- Thank you all for coming today. Being that it's Sunday, I think the first thing I want to do is pass
- a collection plate. But we'll get started. Thank you all for coming. And I'm one of those people, if
- you've ever known them, that they put on glasses so they can see. I have to take mine off so I can read
- up close, just so we know. But good afternoon, and welcome to our third Brown versus Board of Education session.
- For those of you who may not know me, my name is Jim Sims. I'm the president of the Monroe County chapter
- of the NAACP. This afternoon, we intend to engage you in a learning experience that will inspire and
- compel collective action in support of preserving and educating our community on the truth. To lay the
- foundation for action, you will hear about freedom schools,
- and what role they can play in this current atmosphere of inaccurate history and attempts at canceling
- the fundamental rights and freedoms of our Constitution. I encourage you to participate fully in this
- transformational opportunity. With that being said, CATS, Community Access Television Services, is recording
- this event, including questions. If you prefer to make a comment or questions without being recorded,
- Please raise your hand and submit your comment on a card from one of our staff members. Dr. King coined
- the phrase, the fierce urgency of now. And the time to act is now. So let me introduce our speaker of
- the hour, Dr. Charles Nams.
- Sounds kind of weird to say Charles, as I know him as Charlie. And my name is Charlie. Is Charlie.
- Got you. OK. Charlie is a professor emeritus of Indiana University's Office of Educational Leadership
- and Policy Studies, academic programs, higher education, and student affairs, as well as the author
- of From Cotton Fields to University Leadership. He is dedicated to the education and advancement of
- the youth, both here and abroad.
- I can think of no better way to begin today's session than to introduce you to my friend, Charlie Nams.
- Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Dr. Charlie Nams. Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you, Jimmy. Good afternoon.
- Come on, now, talk to me, talk to me. You know, I was so looking forward to this, and you're acting
- all anemic. Come on, talk to me. Don't take that, brother, okay? Look, I'm delighted to be here, but
- more importantly, I'm delighted that you are here, that we're all here, okay? And the NAACP is near
- and dear to my heart, so I'm gonna start with an advertisement.
- If you're not a member of the NAACP, join. Join the NAACP. Because it is an organization that has stood
- in the gap for a very, very long time. And given the situation that we're dealing with now, the NAACP
- is more needed than ever. Now, I want to start with a few disclaimers.
- Audrey, I call names when I talk, right? So let me just say, I'm neither a historian nor an attorney
- steeped in constitutional law. I'm assumed to be octogenarian. Is that what they call it when you get
- to be 80? Octogenarian, that's what I am. And I actually lived through this whole period of racial segregation
- And we normally think about it as having occurred in the South, but it occurred right here in Bloomington,
- Indiana. A couple of blocks from here, you go, not even a couple of blocks, you just go right over there
- where the library used to be, where the colored school, and our good friend Liz Mitchell is here. There
- is a historic marker on that site. Am I remembering that correctly? So if you have not taken a tour
- of Bloomington, Indiana,
- to be able to identify and see some of those historic sites, I would really encourage you to do that.
- And you don't have to wait until Black History Month in order to do it, okay? I grew up in the Deep
- South. I'm gonna tell you a story, right? I'm gonna tell you a story. Now, if you don't like my story,
- that's your problem. It's not mine, okay? But it's my story, okay? So I grew up at the height of racial
- segregation in the South, and when...
- Brown versus Board of Education was decided. I was a fourth grade student attending a two-room Rosenwald
- School, Julius Rosenwald School, okay, in the Arkansas Delta. And I have very vivid memories of everything
- about my little school, including Ms. Beatrice Johnson, my teacher, who had all students in grades pre-premor
- through the sixth grade, Clarence.
- Pre-primer through the sixth grade. Now, you all call it kindergarten. That's a preschool or something,
- right? But pre-primer through the sixth grade. This one teacher had all of us in one room, okay? I remember
- the students in my class. I remember the gravel road in front of the school. I remember that potbellied
- stove in the middle of the room that provided heat. I remember that single light bulb ding, ding, dangling.
- to provide light for us in that room. And I attended that little school until I... that school was closed.
- These Rosenwald schools were closed in my county. And then I was bussed to Leroy McNeil School outside
- of Crawfordsville, Arkansas. Not Indiana, Crawfordsville, Arkansas.
- And that's where I graduated from in 1965. At the height of racial segregation in my state and in my
- county, we never attended school nine consecutive months. You chop cotton, you pick cotton, and you
- went to school after the harvest was completed.
- There was a legalized system. And I know people like to think about South Africa as having apartheid.
- But apartheid was alive and well in the United States. Now, given this excessive preoccupation with
- race, I want to start with something that I want you to take with you. Okay? First, race is a fake.
- Race is a social construct, not a biological, genetic, or scientific fact. It is a system of classification
- created by humans to categorize groups based on shared physical characteristics, ancestry, or culture,
- and often to establish hierarchies, assign social meaning, and to justify power imbalances.
- or anything else, I say, remember that. There's no biological, genetic basis for race. Now, genetic
- variations exist, but they do not map to the rigid, socially created categories of race.
- racial segregation was and is based on a scientifically false hypothesis which says that black people
- are not as intelligent as white people. Pure and simple. Whites who possessed a combination of wealth
- and political influence created policies, programs, and services that reinforced their theory of black
- inferiority and given whites legal advantages.
- separate but equal was never intended to be equal. And it was simply a way of scurrying the law. Now,
- you're gonna get your chance to disagree with me if you want to, and that's fine. We can have that debate,
- okay? I contend that education, preschool through 16th college, was and still is a mechanism used to
- perpetuate false theories of racial superiority of whites and an inferiority of blacks.
- and court rulings undoing, busing the legalization of charter schools, anti-DEI executive orders and
- passage of legislation in half of the states, et cetera. All examples of this misuse of education and
- the reliance on race as a means of maintaining this imbalance.
- second thing I want to say is that Brown versus Board of Education was not a single lawsuit. A lot of
- people think that Brown versus Board of Education was a single lawsuit. It was not. There were five
- lawsuits that got consolidated into one under the banner of Brown versus Board of Education. Now, those
- states included Delaware, Kansas,
- South Carolina and Virginia, and the District of Columbia, our nation's capital. Third, while only 17
- states... Now, y'all know we haven't always had 50 states, right? But there were only 17 states that
- really had laws in the book in 1954 when this landmark decision was rendered.
- 17 states had mandatory legal restrictions around race. But all of the states practiced de facto segregation.
- All states practiced de facto segregation. Including the great state of Indiana. Now... now, how did
- white schools react to the Supreme Court decision in 1954. Many school districts completely ignored
- the order. My little school in Crinden County in Crawfordsville, near Crawfordsville, did not desegregate.
- Now, there's a difference between desegregation and integration, but that's another story for another
- day, okay?
- They did not desegregate until 1974, which was 20 years after Brown v. Board of Education. And that
- was not unusual for many school districts in the southern US. White churches created private academies
- to avoid sending their children to school with black students.
- In instances where the course of ruling was taken somewhat more seriously, black schools were closed...
- and the black students were bused to white schools. Rarely, if ever, were white schools closed. Now,
- I'm talking about lived experience. I don't know if anybody... have you written about this, Audrey?
- You historians? You all have written about this.
- The other line is that black principals and superintendents were fired. Black teachers were laid off.
- And that's that part of history that some people are uncomfortable with that they don't want people
- to know about. But it's really important for us to know about that history so we can understand more fully
- the kinds of things that are happening today. By 1975, there were 3,500, more than 3,500 white church
- academies operating throughout the South. You hear people talking about white nationalism? Do a little
- research so you can better understand
- now and then. In Prince Edward County in Virginia, they closed the schools for five years, rather than
- comply with the court order. In Charlottesville, Norfolk, and Warren County, they closed their schools
- for a period in 1958. So here's my impromptu quiz for all of you. Who uttered these words?
- Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever. George Wallace. And who was George Wallace?
- You got it. You get an A. What was it like to be a student at a segregated black school in 1954? School
- buildings were poorly constructed,
- equipped and maintained. Black teachers' salaries were as much as 50% less than their white counterparts
- right down the road. Books and other learning materials at black schools had been previously used by
- white students. I do not ever remember having had access to a brand new textbook growing up.
- And you got the textbook, and the kid had written the names in it, how you write in the margins, and
- so on and so forth. And that was just a given. The school buses that were used, they'd all been previously
- used by the white kids. Everything had been previously used by white kids except the chalk. And that's
- not hyperbole. Everything had been previously used except the chalk.
- Because the chalk wears out. You can't reuse the chalk. My library in my school was about half the size
- of this room. Half the size of this room. It was unusual for one teacher to have five or six preps in
- a day. So I had Mr. Jefferson.
- I had him for algebra, I had him for general math, I had him for geometry, I had him for physics, I
- had him for chemistry. He was the only person. There were no foreign languages at my school. We didn't
- have a counselor, but yet the school was classified as a Class A school, meaning that it had a college
- preparatory course of study.
- How did we get to this whole notion of freedom schools? Before we had freedom schools, there was something
- called freedom summer. You remember that, Audrey? You're not old enough to remember, literally. You
- remember that? Anyone else here from the Deep South? Georgia, Alabama, Florida, any of those states?
- They call them Southeast now, Vicki. But they're the Deep South.
- but there was something called Freedom Summer. You remember these names? James Chaney, Andrew Goodman,
- and Michael Swarner? You remember what happened to them? They were murdered in Mississippi. Something
- from 1964. Freedom Summer was organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,
- and the Congress for Racial Equality, those two groups. And I think he has some other partners who work
- with him. And Freedom Summer centered on several things. One, voter registration. Freedom Schools and
- the Mississippi Democratic Party. Now, do you all remember the Mississippi Democratic Party? You don't
- remember that.
- Well, go check out AI on Google or whatever your app is, okay? And you can check that out, okay? The
- Democratic... you don't remember that? But anyway, you remember the convention that occurred in Chicago?
- Did they seat the members of that party? They weren't seated, right? Okay, gotcha. That's enough. Freedom
- schools grew out of that freedom summer.
- Freedom schools were not designed as comprehensive schools. They were not designed to replace a comprehensive
- curriculum in a high school or a middle school or an elementary school. The curriculum was focused on
- subjects that inspired students to become agents of change. And there were three areas of emphasis.
- citizenship, and recreational. Here's something I want you to take with you. Once you learn to read,
- you will forever be free. Who said that? Come on, look up here. Come on. Once you learn to read, have
- you ever wondered why people didn't want black people to read?
- Why did they not want him to read? Why was it against the law, Audrey? Tell us. Because reading opens
- up your mind to alternative ways of being and living, to read, to see it. Yeah. That's right. So reading
- was punishable by lashing and just all kinds of mean ways of punishing people for learning to read.
- Now, why was the Bible... they didn't have a weekly reader? You all remember weekly readers? Some of
- you all naturally remember the weekly reader. They didn't have a weekly reader, right? So, what did
- we learn to read? What did black people learn to read most often? From what? The Bible. And that was
- the one thing that Massa would permit
- You know, it was the Bible. Now, how many of you have ever heard of the end Bible? Don't be ashamed,
- yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I tend to say the word because the word is real, okay? And in
- real history, it's not the end word.
- So I just have to use your imagination, okay? But there was something called the end Bible.
- And they left out, selectively, certain parts of that Bible. Here were the core subjects. Intensive
- instruction in reading. Reading.
- Now, I know they have something now. They used to have it called Reading is Fundamental. You remember
- that? Some of you may have had children who used that curriculum. Intensive Instruction in Reading,
- Writing, General Mathematics, and Science. Language Arts. Students practice creative writing, poetry,
- inspired by figures like Langston Hughes, and journalism by publishing their own Freedom School newspaper.
- foreign languages, some schools offered advanced subjects not available to local black students such
- as French. I just told you that I attended a school where no one had a foreign language. That was just
- a given. And then Mr. Pounds, the superintendent, would come by and he would show up. That's okay, I'm
- gonna move on, because I still get angry and upset.
- People say, the preacher said this morning, should we get angry? You know, he used the scripture.
- But yeah, I'm angry, yeah. But I'm not so angry that I'm out of control, okay? Students practice creative
- writing, poetry. You memorize things. Rope memory was a recognized form of learning. When Melinda sings,
- You know what, whose poem that is? When Melinda sings? Paul Armstrong. Published in 1901. I have a copy
- of the book. Published in 1901. I wanted to bring it with me, because I was afraid you'd only tear it
- up. But it's very fragile. It's very fragile. And I really do have a copy of it. But the handling of
- it is very, it's very,
- go faster dreams. Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes. There's a new stamp out now, Phyllis Wheatley. The
- first black poet to publish in America. Did you know that, Clarence? You knew she was important. Okay.
- Who were the teachers at freedom schools? Who were the teachers at freedom schools? Who were the teachers
- at freedom schools? Talk to me now. Talk to me now. Who were the teachers? Just hold that one.
- Hold it. Hold it. Jim Simms? Jimmy? Okay. Got you. Anyone else?
- the majority of the teachers at Freedom School were white kids from the north. The majority of the teachers
- were white kids from the north. Now, I'm not saying there weren't blacks, because there were, okay?
- But this whole Freedom Summer meant that there were white kids from the north who were more progressive,
- okay, who came south to help with the voter registration,
- And obviously, you take Fisk University, for example. Marian Wright Edelman was one of those students
- in college who was part of that movement. And obviously, she's a black woman. Well, she is a black woman.
- But the majority of the teachers were white kids from the North. They were volunteers.
- They had no health insurance. If they had it, it was by their parents. They were volunteers. And they
- lived with the parents of the students they taught. They lived in the homes of the parents of the kids,
- students that they taught. Do we still have freedom schools today?
- Do we have freedom schools today? Come on, talk to me now. Come on, talk to me. Ms. Boone, do we have
- freedom schools? The young junior high school, junior college, do we have freedom schools? Because you
- have a piece that you've done some research on. Speak up a little bit.
- So if we're gonna agree to disagree, there are freedom schools today. Somewhere in the neighborhood
- of 125 to 100 freedom schools in the US, okay? And they are sponsored, operated under the auspices of
- the Children's Legal Defense Fund, the Legal Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman. And what they do is
- they get grants
- from foundations, from individuals, the church congregations that support them, and that kind of thing.
- And what they do is they bring in interns from colleges and universities around the country. And they
- have worked, and they still work, with colleges and universities to get them to be a sponsoring entity
- for the Freedom School. But they're not as widespread. But there are Freedom Schools. But keep in mind,
- Freedom Schools were not
- and are still not designed to be comprehensive schools. To your point, Ms. Boone, they are schools that
- provide supplemental, you didn't use this term, but I use the term supplemental instruction, okay? And
- that supplemental instruction is more related to the history, okay? So on and so forth. Okay? The Children's
- Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman. One of her most famous books,
- Letter to My Sons, is that the name of it? Letters to My Sons. So she has written this. She did. This
- book is quite old now, but it's a wonderful book. It's still relevant. Okay? So here are some questions
- that we need to ponder. But before I get there, I'm gonna share with you. How many of you attended the
- 2022 Martin Luther King
- celebration at the Busker Chumley. If you did, you will have in your program an initiative. And that
- initiative is called the one, I need to get up here so you can hear me. It has something called the
- one community curriculum overview, the one community.
- one community. And I knew I remember seeing this someplace. And this is very much akin to what a freedom
- school curriculum might look like. And they have an initiative, first grade, envisioning a better world.
- Third grade, conflict, second grade, fair versus equal.
- A lot of people tend to think about fairness and equal being the same. You know, treating everybody
- the same. And they say, that's fair. Treat everyone the same, and that's fair. Third grade, conflict
- resolution. Fourth grade, who am I? Exploring identity. Fifth grade, bias awareness. Sixth grade, strength
- in unity. Now, I'm lifting this up as an example.
- And Gloria Howell shared with me a much more expansive kind of curriculum guide that the people who
- were on that commission actually worked to develop. And this was implemented in a couple of, not in
- the public schools in Bloomington, but at the Montessori School, as I recall. And what was the other
- school, Gloria? The project school.
- Okay. Now, why am I lifting this up? Okay. I'm not suggesting, and I want to make sure that I don't,
- you don't leave here thinking that Charlie Nelms is recommending that we replace public education with
- a volunteer system, okay, that is not a comprehensive system of education and so on and so forth. But
- I do want you to leave here thinking that just because you do public education that you have really
- received a complete education.
- That's what I want you to leave here with, okay? And so, we have the opportunity to provide more of
- a supplemental kind of education, okay? Anyone have any questions about that now? Okay. Because there's
- certain requirements that you have to meet in order to satisfy state requirements in terms of education
- and so on and so forth. And I'm not here to
- beat up on that, I'm just simply saying it's not a complete form of education. And we need to make sure
- that young people leave with a more comprehensive knowledge base, okay? Clary, you can tell me.
- Clary Knox, our Sunday school classmates. So is there current, here's a question for you. Here are my
- questions for you.
- is there a current knowledge void, a need that freedom schools can fill? So I want us to substitute
- for freedom schools, I want us to substitute Summer Academy or Freedom Academy. So we make a distinction
- between some things, okay? Is there a current knowledge void or need that
- Let's just call them freedom schools, that freedom schools can mean. Liz Mitchell. That's your question.
- Okay, think about it. I'll come back to you. I'm not in a hurry. I'll come back to you. Clarence Boone.
- Here's your question. Are there selective
- of freedom of the freedom school curriculum that we can effectively and more successfully address are
- there selective components of the freedom schools curriculum that we can effectively and successfully
- address yeah yeah yes
- discussions on really a black history component. Try to introduce that in some schools and they have
- to mention things. Yeah. So what do you say to people, say you just need to get over it. Why can't you
- just, why do you keep dwelling on history? There's black history. Slavery was a long time ago. I didn't
- have anything to do with it. Yes, ma'am. Speak up just a little bit.
- and a bit slower among blacks than among whites and numerous economic, certainly, disparities
- Yes, yes, Mrs. Moon. Speak up just a little bit. The senior citizen had a difficult hearing. Come on.
- If we implement teachings at the freedom school, it could help us learn from our past and understand
- that certain politicians or something, see that if they pass legislation, how that could revert us to the past.
- Like, I feel like it would help us learn from our past and make for a better future for the generations.
- OK. OK. Thank you. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Well, black history is being erased. I mean, that's fine. We don't
- have white history. Why do you want to have black history?
- Now, I'm not saying you don't need black history. I'm just throwing out. I mean, obviously, I'm not
- saying that. I mean, I don't want anyone to leave here thinking I'm saying that. But there are people
- who say, you know,
- Why do you keep dwelling on this black history? I didn't have any slaves. I didn't discriminate against
- anybody. So what do you say to that? I think we can't understand anything that's going on without
- understanding the full history of the country. I mean, I don't think it's this piece or that piece.
- Sure. If we don't recognize what happened here, how do we have any idea?
- I think it's just not black history. It's the history of our United States. So I think it's something
- that we all need to learn because it wasn't just white men who helped make our country great. It was
- black men and women as well. Yes, ma'am. I think that it's a saying that if you don't learn from your
- history, you're going to repeat it. And so the questions we don't need
- Why do you have black history and they have white history? Well, white history is what we all learn
- in school, right? White men discovered everything, right? They came to this country and they got discovered.
- Never mind the people that lived here, right? They say, well, the South, and this country was built,
- you know, it was good old, you know, Carnegie and the Ford family and all those people, but it was the
- free labor from the South that
- was the foundation for all the work that they did. So if you don't mention that, then it's like magical.
- Something magical happened. They all got rich from magic. So you have to say, no, they had free labor.
- It was black magic. Yeah. So that's the importance of the history. To say that we're not going to have
- black history, we're going to have factual history.
- No crowns, I'm not going to call you that. I'm going to get you ready. Because the big insult was a
- slap in the face from former Senate majority leader, Mr. McConnell, said, I didn't own slaves, but I
- can't say that my great grandfather didn't. He probably did. And there's nothing I can do about it.
- And it's deep southern role. And I had to process it. And then we jumped ahead to a future where,
- as she said, they're erasing black history.
- Let me suggest a way to think about it a little differently. They're selectively erasing history. History
- is being selectively erased. Not just black history, but history is being selectively erased.
- Disproportionately perhaps black history.
- If they say there are certain books you can, cannot read, they have to be banned, and so on and so forth,
- OK? But it is American history, I think, which is the point that I understand you, Doris, to be making.
- Is it American history? Is it American history? American history, yes. OK. I just want to know. Yes,
- ma'am. Well, I just think that, you know,
- that one of the consequences of having had slavery in this country is that people of color are still
- held under. And until those consequences are resolved, you can't move beyond the need for black history.
- The stories need to be told.
- So that people have an understanding. And it's the unfairness that continues through our old country.
- It's just. Yeah. So the first step is acknowledgement, I guess. That's my takeaway from what you said.
- The first step is to acknowledge. Yeah.
- And don't mean to put words in your mouth. The White House was built with slave labor. Yeah. Among other
- institutions. They're going to tear it down and make America great again. I just had to say that.
- But anyway, I'm going to hold it for her. But I got what you're going to. So I'm going to head to Liz,
- and then I'm going to go to the masked woman next to Liz. Well, there are some people that just don't
- want to feel uncomfortable.
- And if they believe the narrative that their particular race is going to be wiped out in about 20 years,
- and they're going to receive their comeuppance, it's I'm going down. I'm not going down without a fight.
- And it seems to me that's where we are now. I'm not going out without a fight. My people came here and
- made this country what it is today. And I've got to preserve that. OK.
- talking about slavery, talk about slavery and anything like that, that makes me uncomfortable. We're
- not going to do that. But why are you uncomfortable, Liz? Guilty. But why are you guilty? You didn't
- own any slaves. We don't want to talk about the negatives. We only want to talk about the positives
- at this point. OK, I'm just asking. If that's a negative issue, we can't talk about it.
- All right, I'm gonna come to you. I know you're anxious to say something. I see you on the edge of your
- seat, but anyway. Ms. Bridgewater. When they ask the question, why can't you just let go of the past,
- meaning the past that is linked to people of color, the past is present. The same racism they used to
- justify slavery is the same racism they use today to
- justify inequities in housing practices, inequities in employment practices, the health care issues,
- but it's now, how do you say, not overt, but covert. But it's the same foundational racism that has
- institutionalized the discrimination that people of color deal with, fight against, struggle with, live
- with every day.
- OK. Yeah. So let me just say, I just got to ask you, what is a person of color? Help me. Help me.
- Help me. Help me. Help me. What's a person of color? Black and brown. Huh? It's a euphemism.
- It's not white. Yeah. Hold that thought. Hold that thought. Audrey? That's not a whole new thing. That
- was a new thing.
- But I was one drop loose to the writing. Well, I was going to go over what Liz was saying. And I want
- to quote a very famous American, one of the best American novelists. And I'm not talking about Tony
- Morrison, who is my favorite. I'm talking about William Faulkner, a Mississippian. He had the quote,
- that the past is never dead. It's not even the past. And this is a Mississippian. We know what Mississippian means.
- So he understood the volume of the history that began in slavery is always here. It's not past,
- it's not dead. Because where did white supremacy come from? Where did it come from, Tyler? Where did
- you ask people? White supremacy. How did that generate itself? How did people say all of a sudden, I'm
- better than you, I'm white? Where did that come from?
- It came from white people who were born with privilege and they wanted to make sure that they continued
- to have that privilege. So it was this kind of philosophy that they perpetrated through the passage
- of laws and rules and regulations which ceded power to them in a perpetual kind of way.
- So when people say, let's make America great again, so where did it come from? It came from the very
- people who wanted to preserve and perpetuate their status. So what would you say? Where did it come
- from? Well, I agree with you, but I think it was more systematic than that. More systematic? More systematic,
- yeah. I think you had pillars of it.
- First you had the Bible that you said they had another version for us. So you could justify, it was
- in the Bible, you could justify Ham and his descendants as being inferior. Then you had pseudoscience.
- So these eminent scientists, and they're still doing it today. Did you read in the New York Times about
- this study that got under the wire, where they're separating black kids and measuring their brains against
- white kids? So it's still that kind of neo,
- I hear what you're saying. I hear what you're saying. Now, I missed somebody a long time ago. I want
- to come back. I don't know your name, but pardon me for pointing at you.
- But had you finished what you were saying? I don't know how well thought out it was. I would have to
- think some more. But I would say, I grew up in Indiana. And when we were young adults, he had a job
- opportunity in Memphis, Tennessee. And we were shocked when we moved there.
- Michigan coming from Indiana, we thought things were better than we found them to be when we lived in
- Memphis. And we were told by our real estate agent, you don't want to live in this community, you want
- to be in this community, and kind of directed in that way. And she talked about schools and such. We
- were expecting our first child
- on before we figured that we were just in the wrong place. It was about two years later that we moved
- to Oak Park, Illinois, being a more integrated community with public schools that were worthy of our
- children, that we wanted them to be educated, but we also wanted them to be integrated with other kinds
- of people, whatever their culture, they were.
- I can't hear you. Jimmy, you trying to call me to stop? I am, but that's the same way to young Mrs.
- Boone. My thoughts has to do more with systemic racism. That this country was basically built on. And
- I think in terms that it's a lot easier to try to pull off a redistricting plan because we already have
- redlining as an example.
- From that standpoint, to me, you have to go all the way back and face this matter that you can't, the
- systemic policy which is going to build on. But I said that, I know this is bad timing. I'm not going
- to segue. No, I'm not ready yet. No, I'm not ready to segue yet. No, I'm only giving you a rough time.
- I want you all to take four things with you. Stop looking to other people to correct problems.
- We are they. We are the they. I said, we're the people we've been waiting for. Claude has a book out
- now. We're the leaders we've been waiting for. I think that's the title of the book, Eddie Claude. So
- stop looking outside of ourselves for solutions to the challenges that we face.
- If you have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, great nieces, nephews, neighbors, share reading
- materials with them. Historically accurate reading materials with them. You don't need permission to
- do that. Just do it.
- I was walking at the mall the other day. I'm almost finished, Ms. Moon. I was walking at the mall the
- other day. Little six-month-old baby just beating on that, whatever that thing was, just beating on
- it, OK? Beating on it in the sense that we've started having our kids be attended to by technology,
- technological instruments, things that they can't even understand, and so on and so forth. So buy some books.
- share some books with them and give them as gifts. And I'm serious about this. Third thing you can do
- is don't remain silent. When you see things and hear things and know things that are historically inaccurate
- and even contemporarily inaccurate, say something. Say something. Don't just sit there and just say
- and just sort of cower under the table.
- under your seat, say something. And the third thing you do is you make sure, even if you don't have
- any children in the school system, become advocates for kids to make sure that they get a complete education.
- So the banning of books doesn't do any good for us to total our thumbs and we're, oh, they said we can't
- read that, OK?
- What did you say when the governor of Florida came out against the advanced placement course in black
- history? What did you say? Were you not bothered by it? What did you say? What did you do? When the
- governor of Indiana signed an anti-DEI, what did you do? Did you do anything with just say turn the
- television off or turn the volume down or put it on silent? What did you do?
- You did right there. I'm glad you did, because so many people said it doesn't matter. So I'm not going
- to even bother, but it does matter. We can't allow our voices to be silenced. Ms. Boone, come on, take
- it away, sister. Thank you, Charlie. You want me to stand up here so I can say no for you?
- Thank you so much for that speech, Mr. Nelms. Good afternoon, friends, elders, educators, organizers,
- and freedom fighters. I'm Anaya Behan, and I'm a junior at Bloomington High School South, and I'm the
- president of the NAACP Bloomington branch of the Youth Council. Freedom schools were not simply just
- summer programs. They were not remedial classrooms. They were not charity. Freedom schools were acts
- of resistance.
- They were born in a moment when the United States is very clear about who education was for and who
- it was not for. In the Jim Crow South, black children attended underfunded, overcrowded schools, outdated
- books, if they were allowed to attend school at all. Their history was erased. Their brilliance denied.
- Their futures were intentionally narrowed. So in 1964, during what we now call Freedom Summer,
- young people, many of them college students, many of them risking their lives, joined black community
- communities in Mississippi to do something radical. They taught the truth. Freedom schools emerged from
- the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or the SNCC, and the broader civil rights movement. They
- were designed to do what segregated public schools refused to do, educate black children to understand
- their history, their power, and their right to shape democracy. At the heart of freedom schools was
- a simple yet revolutionary idea. Education should prepare you
- to prepare you to be free, not obedient, not quiet, not grateful for scraps, but free. The curriculums
- center to questions most schools avoid. Why are things the way they are? Who has power? Who decides?
- And what is my responsibility to change unjust systems?
- Students read black authors. They studied African and African-American history. They talked openly about
- racism, voter suppression, poverty, and violence. They learned how the Constitution worked and how it
- failed them. They practiced speaking, debating, and organizing. Freedom schools didn't just ask students
- to memorize facts. They asked them to analyze power. And that terrified the status quo. Because an educated
- child who understands injustice is a dangerous thing to unjust systems.
- Freedom schools were also deeply communal. They operated in churches, basements, living rooms, and community
- centers. Parents were involved, elders were involved, local leaders helped shape the learning. The school
- did not belong to the state, it belonged to the people. And let's be clear, this work was dangerous.
- Freedom school teachers were harassed, threatened, and sometimes even arrested. Churches were bombed,
- organizers were beaten, three young men,
- James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Scherner were murdered for their work that summer. So we speak
- of freedom schools, we must speak with reverence. This was not a symbolic education, this was education
- under siege. And yet, students showed up. They showed up hungry for knowledge, hungry for truth, hungry
- for a future larger than what segregation allowed them to imagine.
- Many freedom school students went on to become organizers, teachers, elected officials, and community
- leaders. Not because freedom schools promised careers, but because they cultivated courage. So what
- made freedom schools different? First, they were explicitly political. Not partisan, but political in
- the truest sense. Concerned with power, participation, and justice. Second, they were student-centered.
- Young people's questions, lived experiences, and voices shaped learning.
- Third, they were grounded in dignity. Freedom schools assumed black children were not broken, behind,
- or deficit. They assumed the system was. And finally, they were rooted in collective responsibility.
- Learning was not just for personal advancement, it was for community survival. Now, some people hear
- this history and say, that was then. They once believed freedom schools belonged to the past. But let's
- ask ourselves, are schools today fully funded and equitable?
- Is black history taught honestly and completely? Are students encouraged to question injustice? Is civic
- education expanding or being restricted? Across this country, we are witnessing book bans, curriculum
- gag orders, attacks on educators, and the criminalization of honest teaching. We see renewed effort
- to control what young people are allowed to see and know about race, gender, history, and democracy
- itself. That should sound familiar.
- which means the spirit of freedom school is not behind us. It is calling us forward. And this is where
- the work of today's scholars and educators meets the legacies of yesterday's movement builders. At the
- 2025 22nd American Educational Research Association annual Brown Lecture, Dr. James A. Banks, a giant
- in multicultural education, issued a clear and urgent call to action.
- He called for transformative civic education, an education that prepares young people not just to participate
- in democracy as it exists, but to reimagine and improve it. Dr. Banks emphasized that this kind of civic
- education must help young people develop cultural, national, and global identities, not ones at the
- expense of others, but all at once. He spoke directly to youth, but also reminded us that work is for
- all of us because democracy is not sustained by children alone.
- that call should sound familiar to us, because freedom schools were doing that exact thing decades ago,
- helping young people understand who they were culturally, how they were positioned nationally, and how
- their struggles connected to a global movement for liberation. Transformative civic education is not
- new. It is a continuation. It asks us to move beyond surface level inclusion and toward
- deep engagement with power, history, and responsibility. It asks us to prepare young people to live
- with complexity, to hold multiple identities, and to see themselves as agents of change, not just consumers
- of information. And if we are honest, it asks something of us too. It asks adults to keep learning.
- It asks educators to keep telling the truth. And it asks communities to protect spaces where critical
- thinking can thrive. Freedom schools remind us that education has always been a battleground. And neutrality
- in times of injustice is a choice that sides with power. They remind us that young people are not too
- young to understand oppression or to imagine liberation. They remind us that communities do not need
- permission to teach their children the truth. And they remind us that progress has never come from comfort.
- It has come from courageous collective action.
- Today we invoke freedom schools we Today so today when we invoke freedom schools, we are not engaging
- in nostalgia We are making a claim a claim that education should liberate a claim that truth-telling
- is not optional a claim that democracy requires informed empowered people Freedom schools asks us the
- hard questions. Are we willing to invest young people beyond test scores?
- Are we willing to defend educators who teach honestly? And are we willing to build spaces where truth,
- history, and justice are centered? And perhaps the most important question, are we willing to trust
- the next generations and ourselves with the truth? In closing, let us remember, freedom schools were
- not perfect. They were improvised, under-resourced, and short-lived in formal structure. But they were
- also profoundly productive. They shifted consciousness. They built leaders. They helped bend the arc
- of history.
- as we face renewed rollbacks of progress, renewed attacks on truth, and renewed attempts to narrow who
- belongs in our democracy. We would do well to remember their lesson. Freedom schools remind us that
- education has never been neutral, and neither can we be. Thank you, and I now turn it over to President Sims.
- You all as proud of her as I am. Thank you. So now the question before us is not whether freedom schools
- matter. The question is, what will we do with what we know? Too often in moments like this, we leave
- inspired but paralyzed, feeling the weight of the moment and wondering, what can I actually do? Where
- do I even start?
- Let me be clear, here is something you can do. Freedom schools were never built by perfect systems.
- They were built by courageous communities who decided they could not wait. We cannot wait for policies
- to catch up. We cannot wait for institutions to become brave. We cannot wait for permission. Now is
- the time to build. Here in Monroe County, we have young people, such as who you heard from this afternoon,
- who are hungry for truth.
- They're hungry for history and hungry for belonging. We have educators, parents, elders, students,
- organizers, and faith leaders who understand that democracy does not sustain itself. Educated, engaged
- people sustain it. Bringing freedom schools back to life will not look like a replica of 1964. It will
- look like us responding to this moment in this place with courage and care.
- and this work must be community led. The NAACP, and let me back up, Monroe County NAACP Education
- Subcommittee is not here to own this work. We are here to walk alongside it. We will crawl with you
- if that's where you are. We will walk with you when you're ready. We will run when the moment demands it.
- The subcommittee chair will handle the administrative work, connecting people, coordinating communication.
- But the vision, the leadership, and the power must come from you all, from us all, the community. Because
- Freedom Schools have always belonged to the people. So today, we are circulating sign-up sheets for
- a Freedom School Steering Committee. Signing your name is not a lifetime contract.
- It is a declaration of possibility. It is you saying I am willing to explore. I am willing to learn.
- I am willing to help build. This is how movements begin, not with certainty, but with commitment. Freedom
- schools teach us that education is how freedom learns to last. They remind us that silence has never
- moved us forward. Education has.
- And they call us to remember that freedom is not something we wait for. Freedom is a learned practice.
- So I invite you, no, I urge you, to take a step today. Try it. Do something. Sign your name. Start the
- work. Because we cannot wait for systems to change. We must build now. And if we do,
- Together, Monroe County can once again become a place where truth is the curriculum, justice is the
- outcome, and freedom is brought to life. Now, committee members will work around the room to pass around
- sign-up sheets. Please fill the urge, the need to sign this sheet, and help us with this work.
- As we prepare to close, I want to pause and offer gratitude because gatherings like this do not happen
- without people showing up with intention, generosity, and courage. First, we want to thank Dr. Charlie,
- and I knew the difference, Dr. Charlie Nams for his powerful words and leadership today. Thank you,
- sir. Your reflections reminded us what it means to stay rooted in justice,
- in truth and possibility, even when progress is challenged. We also are deeply grateful to Anaya Boone
- for grounding us in the history of freedom schools. I thank her for reminding us that this work is not
- abstract. It is not new. It has always been filled by communities who refuse to accept silence or erasure.
- I want to extend sincere thanks to the members of the NAACP Education Committee who helped bring this
- convening to life, members of which are Dr. Gloria Howell, wave your hand everybody if you'll check
- your name, Ms. Vivian Bridgewaters-Gray, Ms. Ruth Eight, Ms. Ralph Shaw back here in the corner,
- and School Subcommittee Chair and our Education Committee Chair, Ms. Maria Douglas. We also want to
- offer thanks to Jeremy Graham. Many of you know Jeremy, and he was to help our welcoming table. But
- if you know Jeremy, you know that him and his wife gave birth to a healthy and happy little boy two
- days ago. And now, Jeremy is a realtor with Century 21.
- the Graham team, him and his wife. So we want to wish him well and thank him. I know he was with us
- in spirit, so just wanted to point that out. And finally, thank you, attendees. Thank you for being
- here, for listening, for reflecting, and for being willing to imagine what comes next. Showing up is
- not passive, it is a choice. Today reminded us that Freedom Schools was never about nostalgia.
- They were about necessity. They were built when communities refused to wait for systems to catch up
- with justice, and that lesson still holds today. We are living in a moment that demands courage, imagination,
- and action. And while it's easy to feel overwhelmed or unsure of where to begin, today we made one thing
- clear. We do not have to wait. We do not have to have to do this alone.
- If you feel called to help bring the spirit of freedom schools back to the life here in Monroe County,
- we invite you to sign up for the steering committee. This is a community led effort. The NAACP education
- subcommittee will support and walk alongside, but the vision and the power must come from the community.
- I will add that we have a very strong partnership and good working relationship with the administration
- and the superintendent of Monroe County Community Schools. So that is also gonna help us as we move
- forward. Now, not that we're gonna change their curriculum or change their methods, per se, but they
- do listen, I will assure you that. Now, whether you're ready to crawl, walk, or run, this is a place for you.
- Because education is how freedom learns to last. Because democracy does not sustain itself, people do.
- And because the time to build is not someday, that time is now. Now, before I fully close, as always,
- I'd like to acknowledge part of the strength that I have to stay engaged with the community
- work hard. And that's my lovely wife, Dora Simms, who supports it all along the way. I must do that.
- And I also don't intend to be self-serving, but I also think it carries a message. Don't so much worry
- about the author, but absorb the message, I think. So at some point, grab a Blue magazine. Turn to page
- 12. Look at that article up there, and I hope it just permeates your soul.
- invigorate you to help continue our work. That's all I'll say about that. Just grab your blue magazine,
- and let's talk about that later. Thank you for being here, and thank you for your courage. Thank you
- for helping carry this work forward. Thanks again to my friend Dr. Nelms. Safe travels, and we look
- forward to building together. Thank you all.