Transcripts For CSPAN3 Black Women Leaders In Education Since The 1960s 20171210

Audience so you can all engage us, but we can talk a lot about this, as we do not often get to be in a room with one another to discuss this. I will get to the panelists in the order that they are here. First up will be jennifer, the predoctoral fellow in history at the university of illinois at chicago. She earned her ba from North Carolina university. She earned an ma in history from the university of North Carolina at greensboro. She is a former faculty member at city college and has taught history at several institutions. Her dissertation traces the history of gender and sexuality. Through the 1950s through the early 2000s. At the heart is the resistance and activism of young women and lgbt students. They are examined as forces that challenge administrative policies, academic offerings and cultural institutions at historically black colleges. Through organizing this with activism on several grounds beginning with the modern Civil Rights Movement and ending with campaigns around antirace activism. The next presenter will be dr. Elizabeth braylen who is a doctor of history at the university of illinois. Her teaching focuses on africanAmerican History and the history of education. She is currently on a National Fellowship finishing her book a political education in black civil rights reform in chicago. She develops curriculum courses through k12 teachers. Last but not least is dr. Denise who is a professor at Loyola University ireland where she also serves as a director for the new education department. Her work focuses on the role of race and urban schooling and activism reform. Her Research Interests include the historical and sociopolitical context of black political educators and the resilience. She is currently working on a book about black educators and School Reform in philadelphia. Please join me in welcoming all of these panelists for a great discussion. [applause] hello, everyone. Let me find a place for my water. Ok, as it was said earlier my researches on activism practically student activism in black universities. There is a biographic theme on this panel. I want to focus on two people who are a figure in my dissertation. The president of Greensboro College and the first woman to be a present of a fouryear liberal arts college. As well as the professor of womens studies in english at somewhat college in atlanta. Here are the two women that i am focusing on. Each of these women have and continue to have a Significant Impact on their respective colleges. The only two hbcu women. Their impact is different because each pushes development in a number of different ways. Making an pleasant and explicit black activism on each campus. I went to begin specifically here on the right. I want to acknowledge the work of linda brown. She has written two books. One is a biographic account of her life and another where she has written a book about the Civil Rights Movement. Ok, she inherits the position of president in 1955 from a man who had a Significant Impact on how her educational model. They both believed in a model that stressed the necessity of forming a relationship with the community. She believed that a college would not separate the town. She supported Community Organizing that embrace the black workingclass neighbors immediately surrounding the college. This tradition was deeply rooted in the racial politics of the progressive area. However she also allowed them to make their Civic Engagement their own. Encouraging them as the planned action that used a variety of tactics, some bold and new for their time. While many women were marginalized they were quite activated i argue because it were given a space to develop campaigns against segregation and disenfranchisement they were responsible for laying the foundation of the southern Student Movement writer to 1960. In particular this sickens that culminated in the formation of the student nine violent community. Our embrace and Community Education model combined with her refusal to bow to segregation practically with African Americans or white moderate donors allowed the activism to flourish during her tenure as president. She supported a student led boycott of a local theater in 1957. This is a image of that theater, it still exists today and is in operation. As a side of many scenes organizing a campaign at the theater and local theaters and general 20 years before that in 1937. She supported this boycott and she advised and empowered students to see themselves as the leaders of the campaign. Here is a document from the archives, i will read the quote for you. There is a greater sense of dignity to refusing to pay for humiliation and refusing to accept secondclass citizenship. We believe that segregation in any form is a direct violation of the principles and diminishes our stature as women. That is very interesting to me. This is a speech that the students gave at local church where they used to gain the support for the community for their work. She also embraced the theme of Voter Registration for the national homemaking institute of 1960. Here is an image of students walking to their neighbors door to register people to vote to give them information about voting. This was the most excellent political thing selected by the homemaking Planning Community that year. Students not than the doors of their neighbors and registered over 1000 black voters in just a few days. Here they are inside one of the homes. They are giving information about voting and how to register. In fact they sat down at counters by days and registered voters by night. Here is another image from the Voter Registration campaign. As well as a site at a Community Center around the corner. They continued to embrace their tactics out 1963 when the fast student body was arrested for civil disobedience. The other College President s asked them to be bailed out she allowed them to remain in jail as a clear sign and to write letters to call the nurse of their anxious parents. Calm the nerves of their anxious parents. This is the oldest polio hospital. There were so many students that the jail they had in greensboro could not accommodate the numbers. So the police sent them to this old hospital. They made it into a jail in 1963. This form of interpersonal mentorship created political choices of their own including their own action strategies. While many administrators supported activism in one way or another, many did not at all. And chose to punish students for their participation. One example was a member of the freedom riders group. Additionally there were as patriarchal rules of physical mobility when they did not embrace women that risk bodily injury. At the hands of violent whites. The impact was undoubtably political, it demonstrated a institution of Higher Learning in general. When many administrators try to do this for financial reasons. She led her students through a dignified display of defiance through politicians and local Business Owners they strongly advised her to force her students to stop organizing. I am going to move on to the second part i am going to focus on. I am going to focus on her in relation to the impact that they had. At the womens research center, she is a alumni herself. She graduated in 1966 and return in 1971. When she returned she realized not much had changed. By this she means the overall culture of the college embraced the image of the institution as a finishing school for young black women. Even though this was a womens institution there was a desperate need to develop a scholarship to lead the charge for this arena. Very soon after her arrival it was time for the college to select a new president. There was many who thought it was past time for a black woman to serve as the president of the college. Since its founding in 1881 all of the president s had been black men and white women. This concern was met with silence by the administration, meaning the board of trustees in particular, in 1976 led by a in 1976 they selected a man as their president. The faculty and students were ignored from the Selection Process and so they organized. On april 27 22nd 1976 a Group Students form supported by the faculty and staff broke the doors of a Conference Room and locked them inside. They said they had their demand rescinded, they were locked in for 26 hours total making them using makeshift toilet. They used flashlights to interrupt their sleep and limited their communication to the outside. They were fed once. Went they were released they were forced to step over a large crowd of students faculty and staff who had locked arms as they sang we shall overcome. The students were not successful in convincing the board to rescinded the nomination and the next president was not a black woman. This set the stage for a rise in black activism. This sent a message that they would be guided in some respect. Soon after the lockin they made plans for a womens center. The development of the wrrc was focused on the womens curriculum with focus on expenses of black women. Originally they intended to have an archive and the history of black women in general. The foundation established a grant for the center. The wrrc went on to offer the studies major. It is the only program with a full major. Many have the same track but it is not a full major. The wrrc remains funded by the foundation today. The establishment and the comparative major made a impact on the community. While no other majors have been established, the wrrc has been a place for the people to gather for gender and sexuality studies on the respective campuses. It is a place for the faculty to look at black women studies, queer studies and many other topics. In a space where they network and build community with others with similar interests. Faculty development has been a focus for many years. In fact, they were the recipient of a Education Grant that was used to study this which in turn sparked many other foundations. The queer Student Organization began the charge. For many years now it has been a thriving building, a fully functional archive which are the most popular collections. The papers of audrey lourd and toni a classroom, office and eating did this is a image, i know it is hard to breathe. I like putting up images of the archives, even if it is hard to read from far away. I like putting up images of the archives, even if it is hard to read from far away. The actual proposal for the funding of the archive that happened in 1981. Where was i . The affect the center has had on women studies is the research that was conducted and attended by that space is very engaging. After this weekend, see that they made a mark on women studies at hbcus. The demand that women studies included black women of color is embodied in the center. They look at the demand that black women need to be acknowledged and those and the academy and that that there is lives are more than willing for this. They are two individuals who are indicative of a larger narrative. The impact of black women. These two biographical sketches are two stories in the massive scholarly activism. They are two examples of how black women treated to a paradigm shift. They can show how it looks to be a student organizing when some of us are participating led by young black square women many of whom are college students. Thank you. [applause] elizabeth good afternoon. I am going to stick to the biographical grounding of some of this larger conversation by talking about barbara ann sizemore. I want to talk about her as a knowledge producer and a pedagogue. So she was born in 1927. She was raised in indiana. She came out of a family of educators. She had relatives that were educators. She attended allblack segregated booker t. Washington elementary school. She recalls that it was the greatest educational experience of my life. She later attended integrated schools then in evanston where her father where her mother had moved her after her father had passed. From this very early age she had a critique of integrated and centered internet education that i will build on. Particular she noticed accidents were automatically put into remedial courses in integrated schools. Her mother in particular had to come up to retract her. She attended Northwestern University and the 1940s. At the time that she attended northwestern there were very few lack students. She very quickly became a activist of racial injustice. Afterwards, she became a teacher and she taught for a number of years in the Public Schools and the early 1950s. She taught for a number of years at chicago Public Schools mainly in the south side but at times on the west side. Her first teaching post she wrote a memoir and mentioned other sources and the archive where she talked frequently about how important it was that she had early mentors of other teachers as her early mentors. As she was learning to become a better teacher. She rose very quickly and the ranks. I will get to that in a moment. I want to stop and talk about what was going on in chicago generally around goals at this time. So in the early 1960s in particular there were massive desegregation protests in chicago. They started up very communitybased often with the antagonists being the superintendent of the school. He was against integration, he justified being against integration with the neighborhood schools much as they did in the south. In the north, he claimed it was a color blind assertion. You can see here some neighborhoodbased protest, one of the largest that was on the south side. It was started like a group of led by a black mother in the community. Where essentially the plan was when black schools became overcrowded, even when there were a Space Available instead of transferring them into open seats, because this was the policy became known as the willis wagons. In the summer of 1963 you can see parents lay down on the ground to prevent construction of willis wagons at some of the schools. With these individual neighborhood protests in the fall of 1963 in what became known as the freedom they boycotts. More than one quarter of a Million Students stayed home to protest the segregation the desegregation of chicago schools. To get more resources and to approve improve the facilities. It is within this context that she became the principal. This happened in the fall of when she became principal. Like most schools, the vast majority of the students at her school attended the boycott that year. She was not a advocate of desegregation. As an educator she was ambivalent. She praised the overturning of jim crow laws. Throughout her career she insisted that the logic was flawed. They concluded that in the field of education separate and equal has no place. Inherent meaning someone or something, they are innate. It inferred inferiority, it did not acknowledge that this also inferred inherent superiority for white students. Any strategies for the this rectification will include the surrender of a student who is white. Any strategies for the rectification will include the surrender of some priviledges and advantages for some student who is white. With policies that were implemented after brown by classified them as inferior. Also identified them. By claiming lack children needed to attend these schools they could dismantle white supremacy. Her own experiences as a student, as a teacher, and as a parent, very much and formed her stance that she took. Dvorak, where hshe was teaching. There was a school on the west side of chicago and Martin Luther king junior would come that briefly overlapped when she was there. They had been very much written off as incapable of learning. She very much refuted this. She did a number of things in the school. She eliminated groups by ability, she implemented new Staff Development plans and she later recalled that a disaster is about to happen and that her children did not have a snowballs chance in hell. Her students did learn and theyre reading test scores improved dramatically during her time. In particular she took her finding to Jesse Jackson and king. She was sort of told this was not the climate to bring up the success of black students because of the push for desegregation that was taking place. They thought that would be antithetical to their cause. She was labeled a supporter of integration. She then taught on the south side where she implemented some of the same practices that she had. But also was very intent on mobilizing black communities. They were provided with a an African American curriculum that moved out from there. By 1968 there are images of her here. They were demanding similar things. By 1968 they were in control of schools. They were demanding more black teachers and administrators. Black studies throughout in k12 schools. There was more homework and an acknowledged the different kind of education that they were being provided. In the 1960s she was becoming a prominent leader in chicago but also nationally. In 1969 she became the director of the american Experimental Schools project. It was an operation from 1968 to 1971 as a collaboration between the chicago Public Schools, the university of chicago and the woodlawn organization. She was recruited to be the leader of this because of her strong stances in favor of committee control. She was one of the featured speakers when the students were boycotting in 1968 who would consistently come in support of students. The believe of this project, if you want to increase academic achievement you have to proceed how this influences the process. With the Decision Making model, it was a School Administration model that involved Community Members, parents, teachers and students to make more democratic issues. Decusuibs, decisions. It was a multitiered Decision Making model with the assemblies of all the different groups that would have to make decisions or approve the decisions. Within that model that Experimental School project organized more than 500 parents from the community into parent councils. They develop schoolbased training in these programs. The reason the program was cut short is that it was operated in three different schools in the high school. It was when Community Members continued to assert power practically over personnel decisions. It was funded on the federal level, and with the influx of poverty, the funding was cut. Several years after leaving the instrumental schools project she was hired as a superintendence of the washington, d. C. Schools. She was the first black woman to be hired as a superintendence. Superintendent. I should say of a Large Public School system. She was recruited by the majority black system because she had experience of Community Control. In washington d. C. , they already in washington d. C. , they already have a couple of programs they were instrumented with and they wanted to expand it. Then the moment she walked in the school board was the only black elected representive in the city. Marion berry was the head of the school board. D. C. Is a majority black unlike chicago, washington d. C. Is a majority black community. She was all received deftly by the community and the board. She was presented with a plan to decentralize the School System that is where things get rocky. Many of the things she were promoting were mastery and groups with upper grades. Decentralized schools with their first remix of that program. And the pack model to take place from every school. She explained the rationale behind this. This Administration Stands ready to reduce their base of power. Sure that all can be informed with the sharing of power. We feel that these goals can be helped with the decentralization of the process. With local community leaders. As i think is indicated by that, her plan for decentralization threatened power. While chicago was particularly interracial, d. C. Was very much intraracial. Particularly are reticent to implement that plan. To actually address that and put it into place. She also includes their plan for the use or for other uses. In fact, during her time asof superintendent, she created an elected city council and a number of Board Members resigned so as to run for city council, including barry. While Community Members rallied to her support, there were these protests to keep her on, she was fired in 1975 without them ever having implemented the plan she was hired to put in place. D. C. , she went to pittsburgh for over two decades, where she was a faculty member at the university of pittsburgh in black studies. She also worked with them, interestingly, on implementing their desegregation plan in pittsburgh, and she also studied the characteristics of highperformance schools serving black children living in poverty. This became a real thrust of her academic work. In the 1990s, she returned to chicago as dean of the Depaul School of education and worked regimes as aw consultant to help struggling schools improve standardized test scores. On the one hand, these varied approaches can seem quite contradictory. However i argue there was internal logic and a coherent consistently worked to involve parents in communities, and a sense of cultural pride she argued was necessary to navigate challenges in an unjust society. Her practices were guided by a constant belief black students could achieve, particularly in allblack educational settings. It is in these principles that i see the shaping of what i call sizemores politics of black achievement. At times during her career, she was perceived to be a race tra itor aligned with an instruction as superintendent, a radical black power advocate for Community Control, and later an antidecentralization ally of Public Schools. These starkly contradictory and provocative characterizations of her politics belie the underlying consistency of her quest to foster black achievement. Her ideologies do not fit neatly into existing political frameworks, but i argue this suggests the need for a new frame for the politics of black achievement. This self determinist politics of black achievement developed in the 1960s and 1970s in the context of the welfare states failure to deliver educational equity, and the proliferation of these forces disseminated by researchers in the state. Along with others of the generation, they repeatedly pointed to the moynahan report and the coleman report as these large scientific studies that reinforce ideas of black inferiority, much in the way she made arguments about brown. Sizemore is emblematic of the Larger Network of education reformers across the country who increasingly turned their attention to pursuing strategies to achieve quality education beyond desegregation, or as we can see with sizemore, never really part of the movement to start with. I think it is particularly important, i would be happy to talk later about how i think this particular politics of black achievement converges with the ideas of growing neoliberal education reform. During q a, i have a lot to say about that but it is beyond the scope right now. I do think it is important to document the contributions of black educators now, at a time when we see the numbers declining dramatically nationally. And not just as role models in the front of the glass for students, particularly for black students, although that is important. Also, as creators of pedagogical models, as activists, and as organizers. An example of how drastically decline has been in terms of the percentage of black teachers in the system. Large movements were happening at the same time as these other ones i was talking about in the late 1960s to increase the number of black teachers, such that when the percentage of black teachers get below dipped below 30 in the early 2000s, it was the first time there had been 30 or less black teachers in chicago Public Schools since prior to the 1960s. I will stop there. [applause] good afternoon. I am very excited to bring up the rear in these presentations, and thank you to my colleagues for the leadin there. I just realized we went sort of historically in order as well. I am talking about dr. Constance clayton, who was the first black woman superintendent of the School District of philadelphia. She was appointed in 1982. And she retired from the district in 1993. Her 11 year tenure makes her the longestrunning superintendent in philadelphias Public Schools in its modern history. In the years before she became superintendent, racial and ethnic politics, financial chaos, and professional decay had eroded the School District. Since the 1960s. The district headquarters were described as a fortress under siege in the philadelphia daily news. The superintendent, who was brought in then, in the 1960s, was seen as a young, radical, harvard educated district outsider, who was in constant conflict with the police chief who would become mayor, frank rizzo, when rizzo was elected mayor, that superintendent resigned his post. After him, we had a series of, we had another superintendent, it was an ethnic sort of appointment. Rizzo shows two chose two italianamerican men to be superintendent of the district. The first one lasted a very short time, because he decided andto be rizzos lackey, who was pu the second was under constant investigation for improprieties, including having district workers work on his summer home at the jersey shore while they were on the payroll of the School District of philadelphia. During the search for a new superintendent of schools, augusta clark, a Philadelphia City councilman, was quoted in the Philadelphia Tribune, a black newspaper, saying the new superintendent must have the patience of job and the wisdom of solomon. He or she must have negotiating skills, as well as go out into the community, becoming actively involved in finding creative solutions. The new superintendent must reallocate money, time, and resources, and if he or she interacts with the community, listens, and incorporates the best of what is hurt, there is a good chance of heard, there is a good chance of turning the system around. If the person happens to be black, that is good, too. From a national search, 100 qualified candidates were determined. That list was whittled down, and Constance Clayton had been, she was a philadelphia insider. Born and raised in philadelphia, she had College Educated parents. She went to philadelphias Public Schools. She graduated from philadelphias high school for girls. She attended Temple University and got her doctorate at the university of pennsylvania. She was a teacher, and an administrator. She was a teacher and administrator in philadelphia Public School systems, and she had a track record for excellence. But beyond that, people appreciated that she was an insider. The Philadelphia Federation of teachers acknowledged and agreed that claytons competence made her superior for the superintendent role. The good healthy attribute had Philadelphia Tribune have decided clayton was the best organized, most determined, and the bes right person in the right place at the right time. In 1982, one she was appointed, the tribune published an editorial declaring that the future of our children is now in good hands. Her selection to leave the School District of philadelphia was racially symbolic, because it disrupted the hold that whites have had on the School District superintendent since the districts inception in 1818. She was also the first woman to hold that post, which was also significant, not just for black women, but for women across the district. After not trusting former superintendents and or feeling ignored by them, many africanamericans specifically believed they now had a superintendent,a africanamerican educator who knew philadelphia, and so they could trust her with the education of their children. I would argue that Constance Clayton saw her position as a race woman, and she then suffered several losses during her 11 year tenure because of her position as a race woman. She was keen on excellent opportunity and accountability, especially for africanamericans in the city. After years of ongoing financial problems in the city, teacher furloughs, constant worker strikes, she brought stability to the School District of philadelphia. However, that stability was inconsequential against the racist institution of Public Schooling in philadelphia and School Funding in pennsylvania. As money for the district dwindled, claytons concerns for social justice and Racial Justice became even more evident. That troubled whites in the city, especially, those of us who are from philadelphia, we may know some of the history of the northeast section of philadelphia, and we would refer to that as up the boulevard. That troubled folks up the boulevard in philadelphia. As a race woman, she operated with a racial solidarity evos inconflict ethos conflict with the crush racial alliances of the early 1990s, which led to her about abrupt departure after 11 years of leadership in philadelphia. Black educators talked about claytons leadership with a nostalgic reference reverence. They credited her with Opening Doors and giving opportunities to those who had not experienced them and had been previously denied access. She used her position as head educator of one of the largest School Districts of the nation to advocate for black excellence, black upward mobility, and black access to opportunities. Some of the things she did was, she, and this is a controversial thing, she standardized the curriculum. At this date in time, many people would say we do not want to standardize the curriculum, but the reason she did that was that schooling opportunity was so disparate depending on where you were in the city depending on the racial composition and the social economic status of the school, and that was her way of ensuring students were at least receiving equal opportunities through having access to algebra classes, higherlevel science, things like that. She also instituted a citywide Testing Program. The purpose of that Testing Program was so that educators could assess their own effectiveness with students, and go back in to see what needed to be retaught, instead of what we have now, more of a punitive system. She established new graduation requirements, the first since 1947. She consistently balanced the budget, which she achieved during her first year, and she maintained for 11 years. She improved the bond rating of the district, and there were no strikes. I mention that because in the 1970s and 1981, teacher strikes were so severe in philadelphia that one year school did not start until november. Students went to school until christmas, but the contract was still not agreed on, so students were then out of school again well into february after christmas break. So the fact that she was able to have 11 years with no teacher strikes was huge. Not everybody loved her. [laughter] her leadership style gave some people pause. Some people said she was too bureaucratic and hierarchical, that she lacked transparency, that they were policy implementation issues, that she put undue pressure on principals. Though she had been a teacher and a curriculum developer, and an area superintendent, she had never been a principal, so people often said she did not understand what pressure she was putting on principals because she had not had that role. There was also an idea that there was no interoffice collaboration under her. Alsoasked about, theres intraracial gender tension. There was a group of black women who call themselves connies girls, and they got different positions in the district and worked to support each other so they could be successful so they would be eligible for promotion in the district. When asked about that, dr. Clayton said, black women have been neglected in the system and have not had an opportunity in the system, either. She mentioned one of her predecessors, who actually was the first black woman on the board of education in philadelphia, who helped bring Constance Clayton in to be the superintendent. As i was listening to some of the presentations, i was hernking about some of experiences, a classics major schoolso get a job in when she graduated from the university of pennsylvania at 19 years old. She said, not only do we need to improve things for africanamericans, but because black women have been doubly damaged, we will look out for black women, too. Offered the was chancellorship for new York City Schools and she turned it down. She said, i am focused on philadelphia. However, that year the district received fewer funds from the city than they expected, and in order to honor the contract she had with the Philadelphia Federation of teachers, she said she was going to need to make some cuts, some financial cuts. Optionalsed cutting busing programs for students who attended private schools and closing six day cares, five of which were located in the predominantly northeast section of philadelphia. Her rationale was that parents in this section of the city were more likely to be able to pay for private day care than those in other sections of philly. She affirmed that she and the School District would be committed to all children, but there had to be a special allegiance to children who have the fewest resources. Whichas her comment for she received Death Threats. There are those among us who will always choose in favor of the historically privileged. This city, our society can ill afford. When compelled to choose, we must choose in favor of those children most at risk and most in need, even if they are not the loudest or most connected. Africanamerican educators and Community Members have long been concerned that School Resources and opportunities were based on where one lived in philadelphia, and clayton shared this concern. Again, she received Death Threats, and at that point had to start having an escort when she traveled throughout the district. And there was a Philadelphia Police officer assigned to guard her home. Forstayed in the district five more years, but this was a watershed moment. Many of her cabinet members started to leave their posts, and concern grew over her ability to maintain strong relationships with her colleagues and with Business Leaders. She wanted the support of the business community, but did not want their input on educational matters. Business leaders at this point felt like they needed to rein her in, and wanted her to be more accountable to them, and they argued that she should be focused on outward accountability and not just the accountability of educators. Up sort of ended bringing her out of her position was not inter racial politics but intra racial politics. Into the 1990s, we began to see acial alliances and quests for power, and those were different from the world in which she had made her position and made her name in the district. Shes the Board Members, made a comment about him being the man of the hour in 1992 when he helped with the Contract Negotiation between the School District of philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of teachers. She lauded him for being a visionary, but he was attempting to make a name for himself, and rumors arose there was a risk ift between himself and dr. Clayton. The Philadelphia Tribune, the black newspaper in philadelphia, the clarenceim as thomas of the School District in philadelphia, and criticized him for being disrespectful to clayton and trying to usurp her authority. For conspiring with thenmayor ed rendell, who went on to become the governor of pennsylvania, to exaggerate white fears about School Integration in the city for advancing his own political agenda instead of representing the consensus of the board. In july of 1993, without any type of warning, Constance Clayton announced her retirement from the district, effective august 31. The Philadelphia Tribune reported the superintendent was weary of her responsibly and wanted out. When i spoke with her, she shared, i have been there 11 years and i took early retirement. You get to a point where you question whether you are still effective. It was time. Not only did she embody the quintessential race woman, but also, she took a risk people andting black black women in the position she was in. One thing i did not talk about was the bond rating in pennsylvania, which is still very consultative to me. She started to argue, she would not negotiate with anybody on wall street who did not have a black broker, yet another way in which you had to be in the book, and if you or not in the book you could not be part of the table to get the bonds. She said, we will not negotiate with any company that does not have a black person qualified to do this, which made the companies go get someone because they wanted the business. I argued, as she represented for black people, whether it was for black lawyers to negotiate these bonds, or for black children in keeping open day cares when the budget got tight, that led to her receiving Death Threats from people. After appreciating so much the changes she brought to the district, after believing we can trust our children with her, those racial lines led to her saying, i have done this for too long and it is no longer worth it. I can talk about that a little more. Go ahead. Thank you. [applause] thank you for the wonderful papers. We have a good amount of time of a little bit of t discussion before we throw it out to our eager audience. I am thinking a lot about in terms of connecting all your work. There seem to be interesting connections between intraracial gender tensions that show up in particular ways, and who is responding in saying what should happen and should not happen, what is appropriate protest and what is not. Dr. Clayton, at and seeing who becomes supporters, and enemies might be strong, but adversaries. And thinking about robert sizemore, what it means to think about Community Control, and when she brings that to very well known and respected black politicalrs, how her position is challenged. I am thinking about the ways black Women Leadership gets challenged on efficacy, around these ideas of what the way forward is. When they create these models and ideas, philosophies, theories of education that often some of the biggest pushback is coming from these intraracial phases that seemingly undermine black womens efficacy as leaders. Investment in these people, power centered models. Black women are often left out of discussions of democracy, feeling the impact of being the critical patriots for democracy, and often reaching for visions of democracy, are often challenged along those lines of trying to create models that do that, and that center people, whether it is students, Community Stakeholders in chicago, or the children in philadelphia, in the most at risk communities. What happens when the progressive vision is actually matched by something far more sinister and far more antidemocratic than these win are pushing for . Those are two of the things. I wondered if you all had any thoughts about that, and of ,ourse moving into the 2010s we see a lot of push away from the Community Center and how we think of black women in leadership in these phases, too. I will start. I think about dr. Clayton and that 1988 moment a lot now, because i focus on School Reform. For instance, in baltimore right now, layoff notices went out to educators on thursday because there is this constant issue of we dont have enough. So anytime you have a system where people are telling you, we dont have enough, theres going to be, even people who think, i am the least racist, blah, nblah , when it gets down to the resources people wrestle for, that is where you see where peoples priorities are. And i think that is something that stays with us, that tension doesnt really go away. And im thinking, too, about baltimore, philadelphia, three or four years ago laid off 3000 people, claiming they did not have the resources but at the same time had millions of dollars to start to build a new prison. Were seeing that happen in maryland, Baltimore City schools. Two weeks ago there was an article saying there are six schools in Baltimore City that did not have at least one student proficient on state tests, yet they are still laying off educators in these schools. Those things really make sense. The question becomes, when you do have a black woman in a position, trying to do some these, for the least of the people who have the fewest resources, who have the greatest need, there always seems to be someone in the way saying, wait a minute, that is not why we brought you here. We brought you here to do something, but that isnt the thing. Yeah. I think i agree. Particularly around issues of layoffs and teacher termination, you see that for sure. In the 1990s in particular, when then chicago mayor Richard Daley was laying off workers, they found in one round of layoffs, 60 of workers were black. Blackt point, chicagos population was no more than 40 of the population, so it was a disproportionate amount of black workers being laid off. It was justified in the last hired, first fired, as if the reason why black people were last hired was not because they were systemically excluded for so many years. Part of what you are talking about is a foundation of what institutional racism looks like, right, where the outcome is of importance, and how we got to the outcome is of importance, and i think you certainly see that. In terms of the issues around black women and visions of democracy, it is an interesting idea and certainly something we see across various forms of black women organizing, not just within education. But within education, and i would be interested in what both of you think about this, there is a tension between the propensity for democracy and believe in authority. [laughter] she was an administrator and principal, with a strong sense of the role Authority Figures spaces, at the same time that part of her vision of that was about advocating for those who do not have a voice in these various spaces. You could probably say the same thing about willoughby player. Ey werethis era, th involved in, those positions now are more about fund raising more than anything, and making connections so funds can continually come in, particularly around small private institutions. That was certainly part of her hbc and all president s at s, but they were much more involved in the daily happenings on campus. If a student was found guilty or accused of an infraction that admittancethem their to the college, if they were kicked out of the college, she was very much involved in that, very much involved in the discipline of all the students. So i think in terms of her vision of democracy, you have to say the same thing you are saying about sizemore. She believed in democracy obviously, but she was also in a position and in an institution where authority was to be respected. I think with her vision of democracy, there was this environment in greensboro at the time in particular, and a lot of t gets taken up as the organizing space in greensboro, but what im finding is bennett was very much that organizing space. I think part of that is because it was a private institution that was not completely dependent on the funds of the state. They certainly got federal funding in many ways, and actually she went on to have a position in the federal she wasnt with, appointed by lbj, and her job sheto disburse funds, and directed them right back to hbcus. She believed in them, and sell them as a valuable source of inspiration saw them as a valuable source of inspiration for democracy. The image of bennett, like spelman, played a role in conflict around protest and what form of protest was appropriate. Thebennett was seen as a finishing school, even though in that era there was a shift. Her model was not just about churning out teachers and home ec majors. There is nothing wrong with that, but there was a shift that was happening at the time, and she was very much at the head of that, so i think that image of bennett as this place were young ladies go to be educated on the way to being a young lady, she was challenging that in the classroom, but she was also challenging that by opening up the space so that students could participate. And that was her vision of democracy, an educational model that she had that was her much a part of that very much a part of that. Dr. Claytons vision of democracy i am going to be very careful, because dr. Clayton may watch. [laughter] think will say is that i the critique of her was that she was not very democratic, but i believe she would argue she was not appointed to be democratic, that she was appointed to lead. So it was awesome for me to hear about Barbara Sizemore, and her interpretation of how the district needed to decentralize itself, because dr. Clayton did not believe in a decentralized model. But part of the reason why she did not believe and that was because she saw what had happened prior to her appointment. Is also very interesting to think about even our notions, our american notions of notcracy, right, which are really democratic. And her notions of accountability, wanting educators to be accountable to her, but herself not wanting to be accountable to the business community. So the question becomes, if she isnt trusted to lead, why is she in the position she is in . So what does it mean to partner with business . Does that mean you are accountable . Does that mean you have to consider their perspective . Those things are really important questions. Unlike dr. Sizemore, though, dr. Clayton, not only was she not really into Community Control, but she was definitely a social mobility advocate. Lots oflike, theres money happening when we have these conversations. You are not having these money conversations without black people, because black people need money, too. What ae may be in there lot of us struggle with, an elitist sort of tension. Up,do we make sure we move and at the same time commit to those who have the least. I am thinking of that around this idea, all of these women who were discussed today are complex figures, and you often talk about them over a period of time. I love that quote, when she got back and said not much changed in terms of her time as a student there, and her time initially coming on as faculty. I am thinking about my own work, being at howard as a student and coming back as the dean of women and going, we are still doing this . In terms of the treatment of women, often critiquing the conservativism particularly around gender and sexuality at these stations while being these more racially progressive, dynamic, and we can kind of complicate how we think about progressive if your gender and sexual politics are off. I wonder if there are different framings to think about the political standpoints of all these different women. You mentioned the kind of lifting as we climb, no child left behind, no one left behind, but what that means, those tensions that we often feel around class, around these other sort of intersecting identities. I am just thinking about this, because i feel like even our terminology might need a little bit in terms of thinking about the complex and multidimensional political standpoint that black women occupy. I think theres a tendency to narrow into certain things and not think complexly about the genealogy or these things they are actually articulating, and the fact people shift and change over time. So we will think about that in uerms of a scholar like de bois, but not in terms of women who grow and do these different things. Think about how you are framing these women, how you locate them in this larger history, larger genealogy of black women at institutions, particularly educational institutions. Well, as i mentioned in my presentation, i have been trying to think about this idea of a politics of black achievement. Is an exclusively self determinist politics. I am not suggesting this just cropped up in the 1960s or 1970s. There is a long history, particularly in education, of black self determinist pursuit. But i think that, particularly in the late 1960s and early 1970s, ecb development of a large group you see a Large Development of black education reformers, to take back his term reform from its current nature. Black women working and black men working in education, and other organizers, who were responding to two things. One, the failure of the welfare state to live up to the tenets of racial liberalism, and particularly the expanded welfare state of both the new deal and Johnsons Great Society era. Theseen i think also, to expanded and prolific discourses of black inferiority coming out of social science, but also that the state and the government are producing. So i think that in that context, you have a number of people who are no longer interested in talking about or thinking about integration and desegregation, and are forging very as paths of black selfdetermination various paths of black selfdetermination within education. It shows up in the development of independent black institutions. It shows up in the ways black teachers are organizing for the themselves at this moment. In chicago you see the growth of black teachers sometimes threatening to create alternative black teachers unions if they do not feel the organizations representing them are doing what they need to do. I think thats one way i have been starting to think about, particularly educators coming out of this particular generation, and their various responses to what they are interpreting and encountering in the classroom. But i think what is interesting is to see what happens when these ideas begin converging with the ideas particularly of Business Leaders who increasingly want to be involved. Corporations increasingly involved in education. They see it as a new space for Capital Investment and accumulation. And so, some of these ideas, things like, well, we dont necessarily need more money to change curriculum, to develop a culturally sustaining pedagogy, or these other things, that that can be something that then can be monetized, right, and then repurposed and repackaged and sold for a profit when that wasnt necessarily the intent. I think it also speaks to the state,wariness of the that you have this generation of black education reformers and a sort of conservative, neoconservative, neoliberal group of corporate education reformers who say the state has failed to provide quality public education, the market can do it better. At the same time, you have black educators saying the state has failed us. So they are coming from very different directions, but i think that is part of, you see that in the convergence of support for charter schools. In a more limited capacity, in the support for certain types of vouchers and other School Choice programs. It has become a way for me to think through some of what i have seen happening over the several decades. As i think about, i submitted an article about dr. Clayton, and i got some feedback that wasnt about the work, but some of it was about her. And i dont know who the reviewer was, although i would love to meet the reviewer. The word the reviewer used was hatchet woman, saying she was brought in to be a hatchet woman, which is not something i had seen in any of my research, or heard. So its very interesting to me, this question of, sort of history and length. When we evaluate her for the time she was in, how different is that, to look at her now and to look back on her work . Which for me, i have to knowledge my own position, i was a student in the district when she was superintendent. Even when i think about this notion of her having these consistently balanced budgets, i can see why people would say, somebody might interpret that as her being a hatchet woman. But when you are in a district whose property base, tax base, is shrinking every year, something has to be cut, right . So pragmatically, she looked at maybe it is fair to judge her for that. Im not really sure that it is. At the same time, this idea of mobility i find very interesting. Her commitment to mobility for black people. Her ideas that education is supposed to lead you somewhere. When i think about her up against Barbara Sizemore, Barbara Sizemore had this appeal for a Community Interest and Community Control that Constance Clayton did not, as far as i can tell did not sort of push. She pushed for social mobility, so her thing was kind of, how dare you have children in school, and the education you are providing them will not lead them to something greater, right . I think, to look back on that now, we would question that to say, why are we educating our children to have to lead their leave their communities . How can we educate their are children so they can transform where they are instead of transcending the community. Those are the kinds of things i wonder about with her, especially knowing that dr. Sizemore was her contemporary, so dr. Clayton is retired, she is still in Philadelphia Moving and shaking. Dr. Sizemore passed away, what, 13 years ago from cancer. But they were contemporaries, with very different ways of embodying black racial politics and navigating that space, but still both being committed to black people and having it look very different. In terms of a particular commitment to achievement with these various life paths to get there, right, under the framework of quality as opposed to a particular racial mix of children or these other strategies. Ok. We are going to take a couple questions from the audience. We will take them at the same time, so this will be kind of our closing out thing to get our moment. Panelists a if you can grab the microphone so we can make sure you can be heard, everyone, that would be wonderful. [laughter] thank you all so much for the opportunity to learn about all of these dynamic women. I did not know about them, and it does my black girl heart good. One of the threads that seems to be linking all of the stories is about a battle to see black women as Authority Figures, right . If you think about the spelma story, spelman then you think about dr. Sizemore in d. C. Part of the tension is about whether they will trust this black womans argument to lead. She is being undercut by men like marion barry, and other men in the community who have political aspirations. And then you think about someone has ar. Clayton, to also race woman bent. Gender. When you see black woman making black women making this argument about who has control and they believe in hierarchy and authority, it seems like because people do not take black women seriously as leaders. How can you make the argument if you cannot convince people you are an Authority Figure on the things you know in the first place . They are in a really tough position, right . So i wonder about that, and part of what i wonder about is, what does it mean for black women to center race in their argument, but to not get the same cookies for it, the same trophies for it that black men get. Think about urban areas where black men to play racial politics and become huge leaders because of that. When black women do it, they are cast as provincial, right . The focus on black children will not allow us to move into the future, right . So it also feels to me like part of the tension is trying to situate them, they all focus, in the case of clayton and sizemore, on the children. So their theory is, what makes black children succeed . So whatever that is is what we do, right . But in a world that doesnt value black children, thats always a fundamentally retrograde position, right . I wonder about that. What does it mean if the theory becomes, the theory, the argument is about black wellbeing and thriving in the space of her children are. That is an old race women debate as well, right . I wonder when i think about spelman, what does it mean that black women have to fight everybody in order to lead . They dont have to fight just white people, but they also to fight black men, too, so i wonder about that. Know, i have to say thinking about that question, i cant help but think about marion barry. I remember watching on the news, in his hotel room with his lady friend as i was a child. Takingey were, i think, some drugs, right . When marion barry died just a few years ago, he was hailed as a hero, and it was him who led to dr. Sizemore being removed. I think about the two years she had there, versus the 11 years that Constance Clayton had. And i, it pains me to think men inhe role of black both of their exits, one so soon and one late but still, black man. I dont even really know how to think about that, how to have a public conversation about that, because it is something that i feel like we as black women still wrestle with in positions of leadership, and for some reason we are still plagued with what does it mean to lead and have these people trust you, not just to be mammy for the children, to rein these teachers in, but to manage people and manage the budgets and resources at the same time and still get credit for being a leader, for being a theorist at the same time. I dont know. Let me say this. Was not exclusively marion barry per se, but he was so, and most people at the time sort of thought of him as, i think this is an interesting position, as he is trying to ascended through the council and become mayor, of that was not an option at the time, that he stayed publicly neutral on the topic, even though he was very involved in getting her. He stayed very neutral, and they saw that silence as acquiescence to others with louder voices calling for her to leave, both louder white male and female voices and black men and women calling for her ouster. Some of the same people who recently called for her to come to the city because, again, it was undermining their authority. So it wasnt i guess a direct rebuff in that way, but that said the dynamic was there, and certainly the ways in which she was criticized were race and gender constantly. One time they were talking about her and said, she clearly has a problem with authority. She approaches authority, and it was something like, she approaches authority with the tact of someone who was, and it was something to the effect of, fondled the balls of a doberman pinscher. The way they talked about her was wild. She made public comments, i will not bow to racism or sexism, so keep coming. One of the things that was stubborn motivating black women in particular the nature of their persistence and resilience reminds you, you just keep going. She was not to be messed with. I think that thats, for better or for worse, i am sure there was a personal toll to that as well. I have the opportunity to interview some of her family members. I worked with her granddaughter at one point. I think theres a personal toll to that at the same time that i find it very inspirational. She taught at bennett before she went to get her phd in the late 1940s at Teachers College at columbia. When she came back, shes teaching and also becomes dean there. The deanin itself was, of women, which was the silliest title ever because everyone there identifies as a woman. [laughter] the dean of students. That was one of her authority positions early on. As david dallas joness health the client, declined, to depict her to be the next president. He picked her to be the next president. The reason she did not get the deans position early on, and was in a teaching position for so long, was because the men at the Institution Teaching there would not respect for authority, and so they held off on her having that position. When she returns and becomes president , there is some sort of worry that this is going to happen and they are going to resist her, but i think that in his appointment of her, him showing her the respect that she deserves as someone completely qualified for the job, people backed off, men in particular at the institution backed off. In terms of spelman, the lines were just so identity drawn with Barbara Sizemore and her ousting. Same thing at spelman with Donald Stewart coming in. He was like the darling at the time, which was probably why he got the position according to what i found in the archive. He was inexperienced, 37 years old, and he had never been in any kind of similar position. He was at u penn, he was still working on his dissertation, i believe. You might want to check that. [laughter] but i am going to say that beverley told me that, because she did. I think he was finishing up his program and serving in an administrative position at u penn at the time. So him coming in was through the support of edelman in particular. When the lines get drawn and the students are like, no, this is not happening there were several black men to join the students side. Th current president e was kind of being pushed out. He had been there for 20 something years, and it was time for a new president , so he quietly joined the students side during the protests. Is goingime friend, it to be a chapter title in my book bought thehe one who rope for them to lock up the board. The alliances at spelman, it women versuslack white folks and black men, there were these different alliances. And education is nothing if not filled with strange bedfellows. [laughter] sorry, we have to end here, unfortunately, but we will be around so we can ask some questions afterwards, how we think about black women, do we trust black women, do we trust the authority of black women and what that looks like a cross lines . Not just in this very narrow way, but how this plays out in terms of black women being authoritative figures, leaders, what that means for black women to occupy those spaces historically and contemporarily. Thank you to all of my esteemed panelists for these wonderful papers, and this wonderful audience. Thank you so much. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you are watching American History tv. 48 hours of programming on American History, every weekend on cspan3. Follow us on twitter for information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. Back toe time i came the district or shortly thereafter, both of my uncles were sent to prison. They were convicted, one of them of sexual assault, and the other on bribery. So for the part of my childhood that i can remember, it was my mother, her two sisters, my grandmother, and my cousin in the house on 13th street. Tonight on cspans q a, t talks about growing up in washington, d. C. And her time as a clerk for Supreme Court justice sonja sotomayor. The pool justices look at is really small. If you are a viable candidate, you into a really great school, you had some really impressive people speaking up for you in the form of recommendation letters, you clerked for one of a small number of judges that routinely sent clerks to the court and so forth. A person of color, particularly African American or latino, to get into that pool, there are so many obstacles to that that it becomes a real problem, and i pick it hurts, because i think it hurts, because the perspective of diverse law clerks is so important. In every one of my clerkships, i felt there was a case where i saw something that because of my Life Experience someone else didnt see. Tonight at 8 00 on cspan. American history tv is on cspan3 every weekend, featuring museum tours, archival films, and programs on the presidency, the civil war, and more. Here is a clip from a recent program. The watergate hearings that was the watershed event for news and Public Affairs on public television. Up to that point, the stations and the public was generally divided over what even needed any more news and Public Affairs on television beyond what was already on commercial television. The Nixon Administration in particularly did not think there was a need for any more news in Public Affairs. [laughter] but the wate watergate hearings changed everything. The reason for change was because, there are several individuals who have the courage to make some really tough decisions, and one of them was to broadcast from gaveltogavel, because many stations were not broadcast it live because they had educational tv on during the daytime. But somebody, and i was part of why dont we, run them at night, repeat them at night . That was a big deal. It was a big decision, and the people who were running pbs were nervous about it. They said, lets poll the stations. We did poll the stations, but in a very clever way. [laughter] with a question that was kind of phrased in such a way, to you want to be patriotic or do you want to be a jerk . [laughter] and we still barely won a majority. [laughter] but, as mcneil said at the time, and i quote him almost for verbatim, it was summertime and pbs did not have much to run at night, no original programs to run at night anyhow. He said, they would run if they didnt run the hearings would englishspeaking mating,alking, animals and occasionally englishspeaking people mating and animals talking. [laughter] so why not replace it with the watergate hearings . [laughter] thats why, when i said 3 00 a. M. , the hearings were not going on at 3 00 a. M. , that was the repeat every night. We would do it live all day, but only about half the stations were broadcasting it. First itght, and at was the old story, you know, the big stations wouldnt take us, but then they started, word got out, and suddenly it became a big deal. The big deal was that it proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there was a role for news and Public Affairs on public broadcasting because of those hearings, and out of that came the news hour and everything else. You can watch this and other American History programs on our website, where all of our video is archived. That is www. Cspan. Org history. Afterwords,n goldstar father kizir khan recalls in his memoir. She is interviewed by california congressman jimmy panetta. These are very common among authoritarian mentalities. The audience can draw the conclusion. One is that they dont like free press, because free press criticizes them. Second thing is rule of law. They do not like judges. They do not like rule of law. Me such aad given perspective of not having any Civil Liberties to having all these dignities. I willwe speak further, tell you what a moment it was when i went to take the oath of citizenship. I wish every american would at least read the oath of citizenship. It means so very much, and it speaks to the hopefulness, the dignities that are enshrined in our constitution and the bill of rights. Book tv. The 1980s, asin Sexual Harassment in the workplace increased, the government had trading films. Up next on reel america, unwelcome affection, five examples of inappropriate workplace examples, with discussion after each segment. This is about 12 minutes. The Human Resources directorate equal Opportunity Division of Walter Reed Army Medical Center presents unwelcome affection. And now, here is the chief of