Gettysburg College Students Explore Ike and Civil Rights - Eisenhower Foundation
Blair Cox stepped into the shoes of Minnijean Brown, one of nine
African-American students who desegregated Central High School in Little
Rock, Ark. in 1957, and admitted she refused to go down without a fight.
Brown was the first of the Little Rock Nine to be expelled for retaliating
against the torment the group endured every day. Cox, a sophomore in psyhology
at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Penn., was playing the role of Brown in
an experiential learning experience recently at the Dwight D. Eisenhower
Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kan.
The
Gettysburg College students traveled to the Eisenhower Library to study Desegregation
in Little Rock, a field trip enhancement program that uses primary sources
and simulations to bring to life the key events surrounding the integration
of Little Rock's Central High School. It is one of several innovative
programs and activities offered by Ike EDucation, established by the
Eisenhower Foundation, that are age-appropriate for students in elementary
grades through college to enhance their knowledge and understanding of former
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, according to Meredith Sleichter, the
Foundation's executive director.
The
experiential-learning leadership program engages students in a historical
crisis as they role play the figures involved after studying original
documents found at the Eisenhower Library. Donna Reynolds, Ike EDucator, says
the program stimulates critical thinking, enhances research skills, and
provides experience in public speaking and debate. Lessons on history, social
injustices, and leadership styles are other benefits.
It is the
fifth year Gettysburg College's Leadership Institute has partnered with the
Eisenhower Library to enhance students' leadership skills. Cox was one of
three student project leaders, eight other students and two faculty members
who participated in the immersive activity.
Paul
Miller, the Associate Director of the Garthwait Leadership Center at
Gettysburg College, said the center was created to provide leadership
development opportunities. The Leadership Institute is a semester-long,
seminar-style program of leadership study through social justice, and
specifically the Civil Rights Movement, with the goal being to inspire the
potential that individuals have to create and attain positive and sustainable
social change. The students study educational policy and political movements
surrounding the Civil Rights Movement and the Little Rock Crisis, and the
experience culminates with a week-long immersion project in Abilene and
Little Rock, Ark.
"
This
experience is to put them in the footsteps of those involved," he
remarks about the Eisenhower Library program. Miller, who accompanied the
group, participated alongside the students by assuming the role of
Eisenhower's White House Press Secretary James Hagerty.
Cox says
she was fascinated by the documents related to integration, segregation and
desegregation she found at the Eisenhower Library.
"We
were in the archives looking at different primary sources from Eisenhower's
time and it was really interesting because we got to look at actual notes
Eisenhower had taken," she says. "One of my favorite things was
looking at a speech and typically the final draft was in the front but if you
went to the back there were annotated ones where they had made revisions and
it was interesting to see the actual primary source."
Among the characters involved in the Little Rock crisis assigned to the students for portrayal were an African-American student, the school principal, the police chief, the governor, and President Eisenhower.
"My
character was Minnijean Brown, one of the Little Rock Nine, and we were
directed when we were in the archives to try to find information on our
character," Cox says. "We talked about what role our character
played in the whole Little Rock crisis. We talked about how complex desegregation
is, and going along with this idea of roles, how each player influenced one
another and how it wouldn't have had such an impact had all of the players
not been there."
On the
second day, each student took the role of their character, who they
introduced to the class based on the information they found in the archives.
A lively debate followed with various sides defending their positions on how
to best handle the crisis.
The
students also watched news film clips from that time period, including one on
Elizabeth Eckford who, unaware of a change in the designated meeting place
for the African-American students, was alone when she got off the bus a block
from the school and was confronted by an angry mob opposing integration.
Sleichter
says this program is just one way the Foundation reinforces Eisenhower's
beliefs that, as he once said: "Through such leadership every one of
you, at your job, in your home, about your community, can be a builder of a
better America and a better world."
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