Step-by-Step

The final preparations for the 2010 Creating a Usable Past tour (for both facilitators and students) have prevented dedicated blogging over the course of the last few week. The school year ended for our participants yesterday afternoon, but prior to that day, they have been hard at work putting final touches on projects, completing End of Grade and End of Course testing, and looking forward to busy summers.

In addition to the focus on their classroom studies, I've been overwhelmed by the focus and attention that our group has had on building a context for the travels that will commence on Sunday morning. We have continued our Thursday meetings to develop a solid group dynamic and learn some history, but students have also been willing to give-up some Saturdays to gather with YMCA-appointed mentors, meet area representatives of the press, and assist in telling community supporters about our program.

The program and our students have been featured this week in the Charlotte Post and on Time Warner Cable's News-14. I'm increasingly amazed at how polished all of the students are at sharing their ideas in front of adults and with their peers. I've often considered what more I might have to offer them.

Then, I think back on my day yesterday (June 10). I had the great fortune to be a part of the dedication of Freedom Park's "Garden of Forgiveness" -developed and sponsored by WTVI and the Red Bench Ambassadors. Individual sponsors and community organizations were recognized for their support in an effort to open forums for conversation, reconciliation, and healing; but the mid-morning event focussed its attention on Dorothy C0unts-Scoggins, who integrated Harding High School in 1957, and several of her white, high school counterparts. They have worked diligently over the past few years to create friendships in spite of the barriers forced by law and society some 50 years ago. Those gathered witnessed the "beloved community" in action and have been tapped as Red Bench Ambassadors, also.

It was Mrs. Scoggins' story in a student meeting several weeks ago that elicited a poem from the pen of Creating a Usable Past participant Breanna Washington. The verse, "Step-by-Step" reads:

Step by Step

inch by inch

my every move judged

scolded by every flinch

my eyes look forward

head held high

my ears don't listen

as my heart begins to cry

I see the "whites only" sign

blacks to the back

no shame in my walk

won't hit the road and pack

'cause I know one day things will change

if not by my hands

then my kids will lead the way

I know my place on judgment day

whether black or white

we all meet the same fate.

Although it is obvious that students like Breanna already possess the tools and the passion to do well in school, I like to think that Creating a Usable Past offers an opportunity to push them a little further--to expose them to stories they may not have considered and to help them look for ways to get the most out of this experience and, perhaps, pay it forward someday.