(Modern day Garrison, Kansas City Star, 2018)
Uncovering the Story
Process Paper & Annotated Bibliography
Process Paper
“Garrison’s legacy will always be one of educating.”
Shelton Ponder
Shelton Ponder
Last year, I had a wonderful NHD experience doing a foreign topic, focused on World War II in France. This year, I decided to try something new. I thought that pursuing a local topic would help me become more involved in my community. Little did I know how many untold stories I would discover. Because of NHD, I have had beautiful conversations with incredible people. Because of Garrison School, I am a part of Liberty in a way I never have been before. I was given the opportunity to present my website at a Garrison School event, which was a great honor to me. The Garrison community has embraced me in ways I could not have imagined previously.
I conducted my research in a number of ways. I traveled to a library which had a vast collection of Missouri-centered primary sources for me to pursue. I ended up copying a dissertation as well as a large stack of newspaper articles and photos. I visited the Clay County Archives to find primary sources. I also visited the Liberty school district archives to peruse the school board records. After that, I did as much digging as I could online, but the time came to talk to someone involved in Garrison School. I figured that would be the best way to find out what the school was like. I interviewed Shelton Ponder on February 2nd, 2019. We recorded this conversation so I could use the clips in my website. This conversation was amazing. Speaking to someone older and wiser than me, who had been through so much, shaped the way I see the world. Despite facing such tragedies as segregation, something unimaginable to me, he recalled his childhood with only joy.
I chose website because I thought it would be the best way to tell Garrison’s story in an engaging way. As you explore my website, you can interact with different clips, photos, and quotes as you see fit. This story of Garrison is shaped by you. It’s up to you to discover the story at your own pace. Using my website as a cornerstone, you can discover something new.
My topic relates to the theme in several ways. School segregation was tragic because African-American schools were, despite Plessy v. Ferguson’s ruling, unequal to white schools, and children were forbidden the opportunity to learn from others different from themselves. In addition, when an extremely qualified headmaster, Clarence Gantt, left Garrison due to integration, he was relegated to the position of study hall monitor. There is triumph in this too, however. Garrison may have only had cast-offs for textbooks, but they overcame that and even transcended it. Students at Garrison learned much more than math and grammar. They learned how to be respectful, kind, giving, intelligent “citizens of the world.” The world needs people like these. The world needs more schools like Garrison. Despite every challenge of racism and segregation, Garrison School ultimately triumphed, because it did what it needed to do: Garrison educated.
Annotated Bibliography
annotated_bibliography__2_.pdf | |
File Size: | 216 kb |
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