I had the most incredible final Clemente class last night in Dorchester. We have a small but determined cohort of students this year--smart, engaged, empathic, hard working, insightful--and fun as hell! Last night, we were discussing Cold War, Civil Rights, covering Eisenhowers military-industrial complex speech, Jo Ann Robinsons account of the women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Malcolm Xs Ballot or the Bullet speech, Baldwins letter to his nephew from The Fire Next Time, and Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from Birmingham Jail. It was an amazing, wide-ranging discussion, one that delighted and sometimes surprised me at nearly every turn. One of my students found and shared an original copy of the call to boycott in Montgomery, written on the day of Rosa Parks arrest, with a reference to Claudette Colbert, the first woman to get arrested for refusing to give up her seat. We got into the politics of protest and respectability, and the efficacy of boycotts and civil disobedience. When we got to the end of the two hours, we had barely touched Dr. Kings letter. I asked them what they wanted to do. This was the last class, we had no more time. They were eager to discuss it, in part, because their final papers call for them to read Kings text in relation to one of the moral philosophers they studied in the fall term. One of the students said, Well, lets stay! They all agreed. One added: As long as I can pee first. So we took a five-minute bathroom break. One student asked me if I could break a ten, but I didnt have any cash (LOL--story of my life!) My colleague Jack Cheng broke the ten, which I figured was for bus fare on the way home. Five minutes later, she came back with bottles of water that she had purchased for us in the vending machine at Codman Square. She also had two bowls of fruit salad that she got from the fridge in the kitchen. She smiled and said, In case you all havent had dinner. It was an amazing moment. Then, for the next hour, we got after it--talking religion and racism, police harassment and criminal justice, more civil disobedience, Kings rhetorical strategies, his construction of history, the meaning of the black freedom struggle in our contemporary lives, and how difficult it is to love people who hate you (circling back to Baldwin and X). Three-plus hours after we started, around 9:45pm, we ended mid-stream, which was also, we understood, mid-struggle, with more work to do. After reading aloud the long last paragraph and closing of Kings letter, everyone said Amen! We all smiled and laughed together. I was about to thank them for their engagement and commitment, offer a final word, but they seized the moment to instead go around the table and talk about why its so important to study our history this way. These are the moments when I realize that I have been blessed beyond measure to find a calling in teaching. As I was driving home--from Codman Square to Harvard Square--Michael Jacksons Man in the Mirror came on the radio. As many of you now, its one of my favorite songs. I cried, called my folks, and thanked them for raising me the way they did. Life is weird, tough, emotional, elusive, full of more questions than answers, but Im certain about one thing: I was put here to do this work.
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 13:59:13 +0000
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