Our reading this week from the Richmond’s Unhealed History book, chapters 7-9 was interesting through the different graphs and maps showing how Richmond has changed over the years. These three chapters were once again filled with difficult reading. The treatment of individuals because of the color of their skin was clear during this time period and is still evident in our society today. One case and point that comes to mind is the National Football League (NFL), where very few African Americans hold the position of Head Coach. In 2021, 71 percent of the players in the NFL were people of color, according to NFL.com. Situations like this happen every day with little corrective actions taking place to move above this injustice. I mentioned the NFL because of the upcoming Super Bowl and all the attention on that game.
This week we had an opportunity to work in separate groups in class to discuss the Rosa Parks Montgomery Bus Boycott in more detail. We reviewed documents that covered the boycott event as well as other documents leading up to the event. These documents included the police arrest warrant, seating chart of the bus, a letter to the Mayor of Montgomery, and an insert of a history textbook passage. The class were also allowed to review the letter to the Mayor of Montgomery through the eyes of students, teachers, and as a historian.
It was also interesting to learn information concerning the bus boycott that my school did not provide such as the planning of the boycott as early as May 1954. I was under the impression that the boycott all started with Rosa Parks and the bus situation in December 1955. It was also mentioned that other towns had also gone through similar situations that Montgomery was going through concerning their buses.
Thank you, class, for reading my post,
Milton
Hi Milton. Based on our class session or the reading, is there something you are still wondering about? Is there an issue or a question you want to discuss further? Can you post it here for your classmates to discuss?
Hi Lexie and Milton, our last class session gave me several revelations and reading your post this week took me on a journey. Lexie, after reading your post I reflected on how there are quite a few classes of persons who have experienced discrimination, racism, sexism, alienation or annihilation – including the American natives, African Americans, White Women, Jewish persons, Mexican Americans and the LGBTQ+ community. In Richmond’s Unhealed History, chapter 7, we see how the persons in ruling authority instituted laws to achieve their “goal of black disenfranchisement” across several areas (transportation, residential, marriage, education, employment, public assemblies, and public facilities which still haunts the black citizens of Richmond today. (Campbell, 2012, pp. 140-148) Milton, I agree chapters 7-9 were tough reads especially to see the splitting of the Jackson Ward community. One of the worst examples of ‘economic development’ moves was to destroy the thriving Jackson Ward community by razing 4,700 units of housing and replacing them with five housing projects to build interstate 95. (Campbell, 2012, p. 153) I believe it is said best in the epilogue on page 216, “The men who planted the cross at the falls on May 24, 1607 promised justice, but did not give it. Now, more than four hundred years later, we can, if we will, renounce that original heresy and claim for this settlement the integrity that was absent at the beginning.” Beginning with the Millennial generation and going forward, we are seeing a more diverse population of students who will be taught by educators wanting to provide history as a historian giving them as much of the facts as possible. This is necessary because history has already happened, and we cannot change it but we can learn from it so we can all move forward to a more perfect union.
Reference:
Campbell, B. (2018). Richmond’s unhealed history. Richmond, VA: Brandylane
Greetings, Milton! Thanks for this post. The fact about the racial makeup of NFL coaches as opposed to players is indeed disheartening. Here are some thoughts I had about our lesson on Rosa Parks and primary sources:
By the time last class began, I had already learned that Rosa Parks was an experienced activist who refused to give up her seat in order deliberately to bring attention to an already-planned bus boycott (though I recalled this only vaguely), but from the internet in the last few years, not from my social studies classes in elementary, middle or high school. I am pretty sure that when I was in school I learned the same standard story as the rest of us, i.e. “Rosa Parks was a random poor Black woman who was too tired and cranky to give up her seat to a white passenger and inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott by accident.” This account seems a textbook example (so to speak) of Black history being filtered through a White lens that diminishes the protagonists and reduces their agency while obscuring the structure and history behind their oppression—no doubt why the teachers chose it for our activity! However, since last class, I’ve read a little online about the creation of the Rosa Parks myth and it appears that the textbook account is actually derived from the story created by the leaders of the Civil Rights movement, who wished to present Parks as a meek, innocent, “respectable” figure in order to make her more palatable to Whites and to refute malicious rumors started by their enemies that Rosa was a Communist or not even Black, etc. On the one hand, I take this additional context as a reminder that common misconceptions of history are rarely the consequence of malevolent deception, and outrage probably ought not to be one’s automatic response when uncovering them. On the other hand, it’s definitely one more example of mainstream American culture remembering and highlighting only those minority activists who appear least threatening to the majority in their words and methods, and in an exaggeratedly toothless form (the most prominent single example of this being the reduction of the Civil Rights movement to solely Martin Luther King Jr., and the reduction of MLK himself to a blandly pacifistic Christ-like figure, in the American classroom)—which is an excellent way of allowing members of the majority to identify with and approve historical movements against oppression while still condemning their modern counterparts any time they do something that makes the majority uncomfortable!
It’s worth noting that the reason we learn the false version of Rosa Parks’ story is simply that white Americans *believed* the account that Parks’ fellow activists at the NAACP presented to them! Thus a short-term gain (the successful use of Parks as a palatable public face for the Montgomery boycott) became a long-term loss (the sanitizing and defanging of the boycott in social studies classrooms). Could the NAACP of Parks’ time have somehow conducted their press releases in such as a way as to create the positive public image they wanted without covering up Parks’ true legacy? I’m pretty sure the answer is “no”, honestly, which is sad. Certainly I do not fault Parks’ allies for the path they took, which seems a canny one. But I take it as a reminder that all actions have an infinite stream of unintended consequences attached to them.
Hi Milton!
Thank you so much for your post!
Creating current, real-world connections to readings for class is something I always find to be incredibly interesting. As you said, with the Super Bowl coming up, the NFL is going to be the main subject of many headlines. You would think that such a popular and long-running organization where 71 percent of their players are people of color would have a diverse coaching staff! It is heart breaking to think that so little action has been taken to correct injustices such as these in football and so many other instances.
I too found it fascinating how much information was missing concerning the Montgomery Bus Boycott from my school’s curriculum. Most of us were taught that Rosa Parks’ arrest was the catalyst for the whole event. However, boycotts such as those require long periods of planning prior to them taking place and require the help of large groups of people.
Hi Milton! Thank you so much for sharing in your post!
I love how you connected the topics covered in class with a real world event! I think that what you pointed out about the percentage of people of color playing in the NFL compared to the people of color in the coaching staff is heart breaking and needs to change. The continuous injustices are upsetting and I hope that we will all be able to make a difference to change them by teaching the new generations about history and our current world.
When coming to class last week, I had a feeling that I was not truly aware of the full history behind Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. I found it shocking to see the police report compared to the seating chart from the bus. Seeing these documents in class made me think about how students are given different information that frames history in an extremely bias way. I was under similar impressions with the rest of the class in the way that we were taught Rose Parks started the bus boycotts, when in reality there were years of planning for these events to take place.
I plan on taking this learning experience with me as we all enter the teaching field so that I provide my students with accurate information of historical events. One major way of accomplishing this is by providing students with primary sources, in addition to checking the “facts” in secondary sources, such as textbooks.
Hello Milton!
Thank you for your reflection on the last class. It is heartbreaking to me that this racism and discrimination still seep into our society. What is even more upsetting is that people attempt to deny its existence. I do not pay much attention to NFL so I was not aware of the inequality in the coaching staff, but unfortunately, I am not surprised. Historically, White people have undermined and attempted to stop Black success in almost every industry.
One of the other courses I am taking is called the Sociology of Hip Hop and we have been learning about the history of hip-hop culture and its birth in South Bronx. It is amazing and heartbreaking to learn about all the ways in which these people were framed by the media as violent, drug-ridden, lazy individuals when they were absolutely no different from the rest of America. What continues to amaze me is that through all of this struggle, the beautiful culture of hip-hop emerged and extended so far that we see influences of it in practically every facet of our lives.
While we were in class last week, I was reminded of my sociology course when we learned about the boycotts and Rosa Parks because as terrible as it was that they had to fight for the right to be treated as equal human beings, I couldn’t help but be in awe by the immense display of strength, organization, and collaboration of the activists. I was never taught the detailed history of the boycotts and I wish I was because learning that information gave me so much more appreciation for the people that fought for what was right.
Hi Milton!
I appreciate the reflection you have posted from our class.
I thought you and I (and Tera!) had interesting conversations at our table throughout the class, and I think you need to bring the conversation here! During our conversations of Rosa Parks, you had noticed on the note sent from the Women’s Voting club (I forget the name, oops) that it was labeled as a file complaint, and you had mentioned that the superintendent your wife works with follows the same process. If the superintendent is handed a letter that is labeled with complaint, you had said the office immediately gets rid of it. I find it so interesting that some offices still follow this – was the letter from the Women’s Voting Association read by the Mayor, or was it immediately handed off to another office never to be discussed? You just have to wonder if history could’ve been different if the letter to the Mayor was not labeled as a complaint file!
Hi Lexie,
Thank you for this thoughtful response to Milton! While I definitely found it interesting that the letter made its way to the complaint file, I also felt like we might still be missing parts of the story! I doubt that this was the only warning that the Mayor received about the potential for an outright boycott — were there other letters perhaps? With 25+ organizations in the city discussing a potential boycott for months, it seems doubtful that the Mayor would not have gotten wind of the impending boycott from somewhere. Thank you both for continuing the conversation in this space!
Sue Anne
Hi Milton,
Thank you for your response!
I think your connection the the NFL is very interesting! We can still see the aftereffects of racism, sexism, colonialism and other forms of oppression in our everyday lives. According to Berry et al. (2020), [in academic surgery] “of the 15,671 U.S. medical school surgical faculty, 123 (0.79%) were Black/AA women surgeons with only 11 (0.54%) being tenured faculty.” When when see the ‘representation’ of the House of Representatives, we see a racial makeup of mostly white members in a diverse nation. I constantly see the effects of holding minorities back in politics, education, and several career paths. Although we as a nation are making some strides in diversity, we are largely held back by our lack of progress in elementary and secondary education, the shortage of substantial protection for minorities, and the lack of representation in critical career paths. I hope to be a part of a system where I’m allowed the space to encourage my students to critically think and learn about the history of this country and the countries around the world. I’m glad to read your response, because it has me thinking more about the gaps we see in our own worlds!
Thank you again!
Ashley
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32209893/
Hi Milton,
Thank you for tying in some relevant matters from the present!
We talk a lot about history (rightfully so), but I also think it is important to talk about how history or how we educate new generations impacts the present. We have to talk about things like racism, sexism, and homophobia and how these systems have ingrained themselves into our society. It is a lot bigger than just “this is how people thought or behaved in the past”. Unfortunately, many people still have ignorant mindsets. It is up to us to teach students to be empathetic and kind toward all people, and history is a great tool for doing just that.
Hi Milton,
Thank you for reflecting on our class and our readings! I agree that the final chapters of the book continued to be tough and emotional reading. I’ve been reflecting on the word “unhealed” from our book’s title and have been wondering . . . what would it take to heal a city from a history like this? Is it even possible? As a city, we’re slowly removing monuments and changing the names of buildings, schools, roadways, etc. to remove the honor that was once bestowed on some of these men by naming parts of our city after them. For example, I went to Byrd Middle School, as in Harry Flood Byrd Middle School, named for the former Senator and Governor Harry F. Byrd who openly opposed desegregation. A few years ago, the school was renamed to Quioccasin Middle School. Do you think changes like this help with healing? It’s a step in the right direction, for sure, and while I’m not sure what healing a city or a society truly looks like, I don’t think we’re close to being there yet.
As for the NFL, you bring up some good points, and I don’t know enough about sports management hierarchy to intelligently comment. However, it made me think about our public schools. Is it important that school administration be proportionately representative of the racial/ethnic makeup of the teachers? How about the teachers — should we be intentional about constructing a teaching staff that mirrors the demographics of a school’s students (assuming there wasn’t a national teaching shortage and we had the latitude to be intentional)? It makes for an interesting discussion, because this is a very real and public goal for some local higher education institutions.
Lastly, I do love that you incorporated very timely current events into our online class discussion. It’s going to be important for us to be as aware as possible of what’s going on in the world and figure out which current events we can bring up in our classes as well to help students stay informed and make connections, and potentially to help them analyze multiple accounts of the same event or to delve into the potential bias of a source.
Thank you again, Milton, for your reflection and post!
Sue Anne
Hi Milton,
Thank you so much for your post! I really enjoyed how you connected a current day issue with our class activity from last week.
It’s unacceptable that social injustices are still harming our community today, as you pointed to when referring to the NFL. Sue Anne brought up a good point, it’s vital that our schools have diverse faculty. I’m so glad we learned the correct details of the story of Rosa Park’s last week, as I was uneducated on the specifics of the story. I learned more about the truth about Rosa Parks in last week’s class than I did in elementary or middle school. I will utilize the primary sources that we used in class when I teach this story to my students in order for them to recognize the importance of first-hand documents of historical events. I learned a significant lesson from our class activity: There exists an array of false historical information in our world and I will be aware and alert of this false information as a teacher. I want to ensure my students are solely learning facts and getting various perspectives, not invalid details about important events that affected our history. Your post made me evaluate just how important teacher’s roles are in discovering the truth about our nation’s history before educating students on certain people or events. I was also thinking about how important it is to be aware of each student’s backgrounds and diversity when discussing topics that might be hard to talk about. As a teacher, I will be careful about my word choice as well as the documents and sources I choose.
Hi Milton!
Thank you so much for your thoughtful post. Thank you for also tying in what we have been learning in class to the world today, however, it is truly upsetting that we can tie in what horrible things have happened in the past to things that are occurring today.
It is hard but at the same time not hard to believe that there are still social injustices, especially in big businesses/corporations like the NFL today. I hope with educating new generations, this will change in the future, and now.
I learned more new information about the bus boycott in our class session than I had within my own classroom when I was younger. I hope that I can provide my own students with the whole truth in my own classroom.
Hi Milton!
Thank you for your post. Knowing that the NFL is made up of a majority of people of color and the coaches do not match the same level of diversity is difficult to hear. Work is still left to be done on this for sure.
When we were learning about Rosa Parks, I knew some side information but mostly the textbook accounts of the events. That class really altered how I am able to process and view textbooks. We know that so much more happened than just the one day when Rosa Parks was “too tired” to get up. The textbooks still account for the reason that she started a movement. I think allowing students to interact with primary resources is critical in teaching them to search for answers or for a deeper meaning.