Looking Back to Look Forward

Well the semester is coming to a close – as is my undergraduate career.  As I was writing my review of the course for the university, I realized how disappointed I was that I didn’t have this experience earlier in my undergraduate experience.  It really changed the way I thought about and dealt with history.  I’ve always felt that history was relevant.  However, I never realized the multitude of ways it affects everyday life.

Mostly, though, I wish I would have had it earlier because it made me more aware of my relationship with history.  I have done research, which I have been emotionally invested in and passionate about; however, I still failed to realize that through my research, interpretation and then presentation to the public –  I altered that history.  That is what struck me most about public history.  We are each involved in every step of it: the process, representation, interpretation and history itself.

This realization has helped me with my individual project as well.  I had to think carefully about my audience, how I was presenting the material and what I was presenting.  Does each step convey the message I want?  Am I leaving out an important detail that changes the whole story?  Since I am shaping how others learn and interact with history, it is important that I am aware that I change that history by interacting with it.  So, I have to make sure I use it in a way that is true to the history, while still is appropriate and engaging to my audience.

I also realized that history is never an individual pursuit.  It would be impossible to do on one’s own.  You can see this in our group project.  While working together may have been tough and confusing at times, we ultimately accomplished much more together than we ever could have separately.  You can also see this in the practice of history.  No one person can complete research without using work by previous historians.  The pursuit, learning and conveying of history is pointless without other people, without an audience.  Therefore, history is not a dry pursuit done by yourself, for yourself  disconnected from the world; it is actually a highly intimate endeavor which connects you with people across space and across time.

This is the reason I went into history.  I felt like it was relevant and connected me with others.  However, I never saw this as a necessity of the field, but more a reflection of my feelings about it.  I now believe that intimacy and personal connections is an intrinsic aspect of history.

I also do not think that there is necessarily any history that is not public history.  All history is conveyed for an audience of some kind.  Some may seem more public than others, but all history has an audience.  If it did not, there would not be a point to it.

This seems like an incoherent string of thoughts.  Well, I guess it is.  The point is that this study of public history that I have done this year has made me contemplate the many different aspects, role and influence of history.  I think this is important for anyone going into a field that conveys history.  I took for granted what I thought I believed/knew about history as true without considering why I felt that way or the implications.  This course has forced me to do so.

So what is public history?  It is anything and everything.  It is complicated, messy, and never finished.   It is uniting, contentious, and ever-present.  It both influences and is influenced by its creators and audiences. Mostly it is full of more questions than answers, which is how it should be.  History should push us to think critically of ourselves, the world around us and our past – and public history is not different.

So as I go off onto the next part of my adventure, I will take this with me. Hopefully I will successfully push my students to contemplate not only historical topics, but history itself as well.

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Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks…

In a previous post I talked briefly about how I want to focus on the “racial atmosphere” (for lack of  a better term) and civil rights action affected and was affected by different sectors of American society for my individual project.  Last time I talked about Berry Gordy and Motown.  Today I turn to America’s pastime…baseball.

Baseball presents a natural way to investigate and analyze the role racism has played in American society.    At the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries (yup they have those), there was an interesting article presented by Clark Griffith on the role of Jackie Robinson.  In this, Griffith makes several interesting points.   He points out how baseball shows the progression of civil rights action from Plessey to Brown (this focus makes sense since this is an ABA forum).  After Plessey, baseball had a separate but equal mindset during the beginning to mid 20th century that reflected that attitude of the rest of American society.  There were separate leagues for whites and blacks.  They often used the same stadiums, but not at the same time.  They attracted huge crowds, since it was after all, America’s pastime.

However, this all changed when, in 1947, Jackie Robinson was signed to the Dodgers, a white team.  Clark argues that this was the quintessential moment in American society that signaled the change from Plessey to Brown.  He says, “it was baseball that broke the color barrier in America.”  He points out that the armed forces were integrated shortly after and the Brown v. Board of Education decision followed within the next decade.

I think his points are interesting and worth considering.  However, I am not convinced that the Dodgers signing Robinson created the Civil Rights Movement.  Rather, the country was already headed that way.It was most definitely influential, because it is something that everyone would know about.  However, I don’t know if there can be ONE quintessential moment in the Civil Rights movement.  If you asked random people,  I think you would get many different answers: Rosa Parks refusal to move on the bus, March on Washington, “I have a Dream” speech, abolition of slavery, Brown v. Board, some may say the election of Barrack Obama as president, etc.  The list could go on and on.  That is why I think this lesson plan is important.  It attempts to show the many different ways that racism affected American society and how those barriers were broken down in sectors that aren’t usually covered in a classroom.

Muhammad Ali versus Sonny Liston (1965)

This is why I want to discuss the relationship between sports and the Civil Rights Movement.  Baseball is definitely a natural avenue to analyze this relationship (and ,as a baseball fan, an enjoyable one); however, it is not the only one.  I could just as easily discuss Muhammad Ali’s relationship with Malcolm X and how he threw his Olympic gold medal into the river after being denied service.

John McLendon

Or John B. McLendon’s fight for racial equality in the basketball world and as the first black coach at a predominately white university.  This theme can be found in many different ways throughout the world of sports.

By incorporating sports into the lesson, I will be including another interest of many of the students.  So, it is another way to get the students interested in the topic.  I think it is again a matter of thinking of your audience.  In my case, it is teenagers.  What are their interests outside of the classroom?  If I can incorporate these interests inside the classroom then they will be more likely to be interested and involved, which makes my job much easier and enjoyable.

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“Come and Get These Memories”

Well after much speculation, I’ve decided to focus on Civil Rights in a round about way for my individual project.  I recently visited the Motown Museum in Detroit with some friends for the first time (which is also one of Michigan’s Historical Sites as well).

If you drove down Grand Boulevard, you would probably miss this house unless there was a gaggle of tourists sitting on the front lawn at the time of your passing.  It fits right in between the other buildings with just a small parking lot on the side.  After taking the mandatory picture of ourselves in front of Hitsville, we decided to go ahead and actually go in the museum.  (YES, I am a history major, but NO I had not came with the intention of actually visiting the museum thinking it was more of a tourist trap than museum).  After seeing that it would cost $10, my poor college student instincts kicked in and said to myself, “there is no way I am paying $10 to walk through this house.”  Wrong.  I did pay the $10 and the cashier decided to tell me AFTER she had ran my debit card when I asked about discounts for school field trips that there were also discounts for college students (this was after we had also said we were from MSU).  So, anyways, I paid the $10 and life goes on.  The museum visit also comes with a tour, which I am generally never thrilled about.  I was wrong.

Motown Museum

The tour made the museum visit.  I would not have gotten nearly as much  without the help of the tour guide.  Not only was he very informative, but he was very entertaining.  It made every exhibit seem interactive.  So, if you decide to head over to the museum, pay the $10 and tap into the knowledge of the people who work there.  You won’t regret it.  While some parts are slightly “touristy,” they are entertaining.  They pull people in and keep you there.  And isn’t that an important mission of any museum -to have visitors?

However, what really struck me was the ingenuity of Berry Gordy (founder of Motown). I had know that racism affected the industry and creation of Motown; however, I was incredibly interested as the tour guide explained how Berry Gordy changed the industry to work arouond racism (how it affected the ways he “trained” singers, the way album covers were designed, etc.) and also how the indurstry worked to combat racism.

It was this that led me to the topic for my lesson plan.  I want to focus on different areas where this occured besides Motown (sports, literature, education, social groups, whatever).  Students always learn about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks.  That is not to say that they were not important, but I want to supplement that knowledge.  What were other people doing in other areas?

And just to explain the title of this post and for a little fun…

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