Placed In History

Upon arrival, it was hard to say how I felt.

The taste, the touch and the scent I smelt,

Like liberation and freedom from the “ruler’s” spell. \ .

A sense of history was placed upon me—

An overwhelming sense of spiritual salvation

Accompanied by the almighty empowerment of the people.

On this island isolated from the wicked intention,

The youth could embrace teachings of higher dimension.

And overall influence the prevention

Of the unruly world’s way of apprehension.

Accompanying Statement to Poem

This excerpt is a poetic expression of the field trip to the Penn Center.  Upon arrival I did not know how I felt, it was unfathomable to be on this island—in fact, an island I never heard of.  How could such a prosperous establishment not be more recognized?  Within this establish remained the relics of past African American life, from old cabins to the tools used to build these old cabins.  Photographs of past Penn Center faculty, staff and students left haunting, surreal impressions of the struggle upon my mind.  It took isolation, upon an arrival, to achieve education standards amongst the African American youth.  Religious devotion also aided in the success of the Penn Center establishment.  With this knowledge of spirituality within the Penn Center grounds, it was hard to deny the presence of something almighty, something that intended to educate, possible, while protecting the sanctity of the Penn Center.  I could only help but feel a sense of community, while on this field trip with fellow classmates.  The sense of solidarity and community was immortalized when all classmates joined together for a photograph staged outside of the cabin MLK Jr. resided.  All classmates joined in the name of equality, and the inquisition to our nation’s history.   Here we were joined and placed in history, a history that could not have been capable without the presence and impact of the Penn Center.

The Penn Center was the first freedman school to be established that began as an experiment to see if African Americans could actually be educated. There are several similarities between the beginnings of African American education and contemporary issues. First of all, there were separate schools. Even though they wanted to see if blacks could be educated, they did not want them in their current white schools so they created a whole different school for them. This is very similar to the “separate but equal” schools that were established during times of segregation. The schools were not necessarily equal because it seemed as if the white schools were usually more updated and all around a better learning space. Early black schools were very small and probably not as nice as some of the white schools. The Penn Center’s pictures of the early cabin in which they were taught indicated that there was not that much space for learning and they were on a very limited budget.

The Penn Center also eventually started teaching skills such as agriculture, carpentry, cobbling, and other fields which could help the locals obtain jobs. This type of schooling is similar to future African American colleges that teach the industrial arts such as the Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes.  The Penn Center developing such a curriculum as well as the establishment of other black colleges were big accomplishments for African American education.

The Penn Center has such a rich sense of African American culture as well as a proud educational history. It is astonishing that it began during the civil war and still exists today to celebrate African American culture and history. There is such a positive feeling associated with the Penn Center where as many colleges, especially with historical campuses do not celebrate the importance of African American history like the Penn Center. Many times they ignore the slavery that assisted in building the campuses as well as the first African Americans that attended those colleges. Often times, African Americans are the minorities at the colleges and they often times feel more disconnected to the campus than other students. Even in modern times, African Americans still deal with racial issues regarding education.

Many schools still deal with segregation that was present during the beginning of African American schools. As urban development continues to grow, there becomes an income divide among neighborhoods, which affects the school districts. Areas that are primarily low income, African Americans, often get stuck with inadequate schools for their children. This is a serious educational problem that shows hints of old issues we thought were had already crossed over.

I chose to pair the photos of The Penn School with famous quotes about freedom and education. I decided to do this because they are the foundation of what The Penn School was, and the legacy it holds. The song I put behind the video is called “Toast to Freedom.” This song was written by nearly 50 artists and is dedicated to human rights activism around the world. While it was written from Amnesty internationals 50^th anniversary I thought it was very appropriate for the message that the Penn Center holds. “Toast to Freedom,” supports human rights for all and The Penn School is an institution that was one of the first stepping-stones for the rights and education of slaves.

19 buildings and structures on each side,

first formal school in the South

founded in 1862,

by Ellen Murray and Laura Towne

It started as a public school,

to provide formal education to freed slaves.

The first students were 9 adults,

which later would expand.

Ellen Murray and Laura Towne were Northern Missionaries,

volunteers, not getting paid for their work.

Ms. Towne called her favorite students “pets,”

I guess to them, it didn’t hurt.

Held at the Union Headquarters,

this school became a big deal.

More and more people heard about it,

and soon the first Penn School House would appear.

Three mobile homes were purchased,

placed side by side.

Penn School House is now in session

on St. Helena Island.

Students would row their boats to school,

with lunch pails by their sides.

Remember, the school has gotten much bigger,

so little children were down to ride.

Volunteers still teaching the students,

under harsh conditions in the weather.

From mosquitoes and hotness, to fever,

many volunteers didn’t make it.

As more students began to enroll,

the federal government couldn’t fund them anymore.

So the students had to pay tuition,

by roaming campus, doing mini chores.

Uniforms became mandatory

and students were taught reading, writing, and math.

But as the school got bigger, and more students enrolled,

the subjects expanded to industrial trades and crafts.

From sewing classes to sweet grass basket weaving,

from black smith classes, to garden digging.

From ironing, to carpentry,

the students were well rounded in learning.

Then soon, in 1948, Penn Center closed it’s doors as a private school,

because public schools were starting to take over.

Many students were dropping out,

because they couldn’t afford it anymore.

Later, Penn School became a mantle of social justice,

teaching people how to be successful.

Educating people on Civil Rights,

still maintaining the Gullah heritage.

Accompanying Statement to Poem

The Penn Center was the first formal academic school in the South, originally built to provide a formal education to former West African Slaves.  Penn Center later became more of a mantle of social justice, teaching people many things, and was one of the few places at the time where multiracial audiences felt safe.  Although the Penn Center has closed it’s doors as a private school, it’s heritage is still strong, as Penn Center has become the first African American site in South Carolina  whose primary purpose was to safeguard the heritage of Gullah Communities.

Located on St. Helena Island, one of the most beautiful and historically distinct of the South Carolina Sea Islands, Penn Center sits at the heart of Gullah culture, on the 50 acres of the historical campus of Penn School. Penn Center revealed where my struggle for education as an African American female began. This center is a place where many freed slaves and their descendants could cultivate a better future. Many of my former ancestors have gone to these schools and helped cultivate a better future for me through education. Through this type of resistance freedman came from the oppression of being labeled ignorant imbeciles to being self-sufficient with the ability to use this new agency to promote higher learning in this new structure of society. This provided African Americans the pathway to fight for equality in education.

Human agency is a collective, historical dynamic, rather than a function arising out of individual behavior. Through this cooperative action of the freedman, historically all African Americans benefitted from a free education that is moving African Americans to form bigger and better agencies for themselves. No longer can denial of knowledge keep African Americans oppressed and powerless. Because of these experiences and the perceptions held by the freedman of that time , the circumstances of that environment, and the positions they were born in they helped us create a new agency for ourselves that includes better housing, jobs, even better educations, better farming, and all around lifestyle.

Before the emancipation there first had to be an education

It started as an experiment that grew into an establishment

Abandoned slaves without a place to call home

were left out in a dangerous world to roam

Because of the Penn center because of every one of the mentors

freedmen were now prepared for a world they could reenter

We can read and We can earn

The tables, yes, We can turn

We wield the tools of knowledge

to now fight back against our bondage

The white man will need me

and that was straight from Booker T.

Never take away my identity

it is who I am it is part of me

Do not forget the Gullah

and Never drown out my Geechee

This sea island is my community

I will preserve it and protect it

Never allow it to be neglected

Penn Center was a producer

of a brighter and hopeful future.

Accompanying Statement to Poem

At first I wanted to do the photo collage for this project, but I thought about it after the trip and felt that I could possibly write something semi­poetic explaining what the Penn Center was and what they did. The Penn Center is one of the most significant African American educational institutions in our history. It was founded as an experiment to see if freed slaves from the sea islands around Port Royal, which had previously been occupied by Union soldiers from the Civil War, could learn to read and write and gain necessary skills in order to cope with newly freed life. The school eventually adopted Booker T. Washington’s model of industrial training where freedmen could learn skills in order to make a living for themselves and money to take care of their families. There was a quote from Booker T. Washington that I really liked so I wanted to incorporate some of it into the poem. He was referring to how he wanted to push freed slaves to the greatest of their potential and that the white man would suffer without their knowledge and skill set. This is the quote: “so skilled in hand, so strong in head, so honest in heart, that the Southern white man cannot do without them.” After Penn Center ceased to be a school it became the center for community services. Penn Center became a meeting place for groups such as the Peace Corps, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Conscientious Objector Programs, and Martin Luther King Jr. in order to have training and strategic planning in a safe and protected environment during the Civil Rights Movement. Penn Center was an agency for teaching self sufficiency and for preserving the local culture and community of the sea island. I wrote about not forgetting the Gullah because these are traditions that are becoming bogged down because of constant increase of tourists and the building of resorts on the sea islands that threaten land that has been owned by Gullah families since emancipation. Penn Center has remained an extremely important agency for supporting and keeping the Gullah culture alive. The Gullah culture has become a symbol for African American cultural pride throughout the United States. It is crucial that it remains alive and well in order to continue a “brighter and hopeful” future. It instills unity and pride between black communities throughout the country and that should remain to be protected and encouraged.