Using Your Voice
A Conversation with Michael G Long
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Reading the Map
I was interviewed this past week, and the question of what I want to do next with my life came up. I kind of fumbled my answer because in truth, I haven’t given much thought to the edge of the horizon lately.
I have spent this past year, I’m sure like many of you, just trying to navigate the immediate road in front of me. It’s been a bit like driving in a heavy rainstorm. So much has changed for me and my family, and so much remains unknown, that I could only focus on what was just over my dashboard, so to speak, and give my attention to the yellow dashes on the road as they passed without really thinking about where I was going.
Now that the storm clouds of COVID seem to be clearing, it feels like a good time to pull over and look at the map for a little bit. It’s time to start thinking about where I’m headed and the best way to get there.
I still don’t have the specifics of my destination mapped out. Will it be another TV show? Will it be this podcast? Will I work for myself or will I have a boss of some kind?
The more I think about it though, I know in the big picture sense that I want to find a way to use my talents and skills to be of service to others. That might mean teaching them a new skill in some way (or connecting them to a good teacher), it might mean inspiring them to try a new craft, but I want to find a way to make an impact on this world and bring people joy.
This is not a new feeling per se, but it is one that has been on my mind over the last year or so. I have taken a lot of inspiration from the political and social movements of this time, plus the good work that folks have done to selflessly fight COVID.
Those feelings were amplified even more by talking to this week’s guest, Michael G Long, who has spent his career studying and chronicling those who bring about positive change in our world.
Episode 79- Michael G Long
Michael G Long has studied nonviolent protest movements and has written books on important figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, and Bayard Rustin, who organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. His latest book Kids on the March looks at the role that kids have played in protest movements, going back to the early 20th century right through the protests after the death of George Floyd last summer.
The book is written for older kids, although I learned a lot from it as an adult. I was curious why he chose to focus this work on children, both as subjects and as readers:
“One of the best things about conducting this type of research is that I get to look at historic photos, in the hundreds and thousands. I would always see kids in some of these photos, they would be on the margins of the photos. I always wondered what their stories were. What were they doing there? How did they get there? Were they part of the protest? And so these questions kept bubbling up for me.”
Michael found that often when kids are leading the charge, as they did with movements like the March for Our Lives, they bring a different energy to a movement that can help propel their goals:
“The beauty of youthful activists and young activists is that they have a purity of cause that so many of us don’t have. Many of us who are adults have been through the ringer and we are so ready to compromise sometimes, just so that we can take that first small step. And some of the beauty of the kids who come into these protests and who lead them is they have a purity of cause and they say Darn it, no, we’re not going to back down.”
While sometimes students can accomplish a lot by stubbornly fighting for their beliefs, Michael also uses examples that show the importance of compromise. One that he cites is the story of Barbara Johns, a high schooler in Farmville, Virginia that petitioned the school board for a new school building for Black children (at the time, Virginia schools were segregated by race). Eventually, she attracted the attention of the NAACP, but they were only interested in helping her if she agreed to fight for school integration, which they saw as the only way to ensure true equality in education. She agreed to go that route, and became part of a series of lawsuits that were decided in the landmark Supreme Court Case Brown vs Board of Education:
“Barbara Johns, a kid at the time, is smart enough and flexible enough to adjust. So I hope kids will see her example as an example of the need to adjust and to be flexible, and sometimes to rely on adults as well. And the story ends great, when the Supreme Court decides that segregation in public schools in unconstitutional, and part of that case is Barbara John’s case.”
Michael also isn’t afraid to show times that student activists have failed or come up short of their goal:
“I want them to know that they stand in a line, in a tradition, of a lot of people who experienced the same thing, and who helped us to get to a point where we are today in terms of peace and justice, but had no idea we would be where we are today. So I want them to realize that they stand in this great stream of protest from U.S. history. Some of it succeeded, some of it didn’t, some of it took a long time to succeed.”
It can be easy to become jaded and wonder if protests and speaking out really make an impact, but judging by the examples in the book, they can work, even if they take a while. Michael helped give some perspective on this:
“When we look at protest history, people end up usually saying we really haven’t moved the needle very far. But I go back to John Lewis, and John Lewis often said that we’ve come a long way. And he knew better than anybody else in the Black protest movement. He knew that the country had made significant progress on issues of race, but he also knew, from the Black Lives Matter movement alone and from cases like Trayvon Martin and so forth, that the country still has a long ways to go. So he straddled that protest history by saying Look how far we’ve come, let’s have hope, let’s be optimistic that we can go a long way again.”
Kids on the March is a really fantastic book. My second grade daughter is still a little young for it, but I want her to read it closer to fifth grade or so. If you have a middle or high schooler at home, I highly recommend checking it out. And take a listen to the full interview too.
What’s Coming…
I have a new show coming on Thursday, but it’s going to be a surprise for now. I have two potential episodes that would both be good, but I’m trying to still decide which I want to run first. If you’re subscribed to the podcast in your favorite podcast app, you’ll be the first to know on Thursday morning!
If you have questions, comments, thoughts, ideas, or anything else that you’d like to share, please feel free to email me anytime: hracela@mac.com
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Stay Safe!
Heath