Prelude: Steppin’
We live our lives in years, swift, flying, transient
years. We hold the possible future in
our hands but not by wish and will, only by thought, plan, knowledge, and
organization. If the college can pour
into the coming age an American Negro who knows himself and his plight and how
to protect himself and fight race prejudice, then the world of our dreams will
come true and not otherwise.
—W.E.B DuBois (1933)
The preceding quote by DuBois was taken from a speech he
gave during the era of segregation entitled, “The Field and Function of the
In
the first part of this memoir I discuss how the Telehub
Network came about. And the appearance
of versions of the word “step” in the titles connotes this. In the later part I engage in reflections,
introspections and projections pertaining to its purpose, motivations and
possibilities. All-in-all, I hope to
show how the Telehub evolved (as did the DuBois
Learning Center itself) from the desires of African Americans “who knew
themselves” and were comfortable and confident enough in their abilities,
skills and talents to initiate the actions that could quite possibly help lead
to the World Of Our Dreams.
From small seeds, tall oak trees grow. This is also true for organizations and
systems. The Telehub
Network project of the
At the time of the Telehub’s inception, the
In the fall of 1965 I was hired by the then Bendix Corporation as an industrial mathematician. My official title, however, was that of a
scientific programmer. A few years later
Glover and I had attended college in the heat of the Civil Rights Movement and often discussed how we could give back to the community. I can recall Glover expressly stating to me: “Dick, we have to do something with our kids. We have to start by working with them!” A few years later I would call upon Glover, reminding him of that comment.
While I was in college, I became interested in
getting a PhD and teaching in one of our Historically Black Colleges &
Universities (HBCU). However, illness
caused me to alter my plans and I ended up back in my hometown of
The district had come up with what I thought was a novel way of organizing it’s elementary school math and science approaches. It reasoned that the elementary school teachers teach to their strengths. So why not identify the teachers in each of its elementary schools who considered math and science their strengths. And then designate them as the Math/Science coordinators for their respective schools, thereby making it possible for them to assist their fellow teachers who were not as strong in those areas as they were.
My former high school basketball coach, the late Perry Kirkpatrick, was then head of secondary education for the district. I asked him if it was possible for me to make a presentation to the Math/Science coordinators. He helped make the arrangement for that to happen. After my presentation, they voted unanimously for me to come back once a month and work with them. They would try out my suggestions during the month and then we would come together and discuss how they went. I told them that my participation would not cost the district anything because my job would allow me to participate on a monthly basis as a contribution to education in the city.
But before it could even get started, a discrimination lawsuit was filed against the KCMSD that caused it to abandon the project so that it could concentrate all of its energies into that lawsuit. All of that planning was scrapped and thrown down the drain. Needless to say how frustrated I was at that lost opportunity. It was also illustrative of what happens when you have little or no control over the responses to influencing events and outside forces. Now I had no choice but to focus my energies in another direction.
During that same time an energetic
young man named Emmanuel Cleaver had been hired by Bendix
also. He had just graduated form
In 1968 a riot broke out in KC’s African
American community after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And the directors of the YMCA of Greater
Kansas City decided they wanted to do something to address the needs of KC’s
urban core by establishing an Urban Services Branch. They had approached Cleaver to be its
executive director. Cleaver approached
me to join their board of directors so that I could help him develop and
implement plans and projects to address those needs. While there, Cleaver arranged for Dr. Ralph
Abernathy to come to KC and speak at a YMCA program. Rev. Abernathy was so impressed with Cleaver
that he encouraged him to set up a
By then I was beginning to feel that we could do more for our community within a community based organization that we had more influence over. We could do things the way we felt best, without having to always seek out approval from others whose understanding of our community was not as in-depth as ours. (This is a theme that would play out later within the DLC.)
After the
The reading program had begun even
before the math program had started up.
Two community activists named Bill Grace, who also worked at
There were two different approaches
to the way each of the programs was run.
The reading program operated with the traditional methods (especially
the ones that followed the culture that grew out of the “Great Society”) by
soliciting grants and hiring persons to work in it. We in the mathematics program relied on
volunteers that we knew and worked with in the corporations. The churches let us use their classrooms in
which they taught Sunday school to teach math on Saturdays and reading during
weekdays. Since the math section relied
on area professionals who were reasonably well paid, we could also rely on them
to volunteer. Thereby we could operate,
based upon what we ourselves could contribute.
After a while the reading program adopted this method of operating
also. This, in turn, would lead to a
“culture” within the
In the reading of this memoir you will notice that I
freely draw parallels, lessons, and even insights from music that emanates from
our culture. Witness the chapter titles,
and even the title of this prelude. Much
of our music has traditionally been renowned for its dual meanings containing
concealed messages. (For example:
Harriet Tubman was regularly referred to as “the old ship of
•
• •
Andrea Martin is one of hip-hop’s most notable lyricists. She may not be that well known by the general public, but you can rest assured that she is well known and respected among the conscientious artists throughout the hip-hop community. She has only one CD that I know of: “The Best of Me.” On it she has a song entitled “Steppin’.” It includes the following lines:
How long is too long to wait
for the man of my dreams to come and take me away?
Promises are made to be broken. …
I guess this is a lesson that is messing with my mind.
I got to be leaving. ’Cause for your love I’m blind.
I’ll be steppin’ ’cause I won’t be hurt this time.
Clearly she is writing about a lost love. But for me, I chose to take this as a metaphor for a condition of life that we have long longed for, like “freedom, justice and equality,” or even “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” For me “the man of our dreams” is a metaphor for a messianic leader. You know, like someone that can lead us to the Promised Land. But looking back over our sojourn in this land, we should have learned this “lesson that has been messing with our minds.”
She goes on to express what she plans to do about her unrequited love. And continuing with the metaphor: It takes extraordinary insight to realize that you have been or are blinded by a concept, or something you believe in, that you hold dear. And it takes even more extraordinary inner strength to conjure up the fortitude to leave, or alter your course of action, in order to achieve your desired vision.
And furthermore, it is folly to expect a “man of our dreams to come and take us away,” let alone wait for it. If we want to venture into the Promised Land we will have to show some initiative ourselves. If we don’t want to continue to be hurt, we will have to step (move) out on our own (or as Janet Jackson intimated, we need to take “control”).
• • •
In a sense, this is the sentiment
and mindset that led us to establish the
World Of Our Dreams | Prelude | [1] | [2] | [3] | [4] | [Interlude] | [5] | [6] | [7] | [Postlude]