Groton School Quarterly, Winter 2022

Page 28

Adam Richins

The four new busts were unveiled briefly to the Form of 2021 graduates at Prize Day in June, but current students, faculty, and staff did not see them until November.

At the installation ceremony on November 12, 2021, senior prefects read quotes from each person represented by a new bust and shared a brief history of the honoree. “I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” — NELSON MANDELA, READ BY MAYA VARKEY ’22

Maya explained that Mr. Mandela led both peaceful protests and armed resistance against the white minority’s oppressive regime in South Africa and spent nearly three decades in prison for his activism. Between his release from prison and his election as South Africa’s first Black president, he worked to dismantle the country’s apartheid system.

“It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” — MAHATMA GANDHI, READ BY YEABSIRA GUGSSA ’22

Yeabsira told the gathering that Gandhi, the leading figure in India’s struggle to gain independence from Great Britain, was known for his doctrine of nonviolent protest to achieve political and social progress.

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Groton School Quarterly

Winter 2022

“There were times when it would have been easy to fall apart or to go in the opposite direction, but somehow I felt that if I took one more step, someone would come along to join me.” —ROSA PARKS, READ BY ANTHONY WRIGHT ’22

Anthony described Ms. Parks as a lifelong activist known best for her refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus in 1955.

“The development of the ideal of freedom and its translation into the everyday life of the people in great areas of the earth is the product of the efforts of many peoples. It is the fruit of a long tradition of vigorous thinking and courageous action. No one race and no one people can claim to have done all the work to achieve greater dignity for human beings and greater freedom to develop human personality. In each generation, and in each country, there must be a continuation of the struggle and new steps forward must be taken, since this is preeminently a field in which to stand still is to retreat.” — ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, READ BY GRIFFIN ELLIOTT ’22

The former First Lady, said Griffin, “persistently exercised her influence in advocacy for the rights and needs of the poor, of minorities, and of the disadvantaged.”


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