Seizing the Season: How HistoryMakers Make the Most of Summer
Arcanae Vulpes Clark
Sunglasses stacked on top of books. Photo credit: Link Hoang.
Warm temperatures, gardens in bloom, and a liveliness in the air… summer is upon us. For many, this season will be an opportunity to rest, travel, and take a much-needed break from the stresses of the rest of the year. But within the Digital Archives are stories of HistoryMakers who see this time as something more than an opportunity to take it easy. This week, I explored the Archives to see how accomplished African Americans use this season to the fullest.
For a lot of students, summer vacation is an opportunity to visit family that lives far away. For The Honorable Henry L. Marsh, his family’s summer trips to North Carolina offered a bit more than that:
“[...]during the summers when we visited the family home place, the students went to school in the summers in rural North Carolina because they had to come out of school in the fall to harvest the crops. So, when we would go down to spend the summer with our cousins and uncles, we would attend school in the summers[...]which probably helped us overcome some of the disadvantages of an inadequate education that we got under the dual system of segregation in Virginia.” [1]
He goes on to later suggest that this schooling in a new place helped him develop better social and conflict resolution skills. Even a family vacation became an opportunity to grow and have new experiences.
On the other side of this same coin, civil rights leader Angela Davis describes having a friend from Britain stay with her during one summer in the summer of 1965. His anthropological interests lead to impacts on the entire community:
“[...]he was interested in black churches, of course. And there was a Sanctified Church in our neighborhood. I had never been in that Sanctified Church. I'd heard the music and-- the shouting, but I had never actually been inside the church. [...]And he was asked to introduce himself and people, I guess, appreciated the fact that he wanted to participate in their service. And I can remember him talking in this heavy British accent, and people, you know, people in, in the church saying, "Amen" (laughter).” [2]
A crowd during a worship service in a Sanctified Church. Photo credit: CJ Rhodes.
Immersive opportunities such as this one are excellent avenues for cultural exchange. While Davis bore witness to a European tourist visiting the Black community, laywer and community leader Charles Collins experienced traveling to Europe as a Black tourist.
“You know, I'm now in Finland, and I was probably for most people the first person of this color that they had ever seen. And the experiences of being around kids from all over the world and just being there, and spending time, waking up, and having breakfast. [...] People would touch my skin because they just couldn't imagine like, what is this, because they are so fair-skinned. And when you're eleven years old, and the way I was raised, I never took any of that stuff personally. It was an experience for me. I was an object of curiosity as much as they were curious to me, because I hadn't really seen that type of culture. [...] And it created a type of curiosity that I've exposed for the rest of my life.” [3]
Collins isn’t the only one to have a significant international experience during the summer. Graphic designer Ron Adams details his time in Mexico in 1968, where he had been living for an extended period of time. As the Olympics came around, he applied for a job teaching Olympic coordinators English. On top of that work, he was asked to put his artistic skills to use:
“[...] they need certain signs for directions and that sort of thing or they need an emblem or a symbol or something, so you had to come up with a design and that sort of thing for them or different catalogs, brochures, and that sort of thing. And that's what I was doing because that's where my background in tech illustration [technical illustration] just happen to come in [...] I went down there and was interviewed for about ten minutes and they guy wanted me to start that afternoon. No, no, no, no, let's back off here a little bit you know (laughter) [...]” [4]
An illustration of a Black man playing guitar while sitting on a bed. Photo credit: Ron Adams.
Just as much valuable information can be found in what we want to do as in what we don’t want to do. Bank executive Deborah Wright and her internships with various legal firms provide excellent examples of that.
“And so I found that I liked the people at Davis Polk and I liked the people at Dallas Legal Services but I hated the work. And for, for the same reasons which I just didn't like legal research, I got bored with just how long it took to get to the real thing– [...] And in terms of the courtroom and stuff like that even, you know, the courtroom it was just exceedingly boring, you know, Exhibit 46, Exhibit 46 A, Exhibit 46 F [...] And so anyway, it just turns out that I don't know what it was about it, but I, I just preferred to be a decision maker for one thing and, and to be involved in current events.” [5]
But while some internships turned HistoryMakers away from certain careers, other internships were vital first opportunities. Physicist Anthony Johnson describes his experience at Bell Laboratories as such:
“And so, this was called the Bell Labs Summer Research Program for minorities and women. We call it SRP, Summer Research Program. It started in 1974. And so, I was given a choice of working with two physicists who went on to become, you know, very world famous. One was David Austin. And he was doing lasers and opto-electronics. [...] And then the other person I had the opportunity to--because I had a choice that first year. His name was Robert Dynes, D-Y-N-E-S. And he was a big name in superconductivity, low temperature physics. But I picked, I think I was more interested in lasers. And I picked Dave Austin, and that was my choice. And how I got into the field altogether was working with him.” [6]
Summer Research Programs still exist today, and offer important opportunities to minority students interested in STEM. Academic administrator Artis Hampshire-Cowan is another beacon of these programs’ impacts:
“They had, you know, really nice chemistry labs and, as a result, I went to Morris Brown [Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Georgia] in the summer of my junior year to take some--science program. The National Science Foundation was running these programs for kids, exposed them to math and science [...] And so it was kind of a thing even in my family, it was considered, Atlanta was a big city that was a long way away, but my parents allowed me to go and that was a great experience too, because when I did those summer science programs, what I learned then is that there were loads of smart black kids from all over America.” [7]
Photo of Morris Brown College’s Fountain Hall. Photo credit: Morris Brown College.
Through this experience, Cowan was exposed to a new reason to be proud of herself and her people. Journalist Emil Wilbekin reports something similar in his field, this time coming from already-accomplished Black professionals.
“The other thing that is so important to mention is that every summer I had an internship when I was at Hampton [University, Hampton, Virginia] [...] And so the first summer, I got a newspaper internship at the Cincinnati Inquirer as basically like a gofer in the newsroom, and that was through the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and it was really wonderful because all the black reporters and editors--anybody black in photo, and the messengers--anyone that worked there who was black took an interest in me 'cause they were like, "Who's this guy?" And several of the reporters really pushed me to look at becoming a newspaper reporter, and so subsequently, every summer, I would intern at the Cincinnati Inquirer through some organization or another through National Association of Black Journalists [NABJ], and so then I would become a reporter.” [8]
Black and white photo of National Association of Black Journalists members and banner. Photo credit: National Association of Black Journalists.
Despite still being in college, Wilbekin was already given resources and opportunities that would allow him to thrive later in his career. Making the most of his summer put him on the pathway to success.
With the advent of summer comes new opportunities that are hard to access otherwise. In this energetic season, there’s value in seeking out new and exciting opportunities. According to the Archives, some time spent in a laboratory or another country could be just as refreshing as a trip to the beach!
References:
The Honorable Henry L. Marsh, III (The HistoryMakers A2003.277), interviewed by Larry Crowe, November 18, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 6, The Honorable Henry L. Marsh, III describes going to summer school in rural North Carolina
Angela Davis (The HistoryMakers A2003.124), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, June 7, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 6, story 4, Angela Davis has final thoughts on her college summers
Charles Collins (The HistoryMakers A2011.010), interviewed by Larry Crowe, March 10, 2011, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 2, Charles Collins talks about the shift in his perspective after returning from Washington, D.C. and his summer experience in Finland.
Ron Adams (The HistoryMakers A2010.081), interviewed by Denise Gines, July 13, 2010, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 1, Ron Adams describes how he became the graphic designer for the 1968 Summer Olympics
Deborah Wright (The HistoryMakers A2008.128), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, November 7, 2008, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, Deborah Wright describes her summer internship during her time at the Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School
Anthony Johnson (The HistoryMakers A2013.167), interviewed by Larry Crowe, July 25, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 9, Anthony Johnson talks about his summer at Bell Laboratories
Artis Hampshire-Cowan (The HistoryMakers A2010.060), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 27, 2010, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 5, Artis Hampshire-Cowan recalls her summer program in Atlanta, Georgia
Emil Wilbekin (The HistoryMakers A2014.204), interviewed by Harriette Cole, June 16, 2014, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 2, Emil Wilbekin describes his summer internships at the Cincinnati Inquirer
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