Why Education is Our Biggest Superpower

When given the task of encompassing a subject as large as Black History Month, I struggled to condense all the important events. There are so many people, places, and stories to highlight. The HistoryMakers Digital Archive is the digital repository of the Black experience. Therefore, it took many days of research to ensure that I properly respected the archive and did the best work possible to develop the story of Black History Month.

Primarily, I began my research by simply typing “Black History Month” into the archive. This search led me to the interview series with Carolyn Young (1944-). Young served as the vice chairperson for the Andrew J. Young Foundation, named after her husband who served as the executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, as a U.S. Congressman for the state of Georgia, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and the 55th Mayor of Atlanta. Carolyn Young taught in Atlanta Public Schools for over thirty years and is passionate about teaching Black history.

SCLC members participating in a Civil Rights March / Photo Credits

Currently, there are so many barriers regarding the dissemination of Black history. With a tool as powerful as the digital archive, it is important to remember that we have steps in place to offset this challenge. More specifically, Young relays her experience when it came to teaching Black history in her classroom.

“And, we did a play on Martin Luther King [Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.], and I had a white boy, Dwayne McKenzie [ph.] played Martin Luther King to let, it was point there. He was the smartest boy in the class and he was articulate but I wanted to let them know, it's not the color, it's the content of the character. It's how the person is... And, then, it was so good until they took me over to the high school, Archer High School [Samuel Howard Archer High School, Atlanta, Georgia], which was not far away and we did it for a big audience. Yeah, yeah, I did... And, we, we didn't cast black characters necessarily with a black student. You had to audition for the character. And, if you happened to be white and the character was Harriet Tubman, or Charles Drew [Charles R. Drew], then you got it. I mean, you know, that's just the way it was. But, we taught, it wasn't in the curriculum, but we brought it to the forefront, you know. And, as I, when I left around 1990, it started in '93 [1993] or '94 [1994], they did start, we started getting information in books and things about Afro American. But, we always celebrated. And, what I would tell my students, I said, "We--they have designated," I said, "when I was young, it was a week." I said, "A day," I said, "but, now they've designated the month of February as Afro American History Month [Black History Month]." I said, "But, you cannot have American history without Afro, without black history." I said, "It's intertwined."  [1]

Samuel Howard Archer was a Black man born five years after the end of the Civil War, and once he went through education through Colgate University, he vowed to provide education for African Americans. He also served as a faculty member at Morehouse College for 36 years. This bit on information confused me, as I could not understand why White kids in that school were being allowed to play Black historical figures at the time. In turn, I went deeper into the archive to discover more.

Portrait of Samuel Howard Archer/ Photo Credit

This search led to me to learn more about integration, and thus I inputted this search into the archive. This led me to Rachel Brown (1912-2012), an elementary school teacher and high school teacher who served as an educator for over four decades and was a key figure in integrating Anne Arundel County in Maryland. Brown stated her thoughts on integrating schools and how it was necessary to develop as a society.

“And so I knew we had to have integration. I'm for integration. But I knew Thurgood [Marshall] well. And he told us, sitting right in my house on Kirby Lane--sitting when he came down, "It's the economics that we should be fighting but we can't fight the economics because they give money to education. And you got to make the money for the economics." And it opened the door. You understand? And now we have got to open the door to the economics which you all are doing. You understand that? But it takes time. I got to find out who that Fletcher is that's got that fifty million [dollars]. I know the other Brown--man head a BBT and don't care what we get. It don't take them long. They gonna find a way to get it. You understand that? All right. And the--Thurgood opened the door. That was the best that he could do. And he did it well.” [2]

Rachel Brown in her HistoryMakers Interview / Photo Credits

 Initially, I believed that there was a pattern in education when it came to my Black History Month search. Then, I saw the mention of Thurgood Marshall in the archive, so I then decided to learn more about him. I was curious to see what other themes my research would lead me to. The search “Thurgood Marshall” yielded some good results to get some preliminary information.  

The Honorable Michael B. Coleman (1954-) was the first African American mayor of Columbus, Ohio and spearheaded the redevelopment of downtown Columbus. His favorite quote is “A city that stays the same falls behind.” When asked about his admiration for Thurgood Marshall, he was passionate.

“I just read about him, followed him closely and I, you know, our community, we talked about this tall, black man beating segregation and became solicitor general under Johnson [President Lyndon Baines Johnson] and then became supreme court justice. He was just, I was born the same year that Brown versus Education [Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954] was established by the [U.S.] Supreme Court, overthrew segregation in public high schools. That same year I was born and for some reason, I just--I've always wanted to be like Thurgood Marshall coming up. He caught my attention as a young person. You just talked about him--on the porch, on the back porch, on the, you know (claps), hanging out with folks. "Thurgood Marshall, Thurgood Marshall, Thurgood Marshall." I read about him--I started reading about him.” [3]

Thurgood Marshall as a Supreme Court Justice / Photo Credits

While this interview gave me a good insight into the public sentiment surrounding Thurgood Marshall, I did not fully understand the scope of what he was able to accomplish, more specifically his amazing contribution to Black history.

The Honorable Michael Powell (1963-), is a telecommunications lawyer and a federal government appointee. He is also the former commissioner and the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

The Honorable Michael Powell serving in his role as FCC Chairman/ Photo Credits

Powell describes the time in which he met Thurgood Marshall, and how that interaction impacted his life and his reverence for the field of law.

“We got rolling up to the [U.S.] Supreme Court, just sort of crash in the back door. We take a left to right, all of a sudden we're walking into the chambers of Thurgood Marshall, and there he sits at the desk. And I was like, I cannot believe this. And we just plopped down, and he just starts talking like old--and they grew up together. I mean they grew up in Baltimore [Maryland], and for two and a half hours, these two just told war stories. You know, I couldn't re-replicate this experience if--but he just--it was important for me to see it. He wanted you to see it. They went through Brown versus Board of Education [Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 1954] in detail. They were telling stories about what they did. And I'm just fascinated. And Thurgood doesn't suffer any fools either. And it was great because you just got to watch two old friends, great--two lions in the Civil Rights Movement and hardheaded lawyers, recounting their lives together. You couldn't pay for it.” [4]

Personally, Powell being in the field of telecommunications deeply resonated with me, as that is the field I would like to go into after I graduate. However, I am not looking to go into law, but I am looking to be in the field. Once I began to resonate with this information, I realized that Black history is a part of me as well. While I thought I should personalize my search to telecommunications, I believed that there was more I could do in terms of educating myself on different kinds of HistoryMakers.

One cannot discuss Black History Month without talking about the necessary education needed in order to be successful and fully explain the scope of civil rights education.

Search Terms

·      Black History Month (1011 stories)

·      Integration (1797 stories)

·      Thurgood Marshall (849 stories)

·      Civil Rights Movement (3913 stories)

·      Samuel Howard Archer (10 stories)

References

1.     Carolyn Young (The HistoryMakers A2016.047), interviewed by Larry Crowe, October 4, 2016, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 7, Carolyn Young talks about her approach to black history education, pt. 1

2.     Rachel Brown (The HistoryMakers A2004.062), interviewed by Racine Tucker Hamilton, June 3, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 4, Rachel Brown shares her thoughts on integration

3.     The Honorable Michael B. Coleman (The HistoryMakers A2012.100), interviewed by Larry Crowe, April 4, 2012, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 7, The Honorable Michael B. Coleman recalls his admiration of Thurgood Marshall