Mission Statement Chowan University is proud to present The Brown Lady 2013, a new and exciting academic and creative publication. These pages bring together the best work of students exploring a range of disciplines in their chosen fields—everything from creative work in the visual arts, creative writing (prose and poetry), and music performance, to academic pursuits represented by undergraduate and graduate-level papers focused on politics, history, technology, and science. As a whole, The Brown Lady 2013 explores ideas of educational and racial identity, justice, freedom and the value of creative expression within a free society. We too are part of that free society, and more than any other value, we hold that openness of expression near and dear to The Brown Lady’s heart. We are this publication, and we hope you will embrace it too, enjoy its endeavors that reflect the hard work of students seeking to exceed beyond their daily work, and excel with a truly academic and creative flair.
Dr. Matt Fullerty, Assistant Professor of English Creative Writing Chowan University, April 2013
Editorial Board
Nancy Altstatt English Major
Jennifer Groves Assistant Professor of Graphic Communication
David Ballew Associate Professor of History
Emily Isaacson Assistant Professor of English
William Bradley Assistant Professor of English
John Lohman History Major
Lindsay Brook English Major
Danny Moore Professor of History
Jordan Burland Religion and Mathematics Major
Michale Siverio Elementary Education Major
Victor Chilaka English Major
Brittanie Smith Graphic Communication Major
Anna Freeman Assistant Professor of Art
Tracie Stith Graphic Design Major
Matthew Fullerty Assistant Professor of English
Ken Wolfskill Professor of English
Table of Contents Prose Deadlines by André Barnes . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Escape by Lindsay Brook. . . . . . . . . . . . 6 What is Black? by Alegrea Robinson. . . . . . . . . 8
V isual Art Golden Eagle by Macaulay Chilaka, Jr.. . . . . . . . 13 The Great One by Macaulay Chilaka, Jr. . . . . . . . 14 Skeleton by Thirsala Wiggins . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Unspoken Passion by Thirsala Wiggins. . . . . . . . 16 Alan from The Hangover by Gatlin Williams. . . . . . 17 My Fair Lady Poster by Gatlin Williams. . . . . . . . 18 Renewal by Hailee Williams . . . . . . . . . . .
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Not the End by Hailee Williams. . . . . . . . . . 20
Poetry Free Will by Nancy Altstatt. . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Substance by Nancy Altstatt . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Benediction/Malediction by Robert Glenn Armstrong . . 25 Jockey’s Ridge by Robert Glenn Armstrong. . . . . . 26 Experience by Angelica Satchell . . . . . . . . . . 27 Majestic by Sarah-Maribeth Van Roy . . . . . . . . 29
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Table of Contents
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Chowan U niversity Student Research Conference W inners Graduate Paper Presentation, Karen Spain Out of Balance: STEM Education vs. President Obama’s Educational Agenda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Undergraduate Paper Presentation, Jake Thorton Every Man a King, But He Wore the Crown: Huey Long and His Impact on the South. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Poster Presentation, Bethany Mallory Pheromone Effects on Locomotor Activity in Guppies. . .
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Visual Art Presentation, Brittney Moser Inferiority/Superiority Complex. . . . . . . . . . . 50 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. . . . . . . . . . .
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Introverted/Extroverted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Introverted Wish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Cognitive Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Music Presentation, Alex Welch Apoptosis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Prose Deadlines by AndrĂŠ Barnes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Escape by Lindsay Brook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
What is Black? by Alegrea Robinson. . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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Deadlines
André Barnes
I remember getting ready for church when I was young. My father was a pastor, and the routine was always the same. We would wake up at about 6:30 on Sunday morning. We washed our faces and brushed our teeth. My sister and I helped Mom make breakfast, and we’d all join hands for family prayer just before eating. We would lounge around for another half-hour or so, then jump-start the morning at a breakneck pace. As soon as the post-breakfast lounging was over, the atmosphere became tense, rushed, and uncomfortable. There were clothes to pick out and iron, socks to find, and hair to be cut, brushed, or styled at the last minute. There were showers to be taken, dishes to be cleaned, and it all had to happen in a span of about twenty to thirty minutes. My father would load us all up in the car and speed all the way to church. The rationale for all the hurrying was that we were on a deadline. Things have always seemed less pressing to me than they have been to others. I’ve hardly ever felt a personal need to rush. That urge is usually a simple compliance to the time frames of others. For my part, I’ve always enjoyed living my life as naturally as possible. When I look around at the natural world, I seldom see much rushing. Plants and animals seem to have found a way to conduct their business in a fairly leisurely manner. I cannot recall ever having seen a flower trying to bloom in five minutes or a bird weaving back and forth through the sky, speeding through air traffic. We humans are the only ones who feel the need to hurry through our lives. We even attempt to speed our children through theirs. Ask any parent at what age their children walked or talked. Their eyes will twinkle, their chests will swell, and they’ll proudly announce that their children always developed a bit sooner than most. We are always happy to see those milestones. We are always eager to meet those deadlines. I think the reason the natural world does not hurry is because it knows instinctively that we are all headed toward the same destination. The finish line for each of us is death. In the natural world, it does not matter how quickly you run the race. You simply follow the course of your life until the end. Society tells us, however, that the faster we go, the better off we are. The more deadlines we meet, the more productive and significant our lives have been. Is this really true? Are our lives simply a quotient, the result of the equation: achievement divided by time required? Can our existence truly be defined as the sum of deadlines met? What a morbid yet fitting name for the milestone markers of a death race: deadlines. Each one brings us closer to the end of our lives, and the faster we live, the sooner we die. I would much rather live my life slowly enough to enjoy it. In fact, enjoying it is not enough. I want to savor it. I want each pleasant moment, every simple and genuine smile to linger on my breath like peppermint. I want to give the tender little moments adequate time to develop their full flavor. I want to taste the beautiful, lifechanging events so strongly that they need to be washed down with a long, slow sip of calmness. I do not want to run to the finish line. I do not care to meet the deadlines. I want to breathe, to blink, to let my heart beat out a slow, steady rhythm. I want to live.
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The Escape Lindsay Brook
I crouched low, with my face pressed close to the rough stone of the castle walls. My boots made little noise as I shifted to take a quick look at the watchtower high overhead. The guards were making their rounds and I was shaking with energy waiting for the opportunity to run. In my white knuckled grip was my only protection, a small sword that would be of little help against the guards’ long bows. Weeks before I had been living my life on the outskirts of the Kingdom. I grew up an orphan and spent my days scavenging for survival. The land was ruled by the evil Queen Maria. Queen Maria was feared by everyone and spoken about only in whispers. It was said she could hear all, and it was believed by many that she was a witch. Queen Maria ruled all and none dared question her. She hungered for power and was not concerned for the welfare of her people. I couldn’t tell you how I had come to be sitting in the dark and dampness of the dungeons, but I knew that somehow I had upset the irrational power-crazed Queen. I lay there in the cold, surrounded in blackness. The only sign of life was the distant moaning of those who had lost touch with reality. Behind me I could feel Rachel’s hot breath on my neck as she nervously crouched alongside me, waiting for my signal. She and I had banded together in the depth of those dungeons, refusing to let that be our fate. We had conjured up a plan of escape and now we were about to fulfill the final stage. We crouched with our backs against the castle walls. Ahead there was nothing but an overgrown field of high grass and then a tall evergreen forest looming beyond. We were so close to our freedom we could taste it. All we needed was to reach the safety of the forest and get ourselves lost in the trees. I took another daring glance at the watchtower above and tightened my grip on the stolen sword. It felt good to have metal in my hand, even if I had no idea how to use the deadly weapon. In that glimpse I saw no guard and my heart leaped, for our escape from the evil Queen was almost complete. Knowing that I couldn’t wait much longer, I left it to chance and gave the signal. Leaping to my feet I dashed out into the open with Rachel at my heels. The wind blew through my hair sending it streaming out behind me, my jacket flapping with every stride that carried me closer to freedom. With adrenalin pumping through my body, Rachel and I raced toward the forest. As we got about halfway I allowed myself to hope. That hope began to build and swell in my chest as the forest edge grew nearer. I was beginning to think we might just make it. The blast from the watchtower horn seemed to sear me straight to the bone. My footsteps faltered and Rachel threw out her arm to keep me from falling. We heard shouts from the guards above. “They are escaping!” one yelled. “After them!,” another shouted. Just as we dashed past the first line of trees, we heard the distant barking of the Queen’s hunting dogs. They would be close on our trail soon enough. My fingers tightened around the hilt of 6
The Escape Lindsay Brook the sword as my heart sank and the hope for freedom began to vanish. We aren’t going to make it. And with that thought the first arrow zoomed past my ear. * “Girls! Dinner’s ready!” My mother’s shout cut through the yard. My imaginary world was shattered and I snapped back into the reality of my back yard. The sword in my hand fell away becoming nothing but a stick. I looked back at the castle walls that now stood at a wimpy three feet tall, becoming yet again the simple stone property boundaries of our six acre lot. Overhead the watchtower that had just loomed dangerously shrank back down to be my family tree fort. The forest that my imaginary friend Rachel and I had just run into was nothing but my mom’s lilac bushes. I turned and watched as my older sister clambered down the ladder of the tree fort. “Next time I get to be the good guy!” she declared as she effortlessly plopped to the ground a little ways from me. She was dressed in a long green gown that we used when we played dress up. “But you always get to be the hero!” I whined. “Come on this is the first time in FOR-EV-ER that you let me have the cool part!” “Not uh!” she flung back at me. “Yeah huuhh!” I threw back. We continued arguing as we walked into the house. “Girls! That’s enough! Shoes off! Wash your hands and get rid of the costumes! Be quick about it, dinner is getting cold!” My mom shouted orders as we walked into the kitchen and settled in for dinner. It was clear the adventure of the day was over. My sister and I washed up, and the family gathered for dinner. Maybe tomorrow there would be time for another adventure.
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What is Black ? Alegrea Robinson
Black is power. Black is beauty. Black is negative space. Black is the absorption of all colors. Black is the color of the light that makes white shine bright. Black is the color of the night sky. Black is the way some people take their coffee. Black is the color of piano keys. Black is the color of tattoos ancestral and modern. Black is the color of the pupil. Black is the color of charred wood. Black is deadly. Black is sinister. Black is threatening. Black is dark. Black is evil. Black is somber. Black is gloomy. Black is filthy. Black is dirty. Black is soiled. Black is the color of soot. Black is the color of the face of performers who assume the role of African Americans. Black is the color of lawn ornaments with big noses and big red lips. Black is the box I check on tests, applications, and internet forms. We are brown skinned, but black. Black is an insult to those with darker skin. “Damn he/she is black.” “You so black, your cheeks are purple.” “You’re so black your teacher counted you absent in night school.” Black is why I felt my first heartbreak. A new boy joined our class in the fourth grade. His name was Brandon. He had brown hair cut in the shape of an upside down bowl. He was chubby and had a gap in the front of his mouth. He constantly quoted Smoky from the movie Friday. I was in love with him. I snuck a note in his locker that asked him if he liked me. It was on a half-sheet of notebook paper, and had boxes to check yes or no. He never got it. It fell out of his locker and landed in front of my sister’s. She brought it home and shared it with everyone else. I was so embarrassed I went outside by myself and cried on the trampoline. I continued to like him. I cheered in the same rec football league that he played on. I cheered extra hard when he was on the field. Once we got to middle school the attraction was still just as strong. I wrote a longer letter letting him know how I felt. He wrote a letter back letting me know that he couldn’t date me because his dad wouldn’t allow him to date a black girl. Black is why I spent a bus ride staring out a bus window quietly sobbing, trying not to be heard. I learned more about life on that middle school field trip than I did about the forest we went to go see. Some other kids started playing spin the bottle on the bus ride home. The game went on for awhile. My best friend at the time was a white girl, and she was playing. She slid from seat to seat kissing whoever the bottle landed on. The stakes of the game advanced to the point where people were kissing until they swapped gum between mouths. I sat with my head up against the window confused and hurt. I wasn’t into kissing yet, but I would have played had they not excluded me from the game. No one wanted to kiss the black girl. Black is the identity I lost when I was in high school. I was in all the honors and AP classes that interested me or that were suggested by teachers. I dated white boys and I listened to alternative, pop rock, and country music. The genres that my peers considered “white music.” To my white classmates, I was confused—brown skinned with “white” tendencies. They created a nickname for me. They called me a “blackasian” a combination of the words black and Caucasian. I was called an Oreo, black on the outside, white on the inside. 8
What is Black? Alegrea Robinson Black is loud. Black is rap. Black is arrogant. Black is an attitude. Black is violent. Black is rude. Black is the hood. Black is ghetto. Black is the projects. Black is welfare. Black is uneducated. Black is unmotivated. Black is jobless. Black is rape. Black is the crack cocaine fiend scratching as they walk down the pavement. Black is the drug dealer on the corner. Black is the man walking down the street that is going to rob you for your wallet or purse. Black is the fight. Black is gun sounds. Black is police tape. Black is the majority of men in prison. Black is the face performers use to portray African Americans. Black is what I am not. My college roommate told me she was “blacker” than I am. She listens to rap and R&B and knows a lot of the slang and phrases floating around in the black community. She’s a white girl who has lived in the suburbs all her life. She starts off a conversation about black people with the phrase “I’m not racist, but . . .” Black is what I’ve never been. I called my brother on the phone and he asked “Why you sound so much like a white girl?” The black guys in my high school would say, “Man you are so white.” My junior year in high school a black guy in my class told me “You don’t count, you’re white.” On the bus I was told “You couldn’t make it in the hood, you’re too white.” My voice is high pitched and I have a strong accent that people frequently call a Southern drawl. “You sound white.” “You talk white.” “You’re too smart to be black.” These are all things I’ve been told because I rarely used slang or even knew the latest words and phrases. Black is more than a color. Black isn’t a personality. It isn’t a dress, a style, or music. Black isn’t a piece of clothing that can be picked up and tried on and taken off just as easily. Black is the heritage of an African-born race. Black is the historical oppression, segregation, and degradation of that race. Black is the face performers use to portray African Americans.
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V isual Art Golden Eagle by Macaulay Chilaka, Jr.. . . . . . . . . . 13
The Great One by Macaulay Chilaka, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . 14
Skeleton by Thirsala Wiggins. . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Unspoken Passion by Thirsala Wiggins. . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Allen from The Hangover by Gatlin Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
My Fair Lady Poster by Gatlin Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Renewal by Hailee Williams. . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Not the End by Hailee Williams. . . . . . . . . . . . 20 11
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Golden Eagle
Macaulay Chilaka, Jr. Pen & Ink
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The Great One
Macaulay Chilaka, Jr. Pen & Ink
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Skeleton
Thirsala Wiggins Charcoal
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Unspoken Passion
Thirsala Wiggins Oil Pastel
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Renewal
Hailee Williams Digital Photograph
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Not the End
Hailee Williams Digital Photograph
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Poetry Free Will by Nancy Altstatt. . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Substance by Nancy Altstatt. . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Benediction/Malediction by Robert Glenn Armstrong. . . . . . . 25
Jockey’s Ridge by Robert Glenn Armstrong. . . . . . . 26
Experience by Angelica Satchell . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Majestic by Sarah-Maribeth Van Roy. . . . . . . . 29
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Free Will Nancy Altstatt
Tapered sky, release your spell Cat-women fly to their rooftops Screaming with delight. Frigid dreams, the beast revealed I didn’t start your candy war. Soot-stained alters No one is kneeling Crimson veils to cover doubt Corners moving, steps in protest Striking all that come too close Towering walls with blood graffiti Trimmed with shadows lost in lives. My identity lies behind them Too disturbed to even care Pornographic dolls of love Reaching out to touch my fear I reach back and slap their message Strive to find my own high point. They were never friends to start with Only purring, distant prey I hear their echoes still beneath me Only visions capped in blue Red and waiting Hollow breathing, with shapes unsure.
I collect a row of flowers And lay them where my pity died Taking flight to join my listeners. I am now a squealer too Never trapped, engulfed in twilight Over mountains, trees, and you.
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Substance Nancy Altstatt
Words dripped suddenly from my mind To the pages like my pen was alive. The words flowed and traded places As if they were doing a midnight waltz Across my page. They just kept calling out to me, Forming and pulsing like another Heartbeat thumping through my brain. I urged the words to come With my rapid enthusiasm. They were like therapy, A vernacular medicine that only I and the pages could interpret. But all things must end and The mighty words could not overcome The heaviness behind my eyes. They had to succumb to the gift of rest And drifted up to take their place Among my dreams, always near, Lurking about behind each corner, Waiting for an opportunity To once again be free.
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Benediction / Malediction
Robert Glenn Armstrong
I. Why should I endeavor to be happy, joyous, and free? That is unknown. Why not just stay right here? Tethered to my anxiety, doubt, resentments, self-loathing, and iniquities? I’m comfortable. I’ve had a moment of clarity. Wiped away some grime and this is what I see. Dystopic squalor and bedlam, vulgarity and vice that I am accustomed to. I covet my anguish and suffering, treading the left hand path. It is familiar. I am home. II. Bound to my multifarious and tangled-up personality. Escape from the mundane to the exoticism of strange lands Flight to far off places
makes no difference. Nothing for me at Beth-el, no ladder to ascend, only a stone to lay my head. Nothing for me at Delphi, withered hags w/ pendulous breast and hollow prophecies. The Chinese opium den in Lawrence, KS. Baudelaire-ian assassins dwell here, obscured in dense hookah smoke of old vagabonds twirling and tossing their whiskers and yarrow sticks, machine gun chit-chattering round after round casting the I Ching, senseless portendings of tortoise shells and bird bones. Summited peaks, the air so rarefied it is suffocating. Novices and old widowers tithing to a crucified avatar, groveling for assumption, ascension, apotheosis. Initiates, dismayed, unable to find a single un-obscured path to the eight-fold.
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Jockey's Ridge Robert Glenn Armstrong
The hand of God manifest in the desolate and expansive landscape, starkly pastoral. Inhalations and exhalations of millennia of trade winds and lunar tides. All things in Heaven pirouetting, arcing and oscillating in a cosmic fugue. Cumulus accretions burned off to a wisp. Ascending the dunes, Dantes’ small hand in mine. Our shoes discarded at the base The Atlantic and the Sound on either side. At the top we slide back down on our asses, scooting along with our hands and elbows and scramble back up helter-skelter. Dante takes off his shirt, for a moment, I think “ momma’s gonna be upset if you get sunburned, if she were here...” and that thought is unfinished, my breath usurped. I marvel at my boy, his near naked flawlessness, My Dante, my Nemo, my Adonis. I’m out of breath. He runs along the ridge kicking up sand toward a group of co-eds tossing a football. 26
Introduces himself very proper. “I’m Dante,” and effusively “ This is my Daddy,” grasping my hand. “Can we play?” We toss the ball. Nothing else exists in these moments, only him and I, a father and son tossing a ball on the ridge. All of my insecurities, anxieties, and resentments just fall away, naked and unguarded as he. Later, walking back to the cars, carrying him, his small arms wrapped around my neck, our time together close to conclusion, a thousand things I want to tell him, to explain, and all I’m able to say is “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that I’m not there,” and falter; Dante’s mouth at my ear, his cheek pressed to mine, he tells me “I know Daddy. I love you.” Absolution from my six year old son. My stoicism relents for a tear and no more, for fear of upsetting him. I tighten my hold on him, hoist him further up my chest. His head rests on my shoulder.
Experience Angelica Satchell
Experience forms memories, Memories I carry throughout my life; Never leaving my mind. Remembering my dad and mom swinging me in a blanket, Until I got too big, And the blanket started ripping. Experience is talking back to my mother; Knowing she knows what is best for me, Knowing it was tough love. Mother telling me not to go out late on a Friday night because it wasn’t safe, My telling her to let me make my own decisions Disobeying her rules, knowing I was right and she was wrong. Experience is picking up on bad and unhealthy habits, Influenced by struggle in life I could not control; Trying to keep my head up when it felt heavy.
Biting my nails or shaking my right leg up and down, When I got nervous before a school presentation; Focusing on the positives during my hard and stressful times in math class. Experience pushed me back, Hurt me deeply, Which taught me knowledge from ignorance. Hanging out with the wrong crowd; Losing the ones that love me the most; Learning the hard way, which was the correct way. Experience is taking that leap of faith I never saw myself taking, But thanks to others, I’m glad I took it. Horrible at softball in the beginning, Not wanting to play. Now, holding the record for the most over the fence homeruns in a season at Varina Park.
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Experience Angelica Satchell Experience is listening to your elders, For they have become wise; The lessons they give are often not found in books. Messing up in grandma’s kitchen, Always adding the wrong spices, never using the right measurements; Having her to teach me again, telling me all the secrets her mom told her. Experience is seeing nature; Part of the world I never thought of seeing; Going places my personality doesn’t want to go. Going hiking up impossible hills in Germany; Through trails I didn’t want to meet; Attracting spiders that seemed to be attracted to my presence. Experience helped me make choices, Choices for my future; Opening my eyes, looking at what I want to do in life.
Psychology with a focus in counseling children. Experience shaped me, exposed me, taught me, Helped raise me, And that is what made me who I am today. If I didn’t learn it then, I wouldn’t know it now, And maybe, I wouldn’t know it later. Experience affects who I will be in future; Picking a graduate school that best fits me, then putting my knowledge to work, Getting married and sharing life with my family I desire to have. Hopefully going to Liberty or Virginia State University; Then working for a child’s counseling company, While spending time with my husband and eight kids.
Working with children for ten years, Helped me declare my major at Chowan University;
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Majestic
Sarah-Maribeth Van Roy
She stands so tall and straight in the clearing with the autumn sun shining through the trees behind her shadows playing a pattern on the ground around her. She holds her head high, shoulders even, ears perked, nose twitching slightly. She turns her head gracefully yet purposefully, never losing her majestic figure. She detects something unseen. Without warning she lets out a low grarf and bounds off after her invisible goal. She leaps over the brush tongue dangling from her open mouth. Twigs snap, leaves crunch, dirt flies as she rampages through the woods. All sense of majesty is lost replaced by pure puppy energy.
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Chowan University Student Research Conference Winners Graduate Paper Presentation, Karen Spain Out of Balance: STEM Education vs. President Obama’s Educational Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Undergraduate Paper Presentation, Jake Thorton Every Man a King, But He Wore the Crown: Huey Long and His Impact on the South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Poster Presentation, Bethany Mallory
Pheromone Effects on Locomotor Activity in Guppies. . . . . . . . . . 47
Visual Art Presentation, Brittney Moser
Inferiority/Superiority Complex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Introverted/Extroverted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Introverted Wish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Cognitive Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Music Presentation, Alex Welch
Apoptosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
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Out of Balance:
STEM Education vs. President Obama's Educational Agenda Karen Spain
Abstract This paper discusses the educational agenda set forth by the Obama Administration as proposed in the 2011 State of the Union address and how current practices in teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) do not reflect the goals of the administration. It is thought that STEM does not get the attention needed in the elementary grades because science is not a tested subject. Because of this lack of focus, students are not given the foundation needed to be successful in high school STEM courses. Therefore, young adults are not prepared for the jobs in the current economy; this will lead to students not being prepared for the jobs yet to be created. Integrated curriculum is an answer to this lack of balance. Findings from a review of published research will be presented to support the belief that integrating curriculum to make STEM subjects more of a focus in the elementary classroom. This practice will enable children to have authentic, real life experiences which are more memorable and applicable to their lives; children can make the connections of the “why� of it all. Keywords: STEM education, technology, integrated curriculum, highly qualified teachers, inquiry learning
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Out of Balance . . . Karen Spain
Out of Balance: STEM Education vs. President Obama’s Educational Agenda This paper discusses President Obama’s educational agenda regarding mathematics and science as presented in the 2011 State of the Union which was given on January 25, 2011. In this address, the President makes a case to invest more money into the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses. His reasoning for this is that America is falling behind in her standing as a leading world power. However, what we are finding is that STEM education is not getting the attention in our schools that is needed. Some speculate that this is because the sciences are not tested subjects in the elementary grades; therefore, the foundational principles are not being laid to provide the best outcomes in more advanced STEM courses. It has also been found that there are not enough highly qualified science and mathematics teachers to support better STEM education. Can integrating Mathematics and Science education help bring the President’s agenda into balance with the elementary school curriculum and help our students become more competitive learners and prepared to train for jobs that have yet to be created? Integrating the curriculum to allow STEM content to have more focus and attention will enable children to have authentic, real life experiences which are more memorable and applicable to their lives (Dewey, 1897); children can make the connections on the “why” of it all. President Obama’s Educational Agenda In the 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama discusses our country in terms of technological advances compared to other countries and how this is changing the global economy. He discusses how this has also changed the American job market. The competition for jobs is much different than it was 50 years ago and we need to have better skills than we had 50 years ago to be qualified for these new jobs. He states, “the rules have changed. In a single generation, revolutions in technology have transformed the way we live, work and do business” (Obama, 2011, para. 17). At the same time, countries like China and India have found how they can make use of new technologies by “educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on math and science” (Obama, 2011, para. 18) and they are “investing in research and new technologies” (Obama, 2011, para. 18). Americans need to make investments in the new technologies that will help us keep up with the changing world to keep our status as a world economic leader. President Obama has compared the era we are living in today to the Sputnik era and believes we need the same level of research, innovation and development to meet the needs of our country today regarding renewable energy. He also affirms that there is no way to predict what the next big industry will be so it is important that we continue to be innovative to stay on top of technological trends (Obama, 2011). Not only is President Obama placing an emphasis to promote STEM education within the school setting, he has also promoted and hosted events where learning takes place in these fields outside of the classroom such as an Astronomy Night in 2009 and most recently a science fair which were both held at the White House (Robelen, 2011a, 2011b). Regarding education, the President states, “if we want to win the future – if we want innovation to produce jobs in America and not overseas – then we also have to win the race to educate our kids” (Obama, 2011, para. 33). Because we do not know what the future holds in regard to industry, we need to prepare our children for jobs that perhaps haven’t even been created yet. But he warns that our challenge in doing this will be in that half of these jobs will require education beyond high school; 34
Out of Balance . . . Karen Spain however current trends report that one fourth of our students are not finishing high school. President Obama has made a commitment to invest in education, specifically STEM education. However a question still remains: what is the best course of action to accomplish these goals? Why Such a Need for Improvement? The quality of mathematics and science education in the United States is not a new concern. Experts in the field of STEM education have been trying to fix this problem for well over a decade. In 2005 the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) published a report and action plan to improve the quality of education in mathematics and science for all students, not just the elite. This improvement plan is nationwide; each state is responsible for determining its own standards and the process is collaborative state-to-state. Previous attempts have not been as comprehensive (BHEF, 2005). The emphasis is that high quality education in these areas needs to be accessible to all students, particularly those who have been underserved in the past who include girls and minorities. The BHEF (2005) reaffirms that this is how we are being left behind, “other countries not only have accepted this fact, but have acted upon it. They are busy constructing their own foundation of mathematics and science expertise upon which will rest their challenge to America’s leadership in innovation and its economic preeminence” (p. 5). If we begin to make a greater emphasis on the importance on mathematics and science education beginning in pre-kindergarten, and provide our children high-quality instruction, we will be making the first steps in improving the crisis we are in today (BHEF, 2005). The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) (2011) also agree that the development of common standards should be emphasized; they state: The government should support the effort to develop common standards in STEM subjects by providing financial and technical support to states for (i) rigorous, high-quality professional development aligned with shared standards, and (ii) the development, evaluation, administration, and ongoing improvement of assessments aligned to those standards (p. 34). It is not so much that little emphasis is placed on STEM education. However, this can be a contributing problem in states such as North Carolina where science education is not tested in the elementary school until fifth grade (DPI, n.d.). It has been found that the lack of highly qualified teachers has more of an impact on the quality of STEM education on our children (BHEF, 2011). Many of the students who do excel in STEM subjects simply do not want to become teachers (BHEF, 2011). These individuals would rather trade low pay, lack of advancement and poor working conditions for high salaries with growth potential and flexibility in decision making (BHEF, 2011). PCAST (2011) agree that our country has a desperate need for dedicated teachers in STEM subjects. They state, “schools often lack teachers who know how to teach science and math effectively, and who love their subject well enough to inspire their students. Teachers lack adequate support, including appropriate professional development as well as interesting and intriguing curricula” (PCAST, 2011, p. 33). The President is begging young people to consider a career as a teacher by stating, “In South Korea, teachers are known as ‘nation builders.’ Here in America, it’s time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect” (Obama, 2011, para. 39). Until teachers are paid their worth and given the respect they deserve, it is possible that our best and brightest will likely continue to choose other careers. 35
Out of Balance . . . Karen Spain
A Call to Action PCAST (2011) states two complimentary goals that we must focus on to improve STEM education. The first goal is to prepare all students to become proficient in STEM subjects and the second goal is that we, “must inspire all students to learn STEM and, in the process, motivate them to pursue STEM careers” (p. 34). How do we inspire and motivate our students? By using inquiry learning and authentic experiences, children can see how learning becomes relevant (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2009). Ornstein and Hunkins (2009) state, “Learning something should not be an end of learning…. what is learned should be related to other aspects of the subject and be general enough to apply in other situations” (p. 122). We need our students to understand math and science in a way that makes it real and applicable, not to be seen as boring stuff (Dewey, 1897). One important concept we need to consider is that the most memorable learning experiences can be ones that did not feel much like learning. As educators, we need to recognize the many opportunities where learning science can take place outside of the classroom, where children can get their hands dirty. Dewey (1897), a champion for children being active participants in learning, believes when this principle is ignored, we are wasting our time and energy. When students are not actively participating in their learning, “The conditions are such that he is not permitted to follow the law of his nature; the result is friction and waste” (Dewey, 1897, “Article Four. The Nature of Method”). This is a part of education that is often underestimated. We have many, “science-rich cultural institutions, such as zoos, aquariums, science centers, and natural history museums” (Robelen, 2011a, p. 1) where learning activities can take place. With a little pre-planning and creativity, children would gain a better appreciation for the experience for being a part of it rather than just reading about it or hearing about it in lecture. In the secondary grades, some schools are taking a different approach by developing community partnerships. Community-based organizations (CBOs) and non-government organizations (NGOs) are, “raising the quality and diversity of education from elementary schools to postsecondary institutions. Their goal is that more students and current workers will receive the training and education needed to keep their communities vital participants in the global economy” (Gordon, 2009, p.30). Some achieve this by creating a core curriculum of English, mathematics, science and history but in addition receive technical training relating to a local high-growth industry. Others choose an integrated curriculum of core subjects along with career specific training (Gordon, 2009). Conclusion President Obama has not discovered a new problem. He is using his position to bring to our awareness a problem that has been growing over time. The BHEF (2005) proposed a well thought out plan to begin solving the problem and the President appears to be in alignment with that plan of more highly-qualified teachers and better quality education aligned to common standards for all children. It is my hope that freedom and flexibility can be used in implementing those standards using best practice models so that children can have authentic learning experiences.
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Out of Balance . . . Karen Spain References Business-Higher Education Forum. (2005). A Commitment to America’s Future: Responding to the Crisis in Mathematics & Science Education. Washington, DC: Business-Higher Education Forum. Retrieved from www.bhef.com Dewey, J. (1897, January). My pedagogic creed. School Journal, 54. 77-80. Gordon, E. (2009). The future of jobs and careers. Techniques: Connecting Education and Careers, 84(6), 2831. Retrieved from acteonline.org Obama, B. (2011, January 25). State of the union. [Televised broadcast; transcript]. Retrieved from www.whitehouse.gov Ornstein, A. C., & Hunkins, F. P. (2009). Psychological Foundations of Curriculum. Curriculum: Foundations, principles, and issues (5th ed.) (pp. 107-148). Boston, MA: Pearson. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. (2011). K-12 science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for America’s future. Tech Directions, 70(6), 33-36. Retrieved from www.techdirections.com Public Schools of North Carolina: Department of Public Instruction (DPI). (n.d.). North Carolina end-ofgrade tests of science – grades 5 & 8. Retrieved from www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/ testing/eog/science/ Robelen, E. W. (2011a). Awareness grows of importance of learning science beyond school [Special report]. Education Week, 30(27). Retrieved from www.edweek.org Robelen, E. W. (2011b). Budget cuts raise questions about federal commitment to literacy. Education Week, 30(24). Retrieved from www.edweek.org
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Every Man A King, But He Wore the Crown: Huey Long and his Impact on the South Jake Thorton
The South has always produced its fair share of politicians. From Thomas Jefferson and George Washington of Virginia to Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, Southern politicians have made their mark at both the state and federal levels. This mark could very well be for good or ill, as several of these Southern politicians also have a reputation for corruption. But just as often, these politicians can bring hope and progress to help their constituents. Few politicians in the world, let alone the South, combined both aspects of corruption and progress like Huey P. Long, Jr. of Louisiana. Like many politicians, Huey Long was a complicated man with complicated motives. On one hand, he was very much a typical politician, trying to garner votes with ambitions for higher office and more power, not afraid to use any means necessary to achieve it. On the other, he put in place progressive measures for the poor people of Louisiana in his time in charge of the state, many which were picked up by other states in the South. Long’s popularity skyrocketed at the height of his political power from the late 1920s through the mid-1930s, making him not only the face of Louisiana, but in many ways the face of the South to the rest of the nation. He was the South’s most prominent figure, first helping to secure Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Democratic nomination and eventual presidential win in 1932, then speaking out against Roosevelt’s policies, before trying to drown out the very voice of the president with his own ideas. He gathered immediate attention with his antics and leather-lunged filibusters. His progress in Louisiana was soon emulated in other states, both southern and nationwide, causing paved roads and free textbooks for schoolchildren to become the rule rather than the exception. While his outstanding corruption and extremism earned him numerous enemies in political and high society circles, his work for the regular people of Louisiana and his eccentricities made him immensely popular with the masses. Whether he was providing free textbooks to schoolchildren, holding both offices of Governor of Louisiana and U.S. Senator at once, paving rural roads, employing countless friends and family members in government positions over political opponents, or entertaining foreign emissaries in green pajamas, Long was a particularly fascinating historical character. With so many sides to his character, it is difficult to delve into the mind of the truly eccentric, ambitious, and Southern, Kingfish of Louisiana. Long was born August 30, 1893 in Winn Parish, one of the parishes in Louisiana that opposed secession from the Union in the Civil War. Huey’s grandfather, John Long, did not even enlist in the Confederate Army because he felt resentment towards the rich planters whom he believed were responsible for the war.1 With this disconnection to the Confederate cause, it is worth mentioning that Huey was also one of the few Southern politicians who did not employ Lost Cause elements in his rise to power. Huey Long, Sr., John’s son and Huey, Jr.’s father, even bragged about voting for the Socialist 1 38
T. Harry Williams, Huey Long (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969), p. 11-15.
Every Man a King . . . Jake Thorton candidate Eugene V. Debs for president.2 This was the contrarian environment that Huey Long, Jr. grew up in; including what seems to be a family distaste for unequal distribution of wealth. Huey’s political career began even before he left high school. When he was in eleventh grade in 1910, he was embroiled in a struggle for power with the principal and faculty. He publicly disagreed with the teachers and principal, causing the principal to expel him. Long was not going to let something as small as an expulsion keep him from winning a political fight, and he wrote up a petition against the principal, which most of the citizens of Winnfield signed.3 The principal was fired, but Huey did not return to school to finish his education. He had bigger plans for himself. Long went out into the world to become a salesman, travelling all over the South. Eventually, he decided to go to college and law school. He wanted to become a lawyer as quickly as possible, which normally took three years of study at Tulane University’s Law School. He stayed for one year. When he felt that he had gathered enough knowledge to pass the bar exam, he went to the Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court and asked to be allowed to take the exam early, pleading that he was poor, married, and in debt. The justice agreed, and Huey passed the special exam, becoming a lawyer when he was twenty one.4 Huey immediately began taking cases in his home region of northern Louisiana, always taking cases “on the side of the small man—the under-dog. I had never taken a suit against a poor man and have not done so to this day.”5 He did fairly well in his endeavors as well, including one that he took all the way to the Supreme Court, where he caught the attention of Chief Justice William Howard Taft, who said that he had “seldom seen a lawyer with a greater legal mind or a better capacity to argue a legal point.”6 After he had made a decent start in his career as a budding lawyer, Long decided it was time to move on to politics in earnest. When he was only twenty-four, he found that the Railroad Commission had no age limit, so he decided to throw his name into the ring, winning a seat. He eventually worked his way up to Chairman of the commission, and renamed it the Public Service Commission.7 This was not nearly enough for Huey to affect the kind of change for which he was destined. As soon as he became eligible, on his thirtieth birthday, Huey Long announced his candidacy for governor for the 1924 election. His campaign strategies were far from subtle. When asked about his campaign, he stated “I’ll tell you how I’m going to win. In every parish there is a boss… He has forty per cent of the votes, forty per cent are opposed to him, and twenty per cent are in-betweens. I’m going into every parish and cuss out the boss. That gives me forty per cent of the votes to begin with, and I’ll hoss trade ‘em out of the in-betweens.”8 When it came down to practicing this strategy, he was slightly more subtle, not straight up cussing out the boss, but going after his power base, usually economically, playing to his 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Richard D. White, Jr., Kingfish:The Reign of Huey P. Long (New York: Random House, 2006), p. 6. Williams, Huey Long, p. 39-40. Huey P. Long, Every Man a King:The Autobiography of Huey P. Long (New Orleans: Da Capo Press, 1933), p. 16-17. Long, Every Man a King, p. 37. Williams, Huey Long, p.105. Long, Every Man a King, p. 56. Williams, Huey Long, p. 181. 39
Every Man a King . . . Jake Thorton own power base of poor whites. He would say to the bosses, “I’m trying to help these poor fellows that you are giving a raw deal.” In every speech, he reiterated that “I don’t want the bosses. I want the people on my side. There’s going to be a new day in Louisiana.”9 While he knew he had to rock the establishment to win, he also knew he had to go to his power base, poor farmers. Huey claimed that he could “qualify as a product of the melting pot,” and indeed left no white demographic group out of his reach, stating that he had English, Dutch, Welch, Irish, Scotch and French blood. “An eminent ethnologist has been at great pains to prove that such an admixture produces one capable of conflict,” he quipped.10 He even managed to find a way to claim voters from both premier religions in Louisiana. He told a story in southern Louisiana during the campaign that “when I was a boy I would get up at six o’clock on Sunday and I would hitch our old horse up to the buggy and I would take my Catholic grandparents to mass. I would bring them home, and at ten o’clock I would hitch the old horse up again, and I would take my Baptist grandparents to church.” When a local boss complimented Huey on the story, remarking that he did not know about his Catholic grandparents, Huey responded with, “don’t be a damned fool. We didn’t even have a horse.”11 Despite his ability to draw crowds and entertain an audience, he was not able to pull out a gubernatorial win in 1924. While he had strength in the rural areas of Louisiana, he was not a strong candidate in the big cities. He felt that he would do well enough in the country to counteract the city, anyway. He blamed rain for his loss, keeping his supporters away from the polls.12 With many of them living on dirt roads, rain turned their only avenue to voting into a mud pit. This defeat did not deter him any more than his other setbacks had. He started campaigning for the 1928 elections almost as soon as the 1924 polls closed. By the time election season came around in earnest, Huey had found his campaign slogan, and wasted no time putting it on a banners to be paraded around towns: “Every Man a King, But No One Wears a Crown,” a slogan he picked up from the Populist William Jennings Bryan. Long continued with this campaign, while also adding promises for tangible ways to help the poor people of Louisiana. He made his most famous oration of these promises in the small town of St. Martinsville, the site of a famous legend in the area. Huey chose this place to make his case to the people, And it is here under this oak where Evangeline waited for her lover, Gabriel, who never came. This oak is an immortal spot, made so by Longfellow’s poem, but Evangeline is not the only one who has waited here in disappointment. Where are the schools that you have waited for your children to have, that have never come? Where are the roads and highways that you send your money to build, that are no nearer now than ever before? Where are the institutions to care for the sick and the disabled? Evangeline wept bitter tears in her disappointment, but it lasted through only one lifetime. Your tears in this country, around this oak, have lasted for generations. Give me the chance to dry the eyes of those who still weep here!13 9 10 11 12 13 40
Ibid., p. 181-183. Long, Every Man a King, p. 70. White, Kingfish, p. 17. Long, Every Man a King, p. 77. Ibid., p. 99.
Every Man a King . . . Jake Thorton Huey won this election in a landslide, based on the combined effort of his speeches and his promises. Huey won six of the eight congressional districts and forty-seven of the sixty-four parishes.14 Huey wasted no time working to fulfill his promises. He drew up laws to provide textbooks to schoolchildren, to the improve conditions in charity hospitals and mental institutions, a constitutional amendment that would allow him to begin a program to build free bridges and pave roads, and legislation that would empower the Governor to remove and appoint people in many areas of the State government. He would attempt to pay for these programs with an increase to taxes on oil, gas, timber, and other big businesses. Rather than go through the extensive process of debating all of the proposed laws, Long came up with the idea to allow for the legislature to pass every bill that was proposed, with almost no discussion allowed on them. He would later veto the bills he did not agree with.15 In spite of his bills passing, he still had to get the money for the schoolbooks at the beginning of the year. He called the Board of Liquidation to get a $500,000 loan until the money from the taxes came in. The Board’s attorneys were unsure of the legality of the loan, so Long brought up the loans from previous administrations and asserted that if his loans were illegal, then so were the ones in the past. After making his case, he stormed out and went to lunch, ordering a sandwich. As Huey was waiting for his order, the bankers found him and told him they were giving him the loan. “Take back the sandwich,” he told the waiter, “fry me a steak!”16 As he got his programs for the people up and running, he also began taking over the state through patronage and appointees. Politicians have been bringing in their own allies for appointed positions as long as the current form of government has reigned in America, but no one did it to the extent that Long did. When some members of the old regime called him on it, Long simply responded with “you lost the spoils of war.”17 As a result of his heavy handed efforts, many people predicted that Long would last about a year before he was impeached. They were right. In 1929, Huey Long began the fight to maintain his governorship. The House of Representatives impeached him on eight charges, and sent him to the Senate for the trial.18 Large rallies were called for each side, explaining their view to the public, with Huey’s inevitably drawing more. The Kingfish, as he had begun calling himself by then, quickly did the math and determined that he needed to get fifteen Senators to keep himself in office. He quickly approached and recruited those fifteen needed, and had them sign a “round robin,” swearing that they would not vote for impeachment regardless of the evidence presented, because the impeachment had been voted on in a special session after the legislature had adjourned, making it illegal.19 When word of the “round robin” got out, the impeachment quickly dissipated and Long survived to govern another day. 14 Williams, Huey Long, p. 276. 15 Long, Every Man a King, p. 109. 16 Ibid., p. 113-115. 17 Ibid., p. 107. 18 Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression (New York:Vintage Books, 1982), p. 25. 19 White, Kingfish, p. 86-87. 41
Every Man a King . . . Jake Thorton Not content to let his enemies think they had won on a technicality, Long played a hand that had won for him before; taking his case to the people. In 1930, he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat from Louisiana and his intention to use it as a referendum on his policies. If he won, he would take it as a mandate to continue his programs. If he lost, he would step down, and let his Lieutenant Governor assume the office of Governor.20 The Kingfish won fifty-seven percent of the vote, and carried fifty-three parishes.21 Because his Lieutenant Governor, Paul Cyr, had long since turned against him, Long waited for over a year to take his seat in Washington, while technically holding both offices. When Long left the state briefly, Cyr went to the Capitol to assume the governorship, arguing that since Long had become “Governor-United States Senator-elect,” he had actually vacated the Governor’s seat. The Kingfish came racing back, and convinced the Louisiana State Supreme Court that in illegally taking the oath of office, Cyr had vacated the Lieutenant Governor’s seat, and was no longer in any office.22 That office then fell to Long’s old friend O.K. Allen. When Allen won the Governor’s seat in 1932, he became a rubber stamp for Long, and it finally allowed Long to focus his attention on the national stage.23 Well before reaching the national stage, the Kingfish had already become a national figure. In 1930, German diplomats came to the New Orleans, and expected to be entertained by Huey. The Germans were not amused when they were greeted by Huey wearing only green silk pajamas. Being the night after Mardi Gras, it was widely suspected that the governor had imbibed heavily the night before and was in no mood to get dressed up for the Germans. After some pushing from his staff, Huey went to greet the Germans later, fully dressed, and made amends, avoiding an international incident.24 While the green pajamas incident did not amuse the Germans, the national media and the American public certainly were. Huey had taken off in the national public’s eyes, and they could not wait for him to come to D.C. as a Senator. Once he got there, he did not disappoint, giving his fiery rhetoric at every opportunity, and holding frequent filibusters. Bills that were “assumed to move through Congress with ease,” often fell “victim to a man with a front of brass and lungs of leather.”25 Not all of the Kingfish’s national politics were laughing matters, however. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt owed his nomination by the Democratic Party to Huey Long. Certain Southern delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago were beginning to waver on Roosevelt as the candidate. Long felt that Roosevelt shared his sense of disgust with the current economic imbalance, so he put pressure on the Southern delegates to stay with him. He threatened delegates from Mississippi that “if you break the unit rule you sonofabitch, I’ll go into Mississippi and break you!” All of the Southern delegates stayed together and Roosevelt won the nomination on the fifth ballot.26 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 42
Long, Every Man a King, p. 211. Brinkley, Voices of Protest, p. 29. Long, Every Man a King, p. 250. Brinkley, Voices of Protest, p. 27-28. White, Kingfish, p. 92-93. Ibid., p. 172. Ibid., p. 165-167.
Every Man a King . . . Jake Thorton The Kingfish quickly realized that the soon to be president was not quite as in line with his personal beliefs as he initially thought. He thought that Roosevelt was a step in the right direction, but Roosevelt was too moderate and too slow for the Kingfish’s taste. Long felt that Roosevelt was “not a strong man, but he means well.”27 Indeed, some of the bills Long filibustered were Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. Once he became disillusioned with Roosevelt’s ideology, he created his own national grassroots campaign, which became known as “Share Our Wealth.” He felt that there was a “sane limit to the amount of water that a horse can drink; to the number of miles a man can run; to the length of time which one can live. There is also a sane limit to the amount of wealth which is healthy for one to own.”28 He was never very specific about how he planned to share the wealth, but clubs sprang up around the country. When people asked about it, he responded that “you don’t have to [understand]. Just shut your damned eyes and believe it!” Despite the lack of logistics, eight million people signed up to 27,000 local Share Our Wealth clubs.29 With his national following, Long began looking for even higher office. He wrote another book, called My First Days in the White House, where Share Our Wealth would overcome the depression and give all Americans a modest income, with a house, a car and a radio. In his cabinet, the Kingfish had Roosevelt at Secretary of the Navy, Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce, and Al Smith as the director of the budget.30 He knew that he could challenge Roosevelt in 1936, either in the primary or as a third party candidate. Long believed he did not have to worry about Roosevelt: “he’s scared of me… I can out-promise him and he knows it.” 31 Many people believed that he had no intentions of winning the presidency in 1936, but that he really wanted to draw enough voters from Roosevelt to give the election to the Republicans, and then the Kingfish would sweep in the White House in 1940 to save the country. Roosevelt’s earlier assessment of Long certainly rang true, that “it’s all very well for us to laugh over Huey, but actually we have to remember all the time that he really is one of the two most dangerous men in the country. We shall have to do something about him.” Douglas MacArthur was the other dangerous man.32 In late 1935, someone finally did do something about him. On September 8, 1935, the Kingfish walked into the Louisiana state capitol ready to work, even though he no longer held state office. Carl Weiss stepped forward and shot Long from about four feet away. Weiss’s only apparent connections to his victim were that Long had been politicking against Weiss’ uncle, had made a comment that was seemingly directed at Weiss’ wife, and had fired distant family members in the months leading up to the fateful meeting. Long, in his contrarian style, took about thirty one hours after the shot hit him to die.33 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
Brinkley, Voices of Protest, p. 58. Huey P. Long, My First Days in the White House (Harrisburg, PA: The Telegraph Press, 1935), p. 108. White, Kingfish, p. 196-199. Long, My First Days in the White House, p.4. White, Kingfish, p. 241-242. Ibid., p. 168. Ibid., p. 262-266. 43
Every Man a King . . . Jake Thorton By the time of his assassination, the Kingfish had long since given up any pretense of conceding even the slightest bit of control in the state of Louisiana to anyone, even when he left the state. Through excessive patronage, Long kept his supporters in office, and if they turned on him, he would fire and replace them with amazing speed. It was said that he had new appointees sign letters of resignation without dates on them. If the appointee displeased him, he would date the letter and accept the resignation. Unlike most of the past governors, who acknowledged the separation of powers, Long was an active participant in the legislation, constantly forcing through bills. Once, when a senator grew tired of this, he threw a copy of the Louisiana state constitution at Long, and said “maybe you’ve heard of this.” Long looked at it, and fired back, “I’m the constitution now.” 34 Indeed, he did have the final say in matters in the state. By 1935, he had effectively swept his opponents out of all public offices, truly making the legislature his rubber stamp, and they passed four hundred sixty three bills in one year, most of them blindly when the Kingfish was there with a watchful eye to make sure everyone voted how they were supposed to. He also managed to hamstring the judicial branch as well, for if a judge or district attorney stepped out of line he would gerrymander them out of a job the next election cycle, giving the Long machine complete control over all state business.35 As any good political machine must, Long’s generated money, whether legally or not. When he had captured Roosevelt’s attention, the president sent members of the Treasury Department to investigate Long’s operation. They found a very open system of deductions from state salaries, which were taken out every month and controlled by Long himself. The men from the Treasury Department concluded that “Long and his gang are stealing everything in the state.”36 Despite this siphoning off of democracy and state money, Huey’s support from the masses was unwavering. With the poor people of Louisiana, he developed an almost Christ-like level of reverence, with one woman claiming that he was a “God-sent, God-fearing, God-protected man. He is like Jesus.”37 Huey once got a letter from a child that read, “Dear Governor Long, I surely appreciate the free text books.You are the only governor of Louisiana who has done what you said you would do. I am thirteen years old. I am in the eight [sic] grade. I expect to finish school. Sincerely yours, Helen Edwards.”38 The first Wednesday in May in Louisiana is now known as Huey P. Long Educational Memorial Day, where “school children put down their free books to chant praises in his memory.”39 The people did not care about the corruption or the subtleties of how government was “supposed” to be run. The governors in the past had used them as excuses to deny the people of their promises, while Huey cut right through them to find a way to help the normal people who needed the most help. They did not see the fights or power struggles in Baton Rouge or New Orleans; they just saw the tangible results of new schoolbooks, so their children could go to school and get an education. They just saw paved roads so that a heavy rain did not render them prisoners on their own land. They just saw 34 35 36 37 38 39 44
Ibid., p. 44. Ibid., p. 250-252. Brinkley, Voices of Protest, p. 27. Ibid., p. 29. White, Kingfish, p. 56. Allan A. Michie and Frank Ryhlick, Dixie Demagogues (New York: The Vanguard Press, 1939), 113.
Every Man a King . . . Jake Thorton bridges so they could get to previously cut off parts of the state. They just saw better funded hospitals, so they and their relatives did not have to crowd into a room or lay on the floor when they were ill. They just saw better treatment to the mentally ill, so they were not kept in chains and cells, but had actual medical help. They just saw a politician who finally delivered on his promises. The vast spectrum of the Kingfish’s actions make him particularly fascinating to historians, and those extremes lead to equally extreme reactions when reading and writing about him as historians either characterize him as the worst politician to come out of the South, an example of a master manipulator of the masses, showing the backward and corrupt ways of a people who were just as backwards as he was, or as a hero of the poor and working class, as the only politician who thought of them and kept his promises to them. Both of these assessments are correct, to a degree. It is easy to dismiss Long as another typical Southern demagogue, but with even a cursory look at his life, it is easy to tell that there was nothing typical about Huey. He was a complex man, and Southern to the core. For five to seven years, he became not only a figure in Louisiana, not only a Southern figure, but a national one, rivaling even the president. He was an amazing orator, an eccentric and entertaining man, and a rebel with a cause. Whatever the motivations for that cause, whether to truly help the poor or as a mere power grab, he still did deliver on his promises, on which many of his fellow politicians never followed through. The Kingfish was not a perfect politician, who did everything the right way, but he certainly did enough to be crowned a friend of the people. He did what was necessary for progress, noting that they must “live and let live, modernize and advance for them all,” dragging Louisiana kicking and screaming into modernity, whether the “old regulars” liked it or not. 40 The South soon followed his lead, as free textbooks for schoolchildren, paved roads and bridges, and decently funded hospitals are now the norm, not only all in the South, but also around the country. His improvements in building up LSU were emulated throughout the South, where education had been long pushed to the back burner, offering higher education to more than just the very rich. At the same time, with his personal corruption, Long represented the worst of the South, working up the crowd and using some of the profits for his own benefit, either politically or monetarily, another charge that often gets pinned to Louisianan and Southern leaders. His oratorical style, full of passion and anecdotes, was designed to move the poor, country people. This style was picked up by many other Southern politicians, but Huey was the master. The book Dixie Demagogues traces the careers of several men who followed the Long plan of mobilizing the people and a heavily machined government. One man who pointed specifically to Long was Senator Rush Holt of West Virginia, who was a self proclaimed “natural born hell raiser,” and openly stated that “what the Senate needs today is another Huey Long,” even making his way down for Long’s funeral to pay his respects.41 While many of these politicians borrowed from his ideas, only Long had the combination of all the characteristics, with “his peculiar genius combin[ing] the story-telling ability of Tom Heflin [of Alabama], the evangelical fervor of [Theodore] Bilbo [of Mississippi], and the musical appeal of W. Lee O’Daniel [of Texas] with…the raucous humor of a bawdy-house keeper, provided high-class 40 41
Long, My First Days in the White House, p. 42. Michie and Ryhlick, Dixie Demagogues, p. 202-214. 45
Every Man a King . . . Jake Thorton entertainment in…uneventful lives.”42 His ideas of sharing and redistributing wealth are still around today, though in a very watered down form. Though many politicians before and since have attempted to give the projection of being a “man of the people,” Huey was able to make all of them believe it, both through his words and actions. The prominent Long biographer, T. Harry Williams, reminds his readers that “the politician who wishes to do good may have to do some evil to achieve his goal.” Williams also felt that Long , “in striving to do good he was led on to grasp for more and more power, until finally he could not always distinguish between the method and the goal, the power and the good.”43 Regardless of the different views and emphases placed on Huey’s life, a song that sprang up after his death from the poor of Louisiana perhaps encapsulates his contribution best: Oh they say he was a crook But he gave us free school book Tell me why is it that they kill Huey Long? Now he’s dead and in his grave, But we riding on his pave’ Tell me why is it that they kill Huey Long?44
42 Ibid., p. 112. 43 Williams, Huey Long, p. x. 44 William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America 1932-1972 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1973), p. 140. 46
Inferiority/Superiority Complex
Brittney Moser Mixed Media Visual Art Presentation
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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Brittney Moser Mixed Media Visual Art Presentation
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Introverted Wish
Brittney Moser Mixed Media Visual Art Presentation
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Cognitive Development
Brittney Moser Oil on Canvas Visual Art Presentation
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Apoptosis Alex Welch
Music Presentation Apoptosis was inspired by the idea of cell death. The work is built on the concept in biology of the body over-producing cells and destroying the ones that are unnecessary in a sort of biological sculpture. The composition reflects this in an overpopulation of musical ideas which are systematically cut away to produce a final musical statement. In this way I use the different biological types of cellular death as a frame for my composition.
Listen to Alex’s composition: www.chowan.edu/BrownLady/Music
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Contributors Nancy Altstatt is a senior English major. Robert Glenn Armstrong is a 2012 Chowan graduate. He majored in humanities studies. AndrĂŠ Barnes is a 2012 Chowan graduate. He majored in psychology. Lindsay Brook is a senior English major. Macaulay Chilaka is a junior graphic communication major. Bethany Mallory is a senior biology major. Brittney Moser is a senior studio art major. Alegrea Robinson is a 2012 Chowan graduate. She majored in English. Angelica Satchell is a senior psychology major. Karen Spain earned her M.Ed. from Chowan in 2012. Jake Thorton is a senior history major. Sarah-Maribeth Van Roy is a 2012 Chowan graduate. She majored in history. Alex Welch is a senior music major. Hailee Williams is a junior physical education major. Thirsala Wiggins is a junior studio art major. Gatlin Williams is a senior graphic design major.
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