Taija Williams

taija

The Penn Center is a National Historic Landmark District that was established 150 years ago on St. Helena Island in Beaufort, South Carolina. It started with the Port Royal Experiment, which was an experiment lead to detect if Negro slaves were capable of learning and could be educated. The Port Royal Experiment would then turn into the first school for enslaved people and then to freedmen. Penn School was founded in 1862; the first educators of the institution would be Laura M. Towne and Ellen Murray, later companied by Charlotte Forten.

On February 26, 2013 I had the chance to walk the grounds of Penn Center which was an amazingly, overwhelming feeling. Prior to this trip I was not aware of the existence of the institution. My mother would always tell me, such as the great Frederick Douglas would agree, “you have to understand your history to deal with the present.” As I walked the grounds of the campus I could only imagine what it would have been like. Of course it had to have been exciting, a joyous institution, maybe an intimidating project at first for both the educators and students. However, you have to wonder what it took to make such a successful institution. When I looked at architecture of the buildings, the crafts, the trophies, the tools used, and most importantly the photos; I then realized why I was so overwhelmed, I had had a piece of the past uncovered for me, in order for me to now know more about the future, my future, our future.

Brandon Greene

School

Born and raised in the harder South

Some might say with a silver spoon in my mouth

I don’t know I just had what my mother gave me

Father left at five she was the only one left to raise me

A strong black woman graduated high school at sixteen

Went to college and earned a degree from an Ivy League

First of her kind though her mother didn’t make it as far

Because when she was in school education had lowered the bar

My mother always told me to get an education

And don’t involve myself in idle recreation

She said those before me didn’t have as much

They weren’t allowed to read and a book they couldn’t touch

She told me to be grateful for the school I got to attend

Because back in the day going to school meant walking miles on end

She talked of schools with one classroom and no air

Black kids without textbooks the system wasn’t close to fair

Girls bombed in churches and beaten by forces but life is better today

We’re free to learn, free to read, and say what we want to say

One of few blacks in a sea of all white

But at least they let me learn; at least they treat me right

We’ve come a long way from those harsh days in the past

But there’s still more to do if we want this peace to last

I’m grateful to have been raised in a more accepting generation

That no longer prohibits learning and no longer allows segregation

Education shouldn’t be a privilege but a God given right

And though we’ve made progress the end is still not in sight

As long as there is color racism will always exist

However we need to learn to look past it and co-exist

Reflection on Poem

For my assignment on the Penn Center I chose to write a poem. I felt that the trip was about education for blacks in the past and the start of all black schools. Given that the Penn Center was originally a school I chose to write about education in my poem. I also chose to talk about what my mother used to tell me when I was younger and entering first grade. She and my grandmother always used to talk to me about what life was like for black children and black people before me. They always told me to be grateful for what I have and to not take my education for granted. The Penn School came before my mother was born, but I felt that her educational history and my grandmothers were relevant to the topic. My grandmother grew up in the segregation era and my mother did not; however, my mother still dealt with racism when she in school. She dealt with it by doing her best and giving her all in school. She ended up making better grades than her classmates and graduated high school at sixteen. Talking about my mother’s educational background reminded me of another reading that we read in class earlier in the semester. In that particular reading the writer dealt with his classmates the same way. Instead of being ashamed of being black he worked at his full potential and gave his all, which resulted in him receiving better grades on his exams. He received better grades than his classmates. Visiting the Penn Center and learning about its origin made me feel very privileged for the education and the freedom that I’ve been afforded. I thought the buildings were peacefully designed and efficient, but I felt the location was very rural.  I concluded my poem by talking about the lack of equality in our society and how things are much different now than how they were in the past but there is still much work to be done.

Madelyn Walker

Celebrating Freedmen of the South

In 1862 when the plantation owners fled when the union ships arrived and the slaves were left on the island on their own, they became freedmen and the Penn School was founded. This center not only became a place of formal education for previously enslaved West Africans on the island, but it became so much more – a community. Penn School may have begun as just a place to develop reading, writing and mathematics skills, but the freedmen were also taught land ownership and industrial trade, which are valuable lessons.

Devotion towards the Penn School and now the Penn Center is incredible. When it first began, volunteerism from other places was difficult because many people not from the area were not used to the conditions and were not able to resist malaria so the people that did were courageous and must have been very dedicated for taking the risk. In 1864-1865 when the school became private and required tuition, students really worked to stay at Penn School. Some sold baskets that they weaved to raise the tuition money.

“Social support may come from… community institutions,” which in this case would be the school (Billingsley 1992: 312). Lincoln Normal School was founded by a group of freedmen similar to the Penn Center, but in this case, African American men were trying to find ways to provide education for their children. The Currys were former slaves and had all of their children attend the Lincoln Normal School. At this institution, black children were encouraged to dream and become exactly who they wanted to be, which is a very experience that many black children have faced in the more modern education systems in America. Similar to the Penn School, Coretta Scott King said that teachers of the other freedmen school were extremely committed and really wanted to make a difference in these children’s lives (Billingsley 1992: 317).

Today, many African Americans are faced with those teachers that do not care as much and are not pushing them to be the best that they can possibly be. “The actions and relationships among educators [are] how these factors promote an environment of failure or success for African American students in urban [schools] (Lewis and Moore 2008: 125).

“What people make of their places is closely connected to what they make of themselves as members of society and inhabitants of the earth,” Keith Basso says in his book, Wisdom Sits in Places (Basso 1996: 54). I got this strong sense of place from how connected the people were to the Penn School and how they continue to be very devoted to not only preserving the history, but celebrating all that has been done for the freedmen of the South. Most other historically important places are preserved in ways that just turn it into a museum, but Penn Center continues to embrace all that it has done for African American education in our society.

 

Works Cited

Basso, Keith. Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache. University of New Mexico Press.

Billingsley, Andrew. 1992. “Stumbling Blocks and Stepping Stones: Traditional African-American Family Values.” pp 312-333 in Climbing Jacob’s Ladder: The Enduring Legacy of African American Families. New York, New York, Touchstone.

Lewis, C. W., & Moore III, J. L. 2008. “African American Students in K-12 Urban Educational Settings” Urban Education, 43(2): 123-126.

Rebecca Warthen

The School Boat

Swish Swish Stroke Stroke

On the way to school she goes.

Pencil in her hand and paper in her coat

Off she goes in her little row boat.

 

Out of the fields and into the house,

Little girl won’t hafta  pout or plow-

Penn school’s the ticket to a future of joy.

Penn school’s the path for our girls and boys.

 

Swish Swish Stroke Stroke

We been stuck on this island long as I know.

They put us in yoke, nearly made us choke.

They thought this island could keep us low.

 

Been made to plant, been made to sow.

Now we’re gonna seed and grow our own.

Been made to need, been made to sweat.

Now we’re gonna read and take our test.

 

Swish Swish Stroke Stroke

Penn School is gonna save our folk.

2 oars at a time she’ll forget her strife.

2 oars at a time will save her life.

 

Accompanying Statement

Our field trip to the Penn Center was eye opening for me.  Although I live in Charleston and have come into contact with many people that speak with a Gullah accent, I somehow never thought about how they came to be here and sound that way.  The presentation about the Penn Center’s beginnings and the history of St.Helena Island have permeated my life in the Lowcountry since we left.  I found the manner in which plantation slavery occurred on the sea islands to be astounding and the way the island people continued to live off of the land after their former masters had deserted them informative.  Some of my favorite things that we learned were the different varieties of crafts and industrial skills taught at Penn Normal, the way that some

Meg Singleton

16th Street Baptist Church

 

I chose to create a video on the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. My favorite part about the video is the song that accompanies the images. What most people might not know is that the song was composed by John Coltrane in 1963 specifically in response to the bombings; it was meant commemorate the lives lost in the tragedy in Birmingham, Alabama – hence the name of the song. This shows that the misfortune that occurred in Birmingham that day in September of 1963 was not an isolated issue. People across the country and the world heard about the bombing; multiple songs have been written about the incident, and serve as an eternal memorial for those who died. The images of the bombing were taken from the archives of the Birmingham Public Library, and depict the aftermath of the incident. The poems that accompany the song and images were written by me in order to try and explain the history of the landmark in a more creative way. The poems also serve as an image in their own sense – the imagery, diction, and rhyme schemes that I chose to use within the poems are meant to show how the Civil Rights movement was an extremely emotionally-driven time period in our country’s history.

Description of the Location:

            The description of this Nationally Historic Landmark and its significance to African American communities is embedded in the video via the poems. Professor Strmic-Pawl and I agreed that I would not need to write a full 200-word description of the location and the incidents surround it as it would be redundant. Watch the video for a more entertaining description!

Kara Perrino

4 3 2 1

These are pictures I took of my visual journal spread I did for this piece. A visual journal is a cross between a scrapbook and a journal for poems, stories, memories, or in this case assignments I find are better represented in a creative outlet. I used pictures I took while at the Penn Center and incorporated the map of the grounds, flowers I took from the grounds, and patterns and elements I found suitable to create imagery to accompany the poem I wrote in this spread.

Poem

Remember me
not just in the pictures
not only in the words
remember me in being here,
recall the landscapes curves
of my hips; my body may lie
beneath these hills
bones twisted among the roots
but I still see you clearly
feel your footsteps upon my familiar earth.

I’m not just in the paneling,
the buildings, cottages, and school,
peering through window panes
I’m the yellow jasmine blooms,
the pages of books in worn out rooms,
the tables and chairs in which you rest,
the wind you feel –
I am in your breath.

I am not a selective aid to memory
I am all –
every leaf, every tree
every blade of grass you see
not just the stone structure with faceless memory.

Remember my essence
in everything.
I am not gone,
I do not cease to be. 

Accompanying Statement to Poem

I chose to do a poem because I have always been fond of writing, so the excuse to create a poem from this field trip to the Penn Center was very exciting for me. I stuck with the theme of “remembrance” because on the bus ride to the Penn Center our group read very interesting articles on the importance of relationships with places and how certain landscapes can acquire meaning, in which certain places trigger acts of self-reflection. On this trip I found myself thinking not only of the school and center themselves as noteworthy places to reflect but of the physical earth itself, the very living, breathing, continuing ground that still grows and flourishes to this day. To me, the people who inhabited Penn Center and all of those who were a part of it will always be a part of it and that their essence there will be forever present in the scenery.

Dyshia Parks

dyshia

 

My trip to the Penn Center was quite interesting. I really enjoyed the speech and the livelihood of the material being brought forth. I was amazed at how the buildings in the slideshow resembled the buildings still on the land. The main things that stood out to me were the Historical marker, The Pine Cottage, The Museum, and The Gantt Cottage.

I was fond of the Gantt Cottage mainly because it housed Dr. King. I also liked the fact that it was not at all fancy and it still remains the way it appeared to be when Dr. King resided there. I also admired the fact that it resembled a house that we live in today. The Gantt Cottage is now used for an office for the Neighborhood legal Assistance.

I enjoyed this trip and I would recommend others going as well. You actually learn a lot of neat and meaningful things about the Gullah Community and the ancestors who played a part in this unique experience. A lot of things that were available in the museum were interesting as well. I truly enjoyed myself.

Brittany Hill

Avery Research Center

The location I chose was the Avery Normal School, which is currently the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. “Normal” refers to a school for training teachers ofering classical education along with college prep classes. The school has provided services for about 100 years to several African American students. Studies have included music, science, philosophy, foreign language, grammar, math, etc. This school was the first secondary school for African American students in South Carolina that was formed by the American Missionary Association of New York City. Since the beginning of the institution in 1865 the name has been changed several times, as various people have been honored due to their contributions. The school was unfortunately closed in 1954 but Averyites, Alumni of Avery, kept the institution alive by working as a team to preserve the site and create an educational center for the public. Today the Avery Research Center offers five thousand printed documents, four thousand photos, and about two hundred manuscript collections. They also provide VHS tapes, artifacts, clipping files, and digital media. The center is open to anyone who would like to roam the historical site with plenty of African American art throughout the hallways and rooms, to learn about African roots, or to even rummage through archives in the reading room.

 

clark

Septima P. Clark Papers, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA

Upon entering the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture is a breathtaking image of Septima Poinsette Clark. Ms. Clark is a Charlestonian who attended Avery Normal Institute and graduated in 1916 with her teacher’s certificate.  She then received her Bachelor’s from Benedict College and her Master’s from Hampton Institute.  As Clark entered the workforce she found it difficult to find jobs that paid equally to her Caucasian counterparts. Also laws stated that African Americans could not teach in the City of Charleston, so she taught on Johns Island for three years. Although she taught at several schools in South Carolina, the difficulty of finding a job encouraged her to become heavily involved in not only the civil rights movement but the feminist movement as well.  In 1956 it was documented that she lost her job teaching because she was involved with the NAACP. Throughout her lifetime she was involved in several women’s groups such as Coming Street Young Women’s Christian Association, SC Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, National Council of Negro Women, etc.  Ms. Clark passed away in Charleston on December 15, 1987 and has had an auditorium, day care, and highway named in honor of her contributions within South Carolina. (the crosstown—DT Chas.)

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Bryana Evans

Bryana

Located on majestic lands,
This safe haven holds a multitude of memories.
Memories of freedmen.
Memories of racial strife.
Memories of civil rights.
Under the leadership of Laura M. Townes an Ellen Murray,
One can only imagine the scrutiny these woman faced from faces unlike their own.
But with the help of God they prevailed!
As it is known today, the Penn Center withstood all opposition,
And today stands for all to see.
Revered.
Dignified.
Everlasting.
Upon visiting you’re simply in awe,
Immersed in the Gullah-Geechie culture.
No wonder this mantle of social justice has withstood the tests of time.
In honor of those sweet woman who founded
What was once a great school, I say thank you.
Without the dedication it took to move to foreign lands
Where whites and blacks did not mingle took courage.
Bless the souls that walk the grounds where Martin Luther King Jr. used to be.
Bless the people who continue to educate the world about the Penn Center and all of it’s successes.
God bless the Penn Center.

Accompanying Statement to Poem

This poem is a dedication to those who helped the Penn Center become such a success. Not only successful in educating the black youth of it’s time, but also for not conforming to the norms of the south. Starting during a time where black people and white people did not mix, Laura M. Townes and Ellen Murray were true saints. They did not let anything stop them from educating those less fortunate than themselves, and for that, so many black children were able to come out of the belief that blacks could not be educated.