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.