Historic African American Schools: Why They Are Still Important

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Admittedly, it's irrational, how much time I have spent researching historic African American schools and documenting the stories of my elderly neighbors.  Many times, people ask me why it holds my interest.  The answer is multifaceted.  Sometimes the urgency of recording the stories is uppermost in my mind, especially when so many of my older friends are becoming ill and passing away.  Since I made "Under the Kudzu", my documentary about historic schools that Pender County's African American communities helped to create during segregation, six of the people I interviewed while researching that project have died.

At other times I think of my students, and how important it is for them and for my teaching colleagues to be aware of the rich educational history of our region.  I teach in a school where more than 90% of the students are African American, and whose families have deep roots in SENC.  My research helps me to teach with the confidence that education has always been important to their families.

At other times, I think of how profoundly my older friends have changed my life and viewpoint.  Once I was impatient, and thought mostly of what I had to say, but now I listen and strive to understand others.  Once I thought slavery and segregation were distant history, but now I know better, since so many people I know had the devastating effects of this history ripple through their lives.  Conversely, it gives me a window onto the determination and achievement of people in our region who had to sacrifice just to get an education, then turned around and became public servants.  

There hasn't been much broader awareness of the rich legacy of our historic African American schools until recently; I am happy to say that is changing.  Recently I was pleased to be able to help in a small way by contributing images of Pender County Training School for the wonderful installation at the Cameron Art Museum called "School Pride: The Eastern NC Story" (by Willie Cole, commissioned by the Countywide CDC of Navassa).  

Segregation was unjust, and the denial of equal resources to African American children was immoral, but learning about our students' family histories is not just a story of comparison and lack.  Our neighbors built vibrant school communities within severe budgetary and societal constraints.  Many of our most prominent local citizens graduated from these schools.  As educators and citizens, we need to pause and commemorate the rich educational heritage of our region.  We need to let our current students know that we understand that education already belongs to them, it is something that African American families have shaped and owned for generations.

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School Reflections: Documentation &

 Preservation" by Claudia Stack  

Alice Walker: Create Conversations between Students and Adults

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New!!! Click to get the new ebookRosenwald School Reflections: Documentation & Preservation by Claudia Stack  

I had the privilege, last week, to attend a session where Alice Walker took questions from the audience.  The issue of censorship arose, and she suggested that the impulse to censor arises from fear on the part of adults that just because students read something, they will imitate it.  However, she pointed out, literature about others' lives allows us to learn about other people's experiences, and it is unlikely we will imitate what we read.

Ms. Walker went on to say it might be helpful if students and adults could discuss the controversial literature in an honest way.  What do we fear about it?  Why?  What can we learn?

I have to concur that honest, meaningful discussion between students and adults is always desirable.  One thing I also wish is that kids had more opportunity and time to spend just listening to older folks.  This has been the impetus behind the oral history projects I have done with students.  Talking with senior citizens makes history alive and immediate.  It is one thing to learn about segregation or the Great Migration in a textbook, it is another to sit in a room and hear the experiences of those who lived it.  To be able to ask questions and realize that these events did NOT occur in ancient history.  

In historical terms, slavery and segregation are very recent. My current film project focuses on a woman who learned to value school from her grandmother, who was a born a slave and denied an education.  Should we suggest to her family that slavery occurred so long ago that its effects do not ripple to the present? 

Incredible things happen when we take time to listen to older people's stories, and especially when we include children. They learn to have more patience, and to be better listeners.  They can learn interviewing and research skills.  Most of all, they glimpse an important truth:  We are all part of one continuous whole.