presenters: in in the things that kind of staying, knocking so distracted by. Not that that's a distraction that part, but that just as an example. you know, staying on on mission. Presenters: But we're writing about on these people, because there's just if we want to write about every single thing we've done, even in just in terms
of slavery and white supremacy that we'd be. Presenters: And my job is to tell people like. Send it back and be like No, sure you got to go short here. It's hard, but Presenters: nobody reads the Pl. That's got, you know. Presenters: Addendums hang on a bit, You know. I think that a big challenge is balance because we are undergraduate students outside of this, and so balancing what can sometimes feel. Presenters: I mean, I can make it a job like I could just do this, really, and balancing that
with our lives and our other responsibilities and our other. Presenters: we actually have a a number here, Cecilia. Okay, she's, she's pretty good at it. She's gotten the bouncing. Actually, I'm: Very yeah. And then, like like Julian said. Staying on focus is simple. Presenters: but also meeting people where they're at. Presenters: If you really because we, you obviously really believe in contextualizing the campus. Presenters: and we believe in a true history being told, and a lot of people hav
e been presented. skewed, or sometimes outright false histories in their in their early education. Presenters: and they want to hold on to them. And that makes sense, because that's what they were taught. So you can't come at someone and be like, No, you're wrong, but it doesn't work. Presenters: I I kind of wish you could, but it doesn't work. So you have to be people where they're at, and kind of like, tease them towards. Presenters: We're Presenters: where they're at and towards where you're
at. Yeah. Presenters: to the best of your ability. Presenters: But the most rewarding Presenters: thing is. Presenters: I didn't want to comfortable with Mary and feel like I was passing through the space that I then would leave no trace. So i'm really really happy Presenters: that Presenters: in a lot of ways. I feel like I really locked into that in a lot. I just I don't. I happened to read through happening that day, and I kind of showed up and Presenters: tripped into something that I really
believe in, and that i'm giving that to be leaving behind, and to feel like I wasn't. I didn't live here. I I I didn't just stay in millionaire. I I lived here, and I and I worked on it, and I wanted to engage with. Presenters: and every one of the committee is so absolute. You know we're small, but we everyone is so like. Presenters: really engage with it, and really want to make a change in in both sides, which is Presenters: so like nice to sit in a room. I'm raw kind of just like, yeah, tha
t each other what we believe, and it it can be Really, it's really Presenters: I don't know if it's the best way, but it's very like enriching for me to kind of have these discussions and feel like we're actually like. you know, the people on the basing Presenters: some. We're all. I think we're all very, very good. This experience we put it to go like. So Presenters: yeah, I think the people for me would be the most. Presenters: Thank you guys so much for all your answers, for being so helpful
and insightful before we open it up to questions I just wanted to say on behalf of the whole panel, Thank you so much for the lemon project for having us here at the Symposium. Thank you to Dr. Allen. You have to promise to all the faculty that support this committee. We're just really really grateful. So, and thank you for all to all of you for being here today. Presenters: So the first question that I see in the zoom is, Where is your tiktok flush? Why are you coming? Oh, my God! So our Instag
ram is at the textilization. Wm. Presenters: And Presenters: then there's a link in our bio that you could find everything else. That's the website. The tik tok is@ccli.wm. Because the like the name it's like, we use different things for every platform. But yeah, the web, the experience, contextualization, Wm: and then the link to everything are on there. Presenters: Yeah, let me check it out. I think our videos are are interesting. I try to make them like Presenters: more light-hearted than the
y can be. Sometimes Presenters: you want to watch. So yeah. Presenters: Does anyone have any questions. Yes, thank you Presenters: that I was just telling Dr. Allen I've been doing a lot of changing the names of schools in my my, My. Presenters: I am in the trenches. Presenters: Yeah, okay, I would be, You know, I would love some of the names with the Presenters: I I wonder, You know, in my time. Presenters: I mean, I can get. Presenters: probably. How do we, father? The overarching thing not re
cognizedly. Presenters: The Presenters: the name is what we are. Presenters: We try to. Presenters: How how do you see making it more of Presenters: actionable things that you know we are? We are, you know. Presenters: you know, in a privilege, you know, in in privilege, not only the context for the buildings that are named after people are wrong, but do things moving forward that Presenters: maybe reconcil those those overarching mishaps Presenters: for getting. Presenters: Yeah, I think it's a
really good question. Presenters: We sort of also in our class come across. Well, Dr. Shorter talks about a lot which Presenters: which which which sometimes I fall in the pitfalls, like the cynicism of you know, because it's the largest systemic thing at play. It's very difficult to sort of, you know completely. You know, alter that on a micro level, but I think you know itself is sort of proof of at least Presenters: a new generation wanting to, you know, make those changes. I think that's th
at's a very difficult question to answer, because, like Presenters: you know, we live in like a racial capital system. It to sound like the annoying Marxist that I might be right. Exactly. And so just because, yeah, it's it's it's it's it's in plain side of taking you to the the the landscaper? Or do you honor these people that are Presenters: whatever I mean. We may have circumvented some of the things that were up against us to be in, You know, higher education institutions. But you know so pe
ople, you know, in our mid sometimes are, you know, struggling and not recognized as Presenters: I think that the first step is kind of Presenters: maybe not like recognition that they we do all that a bit on, you know myself, and it will mostly from what it's privacy. And this racial system that we Presenters: okay, please. Hey, guys, that Presenters: that exists Specifically, i'm going to marry. It has been a big fashion. Quite. It's it's so. And that Presenters: even so Presenters: kind of bl
ack people have been building and built literally building very, and acknowledged that even though you might not have been an academic like lemon wasn't as late for it. Now Presenters: I think it's good that we have a building named after him that it's a lot of, and there's more research going into it, I think, getting students to know that because I don't think most of Presenters: that. You ask them. They would know who lemon is. So I think that getting students to kind of recognize that in his
tory. Presenters: then start getting people to start. They got to have today. Okay? Well, who today? And like if I look around if they look around this year like I was talking with, I was on Spring break. We were in Portugal, which was, I was like the most annoying person, because we've walked by like a statue, and I'd be like, okay if you started this same trade. My friends would be like. Presenters: I think, about this, and I was like this is the quote that they really stopped. But I think we
were having a conversation we were talking about. especially about like like how to you like once, ladies, and one of my rooms is like I just. I feel like I've never seen like Presenters: a lot of like. Presenters: Really, really, that's where I feel like, but most of the the staff are unfortunately be just because of how, for hiring is here, and the system that we've in place. So I think if you get people to start recognizing the past, and how the enslaved pathway has. They'll start to see Pres
enters: today how that's kind of being, you know, a little bit, mim to be able to recognize these people who have been forced into these. That's where it is for me. Presenters: So what's the Union? Yeah, that's what he was gonna say we have recently had. Presenters: Oh, how am I thinking of the word. Okay. Presenters: No, I don't. Yeah. Presenters: Oh, our our dining also. That's the only part that we're done with. We've we've recently had a call for student support of their union on campus, and
it is something that Presenters: struck me, especially because of the research that we are doing. Because I I know what you mean i'm criticizing the average hour, and I'm still sitting in it. And Presenters: I can do all this research, and I can mean it. And then I go and get my lunch, and I'm being served almost exclusively by, and I Presenters: would have to be very willfully ignorant not to see that pattern, especially considering what I in in Presenters: researching. And again the question
comes up is, is, should I just Presenters: kind of be as as as unintrusive as possible, and allow them to go about their day, or should I try to recognize the the labor that they do? Because I can't just fix up really very gross system Presenters: by going to lunch. Presenters: But I think that the union Presenters: you Presenters: any other questions here on zoom or remove us. Yes. it is. I wanted to. Presenters: We such a big device. Unfortunately, that and that has to put us through this and
and take this type of subject. Presenters: Yeah. So Presenters: I come in with a different perspective. I've Presenters: some things will go through every day, but the good thing about having them. Presenters: Those are some people like. Oh, we got to take them out. We're going to change the name. That might be Presenters: I i'm not really for that for me, because Presenters: it's so. If you don't be saying Presenters: if you do not know your past, your condemned. So there is. There is something
Presenters: of Presenters: you know. So so that's one thing Presenters: for that reason for writing things that for people can read, and not on the academic market. That's not easy, and I really take off my I will be more Presenters: because that's Presenters: and that's a pretty cool Presenters: everything that comes really deep in the heart, and we know well it flows as you right now, and the rules that come that I don't control that it shows you Presenters: live Presenters: so. Presenters: a
nd please Presenters: keep it burned. It's a passion. That's what makes it changes so like most of us. Presenters: We have lost that. But I hope it was. Still. Presenters: I think you do bring up you. You do bring up a point side for that argument before I think it's more so the way that they're memorialized. I think that's where the problem is. It's not so much because at the end of the day we change a name that the school pulls down to the same ideals. What difference does it make? And so I th
ink that's the important part of it, maybe even come to like. For example. Presenters: I've ever a QR. Codes we're like we're like, maybe at the least we get QR. Codes where, since you know the things these people have done like this, will, you know? Obviously, I mean, in my opinion, is not going to concede to get these taken down like I said. Presenters: it's a legitimizing tool for the university, and so I like like those are some things that we've come across. But I think at the courts more i
t more so in the way that those things are honored, which is where we really is very problematic, because they're not honored. Presenters: It's because the way that they're honored, it's. Presenters: It's Presenters: it's erasing other nurses too often times so much space, because the school, you know, exults these people so much, and I think that's what I also think that we, as a committee, I don't think we by ourselves are ever going to Presenters: change the name, or take down a talk to you.
I don't think we soon have the left hour. But I don't think we do. Presenters: I think, like I was saying. The the issue is that most people don't know the history. So you know, the everyone knows the story of Thomas Jefferson ever knows for a but that's a majority on campus that we have a lot of old Virginia governors, or the founders like James Blair, who people don't care especially. We've done prevent this things, but people don't know that and see a building, or is that thing? Oh, you must
be a good guy. Yeah, because so I think it's more of just making people aware of that. Presenters: And then, if you know people want to come to us and say we should like File just to change the name. Then that's another conversation that I think we'd be willing to have, but I don't think we start at change the name. I think we're also in class, and there's a lot of building that's going on, and like demolishing a buildings. Presenters: and I would say, cost like i'm a lot people to get away with
, just demolishing a building and spling up a new building with a ticker game without recognizing we were honoring Randall, and who did, and Page and how we did this couple of things so it's. I think it's in spots with less about changing a game. Presenters: and as much about it as it is. Presenters: I really think our when you should be talking, because you've been sitting in on our box. We do discuss that, and and we have been discussing putting an effort into it's hard because we already do s
o much with few people. But Presenters: part of the advantage of the website is that Presenters: we have the ability to chronicle what the buildings are of others still here. And so we've been discussing and really leading towards Presenters: including contextualizing demolished buildings on the website, even after they've been demolished, and if I had my bike, I would have a back in front of, like every single thing, because it gives you a timeline of it's names where it's what it named after.
And then hopefully, the success of it changing. Presenters: But I I I am realistic with that stuff. Oh. Presenters: probably going to happen. But Presenters: yeah, we really we really discuss the the longevity of of naming and renaming, and what we can do to make sure that Presenters: we don't forget. Presenters: We probably have time for one more question. If anyone has anything they wanted to ask. Presenters: Thank you for buying your place on this campus, and for you who joined the the commit
tee. Presenters: Thank you all so much for coming this afternoon. If you have any additional questions or wanting more information, the panel will be up here. Please check out the Committee on Social Media, and I hope you all enjoy the rest of this. Presenters: Obviously, before we work we'll see. Build it up. Yeah. Presenters: Thank you so much. Presenters: Okay. Yeah. Presenters: Okay. Presenters: Oh, yeah. Presenters: about that. Presenters: Yeah. Presenters: Oh, yeah, that'd be great. Yeah.
Presenters: He knows. Presenters: Oh, yeah. Presenters: Thank you for having that. Presenters: Okay. Okay. Presenters: I think she would definitely have our our services. So yeah. Presenters: Thank you. Presenters: Oops. Presenters: Yeah. Thank you. It's this. Presenters: Yeah. Okay. Presenters: Okay. that you know. Presenters: So okay. there. Thank you. Okay. It is. Okay. Yeah. Presenters: I have water money. Presenters: No. she said. That. Presenters: Okay? Okay. Okay. Presenters: Oh, enjoy it
. Presenters: Okay. No. Presenters: okay. Okay.
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