Students remember 9/11
USU students gathered with community members at the Merrill-Cazier Library Auditorium on Monday night for the second annual “September Project.”
Growing out of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the “September Project” aims to help promote community dialogue in libraries across the world on important issues we face today.
“Libraries are seen as neutral places,” said USU librarian Wendy Holliday. “Anyone is free to read about anything here. It is a place of inquiry and discovery.”
This year’s discussion was based on the Civil Rights Movement documentary film “Fighting Back” and the 2006 common literature experience at USU, “Warriors Don’t Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High,” by Melba Pattillo Beals.
The discussion, led by Jennifer Ritterhouse, associate professor of history at USU, yielded realizations by audience members of not only what took place in Little Rock, Ark., but what citizens of the United States can do as they face the political, economic and racial challenges of today.
“It is something that we in our generation don’t deal with, but it is good to remember it,” freshman Blake Brinkerhoff said, “because they say that if you don’t remember the past you are doomed to repeat it.”
The movie, “Fighting Back,” followed Thelma Mothershed, Elizabeth Eckford, Melba Pattillo, Jefferson Thomas, Ernest Green, Minniejean Brown, Carlotta Walls, Terrence Roberts and Gloria Ray as they fought the segregation tactics of the South by integrating public schools.
Ritterhouse pointed out how the burden of integration was placed on the shoulders of nine teenagers that faced the common challenges of high school in addition to harassment and ridicule of mobs yelling, “Two, four, six, eight, we don’t want to integrate.”
The film also featured federal versus state powers in the standoff between governors of Southern states and presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. It featured President Eisenhower affirming the unconstitutionality of segregation by saying, “Mob-rule will not be allowed to overthrow the decision of our courts.”
During the discussion, Ritterhouse asked the audience, “Who was patriotic in the movie?” to which the audience said, “Everyone.” This questioning facilitated conversation about how segregationists used words like “patriotism,” “freedom” and “democracy” to proliferate their cause.
“This is something we need to be careful of even today,” Ritterhouse said.
Bringing the subject of civil rights back around to Sept. 11, Ritterhouse talked about how the terror of the Civil Rights Movement marked a dim moment in United States history, but how there can be hope for the future because of the progress that has happened in the past.
“We are all reminded that we have these ideals of freedom and equality, but that we have to fight for them,” Holliday said.
lyndim@cc.usu.edu