Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Albert Taylor Hall in Plumb Hall
on the Emporia State University Campus
7:00 p.m.

Kansas case opened doors for Little Rock Nine

David Muhammad's poem: little rocks

Lecturer allowing ESU to examine past and present

ESU representatives appear on 49 ABC News

Lecturer allowing ESU to examine past and present

If the past informs the present, the community of Emporia is in for a real treat this week.

Only days from the 50^th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine – Sept. 25, 1957, when African-American high school students desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. – Emporia State University is hosting one of those nine. Minnijean Brown Trickey will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12, in Albert Taylor Hall on the ESU campus, as part of the Bonner and Bonner Diversity Lecture Series. The event is free and open to the public.

In the days before the event, ESU’s educators are recognizing it as a unique learning opportunity – both to share with students and to examine the civil rights movement today. For students, it is a chance to look beyond college life, and to look into the past.

Dr. Barbara Baker, director of multicultural affairs, said her challenge for students is for them to build on their already strong social bonds, and become civically and politically engaged. The presence of Ms. Brown Trickey is a perfect time to plant such a seed.

“I think it’s going to help them bring history alive,” Baker said. “I hope she really inspires them to think about life beyond fashion shows and step shows, and think about the issues. There is life beyond Emporia State University, and they’re going to be a part of that life.”

Dr. Nathaniel Terrell, chairman of the department of sociology and anthropology, is an associate professor who concentrates on criminology and social psychology. He’s equally as excited for students to hear from one of the Little Rock Nine.

“They get to learn a lot about history, for students in general,” Terrell said. “For African-American students, they get to actually talk with one of their historians, who went through this, who laid the bricks so their walk is easier. We don’t always get a chance to talk to those people.”

Terrell’s curiosity led him to read that Minnijean Brown Trickey volunteered to be one of the first African-American students to attend the all-white Central High School. “I was shocked that she volunteered. They went home and convinced their parents and got their support,” Terrell said. “That’s one of the questions I want to ask her. ‘Why would you volunteer to be one of the nine?’”

The events of the Little Rock Nine, as one of the civil rights movement’s major landmarks, have the same energy of an earlier period of American history. The Harlem Renaissance, anchored loosely in the 1920s, was an awakening of a new African-American identity.

Dr. Gary Holcomb, who as an associate professor of English concentrates on African-American literature and American studies, said there was heated debate within the Renaissance over whether African-American art should be overtly engaged in pushing for civil rights, or if it should remain art for art’s sake. “You could see this as a kind of beginning of the later debate between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and the role of African-American civil action.”

Like the 1950s, the decade of the Brown vs. Board of Education case and ultimately the Little Rock Nine, the 1920s followed a World War in which African-Americans served the cause of bringing democracy to the world but returned to a country divided by racism, where they were snubbed as second-class citizens, Holcomb said. 

Racism is rarely so overt today. As Baker said, there are no angry mobs, but it takes on a more subtle form. Speaking with Baker, a graduate student related the experience of a small group discussion where classmates didn’t value her opinion. As a result, “She was doubting herself,” Baker said. “‘Do I really need to be in graduate school? Am I really smart?’”

Baker calls this a form of internalized oppression, where the student doubted herself because of the imposed stereotype. “You become your own angry mob, screaming at yourself, when you start believing those stereotypes,” she said. “They can damage you. We have to be aware of these kinds of things. That’s why civil rights is still so very important.”

Terrell hears from students who, as the only African-Americans in the classrooms, feel the scrutiny. ‘They look at me as if I have something to prove,’ the students tell Terrell. “Some things haven’t changed,” Terrell said. “We should look at all students as if they have something to prove.”

Ms. Brown Trickey’s message of equality is one that reaches all people. Baker’s office represents all multicultural distinctions, including race, gender, class and sexual orientation. The common bond is that each student is striving for the same rights, Baker said. “The speaker is going to be a big inspiration to them. It’s not just an African-American issue.”

Indeed, the issue is far broader. Each wave of American immigrants faced a similar battle. It is a truly American story, a story the Bonner and Bonner Diversity Lecture Series is perfectly positioned to address.

“The problem of historical struggle has always been the tendency to forget it. As a person who lived that history, her presence compels us to remember,” said Holcomb. “The presence of Ms. Brown Trickey forces everyone to know where we came from and how we got here. There’s no understanding of being American without understanding African-American history.”