Sisters, Brothers, and Kin,
The second half of April not only marks the beginning of spring (we hope!) but also the end of another National History Day season. Since we opened the doors to the East Side Freedom Library, we have been a resource center to many, especially middle and high school students. These students use our resources, some of which can only be found at ESFL, to construct projects for National History Day. We have fielded a wonderful team of mentors every Saturday morning, eager and ready to work with middle and high school students who are discovering the joy of taking ownership of a significant story. We want to thank Susanne Hollingsworth, David Dyson, Greg Poferl, Jessica Pearson, Jennings Mergenthal, and Anja Witek for their generous work with young scholars.
While the pandemic continued to pose challenges to ESFL’s National History Day mentoring work in 2022, we made some adjustments. We asked students to make appointments for Saturday morning support, and we scheduled our mentors to come in on an as-needed basis, to develop relationships with students, and to make themselves available online for additional conversations. We encouraged students to make additional appointments to come in and use our resources. Students responded in creative ways to this year’s theme, “Debate and Diplomacy,” and, as we write this message, we are learning that several projects developed here have succeeded in the first round of competition and are on their way to the state competition. The requirement that “winners” must revise their projects leads to particularly engaged and fruitful conversations between mentors and students. Some of the projects developed here which continue to take shape include “The Trial of Galileo,” “From the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution,” “The Women’s Suffrage Movement and the 19th Amendment,” “George Bonga, Trade, and Treaties,” “Gandhi and the Salt March,” and “The Hormel Strike.”
The power of these experiences for young scholars is reflected in this one story. Four years ago, a high school junior, the daughter of Eritrean immigrants, came to ESFL for help in developing a project that addressed the national theme of “Conflict and Compromise in History.” She was drawn to the Los Angeles riots of 1992, in the wake of the police brutalization of Rodney King, and she was particularly interested in the conflicts which had emerged between African Americans and Korean Americans, particularly shopkeepers. As we worked closely, it became clear that she was also trying to make sense of the complex relationships between African Americans and the children of African immigrants that she was experiencing. Last year, the same young woman, now a first year college student, reached out to ESFL for assistance in compiling an annotated bibliography of African American and African literature that she and her team of peers could present to high school teachers in the Metro area to expand the range of their curricula. She had become empowered through her research and creative work, and she had built new relationships with fellow students from different communities.
Here is a five minute video of our National History Day work, edited by David Zierott. Enjoy!
Love and Solidarity,
Beth Cleary and Peter Rachleff