Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / April 10, 2018, edition 1 / Page 18
Part of University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
'W ROSENWALD SCHOOLS r-' CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 National Trust for Historic Preser vation. Johnson started the journey of collecting information about the Macedonia school by contacting alumni. “I began to contact alumni that were still alive, all over the coun try,” Johnson said. “I would identi fy one person there to be my coor dinator. They were in touch with all the alumni who lived in their city.” The people who attended the Macedonia school tended to keep in touch, Johnson said. “Even though those people left that community, they took the com munity with them," Johnson said. "They maintained that community . in the city of Chicago.” The alumni of the Macedonia school helped provide photographs, quotes and information for the ex hibit. “From 1925 when the school first opened, I was able to find a photo graph of the first teacher,” Johnson said. “His family still lives in the community.” Deborah Miles, director of the center for diversity education, helped coordinate the exhibit and POLICE CHIEF CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 but doing so will empower our community to actively participate in the process of accountability that is so critical to rebuilding trust,” Conant said. For the social activist, bringing the issue of racial inequalities back to the forefront of the public’s con sciousness with movements like Black Lives Matter helps remind the public that social change is pos sible and having African-Ameri can leadership at the center of the movement is very important. “When I was in school, the civil rights movement and issues of race were often referred to in the past tense, as a struggle that no longer talked about the greater impact of it. “What she (Johnson) did to bring that community together, the exhib it is an example of that,” Miles said. “The power of the relationships, the pride of that community, the love.” Western North Carolina also had Rosenwald schools which served the community. Oralene Simmons and Anita White attended local Ros enwald schools and discussed their experiences at the exhibit opening. Simmons attended the Anderson Rosenwald School in Mars Hill, which opened in 1929. “I remember I walked a long way to the bus stop to catch the bus that would take me to the Rosenwald school,” Simmons said. “It was a bus that originated out of Mar shall, took the students there and also picked up students from Hot Springs who had made the trip to Mars Hill by train.” Simmons also shared the condi tions of the school. “In addition to being a one-room school, it did not have electricity. It did not have indoor plumbing,” Simmons said. Miles said the location of the ex hibit in Zageir seemed fitting be cause many of the education classes existed. We know that is not the case, but it has taken large social movements to force the issue, to restart a conversation that needs to be had if we are to ever make true progress,” Conant said. Bettie Council, a retired elemen tary school teacher, now works as an adjunct instructor at Ashe- ville-Buncombe Technical Com munity College and spends her free time in Asheville as an activist. “It has been proven that the pris on system is a system to financially benefit private industries. The more prisoners, the more money they make,” Council said. For Council, change begins by fundamentally addressing the core of the centuries-old criminal justice occur there. “We decided to ask the Depart ment of Education if we could do it there because it's very much about the education system in the South,” Miles said. “We wanted it to be available to education students.” Lisa Sarasohn, an attendee of the exhibit and friend of Johnson’s, said she had an interest in the role of Julius Rosenwald helping Book er T. Washington. “One of the things that interests me is Jewish people being allies for African-Americans,” Sarasohn said. “What I'd like to learn is more about how Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington came together and hatched this idea.” The Rosenwald schools are named after Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish philanthropist who gave seed money to Booker T. Washing ton to start the schools. According to the exhibit, Rosen wald contributed to the schools for the ‘good of mankind.’ He wrote the racial prejudice black communities face resonates with Jewish people because of their past persecution. Sarasohn said she had a question about what could come of the ex hibit. system, a system founded when black lives held little importance. “The country is in the state it is because white colonists set up sys tems that were and still are keeping white people in power. This sys temic, racist system is still in ex istence and operating as designed today,” Council said. Council participates in the Ra cial Equity Institute Training in Asheville. Council said the training within the curriculum should be included in every history book be cause it shows how the system was designed and set up to oppress peo ple of color. “It is important to talk about not only in the sense of making peo ple who are not conscious woke. “I'm wondering what inspiration can come of the story of the Mace donia school that can be brought forth today,” Sarasohn said. Johnson said schools still remain segregated in less prominent ways by offering classes to white stu dents that are not offered to black students. “Even those schools that are inte grated where black and white stu dents are in the same building, un der the same roof going to school, they're still segregated because they created something called Advanced Placement classes in which they track the white kids into and then they track black kids into regular classes,” Johnson said. Johnson said people should fol low the advice of Nikole Han- nah-Jones, an investigative New York Times journalist who spoke about school segregation at UNCA in February, to de-track and deseg regate schools. “There's no evidence that a white kid sitting next to a black kid learns any less because they're sitting next to them, which is what white par ents seem to be concerned about,” Johnson said. aware,” Council said. Burbank will be on campus next week attending the Social Justice Coffee Hour put together by The Key Center for Community En gaged Learning, along with giving talks in individual classrooms apart from his main talk taking place in the Sherrill Center Ingles Moun tain View Room. The talk, “Mass Incarceration and Racial Inequities in Policing: Solutions from a Police Chief’ will be free and open to the public on April 18 at 7 p.m. “If you care about the idea of liv ing in a just society, if that’s some thing you value, do you want to participate in a society that believes in fair and equal treatment of all, then come,” Cox said.
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 10, 2018, edition 1
18
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75