tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/lawrence-university-1832/articlesLawrence University2023-10-26T12:40:49Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2152052023-10-26T12:40:49Z2023-10-26T12:40:49ZBack in the 1960s, the push for parental rights over school standards was not led by white conservatives but by Black and Latino parents<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555414/original/file-20231023-21-xoa3d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=251%2C81%2C3944%2C2717&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, left, and then-Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin participate in a debate on Sept. 28, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-virginia-gov-terry-mcauliffe-and-republican-news-photo/1343655159?adppopup=true">Win McNamee/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A key issue underlying the 2023 Virginia election first drew statewide – and national – attention in a debate two years ago.</p>
<p>During a 2021 Virginia gubernatorial debate, Democratic candidate <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/07/politics/glenn-youngkin-parental-rights-education-strategy/index.html">Terry McAuliffe</a> made a critical mistake that led to his defeat by GOP challenger Glenn Youngkin.</p>
<p>Instead of acknowledging concerns that parents were having over school curriculum, McAuliffe dismissed them.</p>
<p>“I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decision,” McAuliffe said during the debate. “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”</p>
<p>McAuliffe’s remarks sparked a backlash among white conservatives who were incensed that their children were being forced to read books that touched on contentious topics such as racism and sexuality. </p>
<p>In fact, one of Youngkin’s <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2021/10/beloved-glenn-youngkin-ad-toni-morrison-book-banning.html">initial television ads</a> showed a white mother who was nearly brought to tears by her son’s anguish after reading about the horrors of slavery in Toni Morrison’s “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/27/us/politics/beloved-toni-morrison-virginia.html">Beloved</a>.” She said the book should not have been required high school reading. </p>
<p>But while Youngkin and other <a href="https://americanindependent.com/virginia-book-bans-siobhan-dunnavant-schuyler-vanvalkenburg/">GOP politicians</a> campaigning for offices from <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/virginia-school-board-extremist-candidates-1234829927/">local school boards</a> to <a href="https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/10/11/in-henrico-virginia-senate-candidates-battle-over-banning-books-accusation/">state legislatures</a> in the 2023 cycle have hitched their political success to parental rights and banning books deemed offensive, they do not own those issues.</p>
<p>In fact, the very thing that parental rights advocates are fighting to exclude is the very thing that parental rights groups of the 1960s fought to have included: an accurate reflection of the role that Black people played in the shaping of American history and culture. </p>
<p>I know this because <a href="https://faculty.lawrence.edu/podairj/">I spent</a> a great deal of time studying one of the seminal parental rights movements in American public education for my book, “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300109405/the-strike-that-changed-new-york/">The Strike That Changed New York</a>.”</p>
<p>In that book, I detailed the 1968 struggle over community control of public schools in the predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood of Ocean Hill-Brownsville in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. There, as in Virginia, <a href="https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/community-control-and-the-1968-teacher-strikes-in-nyc-at-50-a-roundtable">parents who felt shut out</a> by the public education system demanded to have their voices heard in determining school curricula. </p>
<p>But at Ocean Hill-Brownsville, it was Black and Latino parents who demanded their right to have a say in the education of their children. </p>
<h2>Inside the classrooms</h2>
<p>For decades, Black history had been a neglected topic in New York City schools. </p>
<p>In the 1960s, only a handful of textbooks on the Board of Education-approved list discussed the history of African Americans in significant detail. The lack of such material was widely blamed for the disappointing academic performance of Black and Latino students. </p>
<p>In an effort to help those students and improve test scores, New York City school officials launched an experiment to give the mostly minority parents more say in school matters by appointing them to school governing boards. As I note in <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300109405/the-strike-that-changed-new-york/">my book</a>, the new governing boards immediately set out to move the history of Black Americans from the margins of the American experience to its epicenter.</p>
<p>Not everyone supported the changes to what was being taught in the classrooms. When the newly formed board composed of <a href="https://jacobin.com/2018/09/ocean-hill-brownsville-strikes-1968-united-federation-teachers">Ocean Hill-Brownsville parents</a> fired 13 teachers and six administrators for trying to block the changes, the United Federation of Teachers union organized several strikes to shut down the schools in a dispute over control of personnel, finances and curricula. </p>
<p>The strikes lasted for 36 school days and affected about 47,000 teachers and nearly 1 million students. The strike ended on Nov. 17 when the state took control of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of Black men are standing together in front of a school building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555418/original/file-20231023-32966-f48ze2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555418/original/file-20231023-32966-f48ze2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555418/original/file-20231023-32966-f48ze2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555418/original/file-20231023-32966-f48ze2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555418/original/file-20231023-32966-f48ze2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555418/original/file-20231023-32966-f48ze2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555418/original/file-20231023-32966-f48ze2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville local school governing board leave Brooklyn Junior High School 271 on Dec. 2, 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/led-by-the-rev-c-herbert-oliver-members-of-the-ocean-hill-news-photo/515546496?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Most of the jobs left vacant by striking union members were filled by a group of nonunionized “replacement” teachers sympathetic to the Ocean Hill-Brownsville parents.</p>
<p>In this racially charged atmosphere, local parents enjoyed an unprecedented opportunity to assert their rights. In the words of one school board representative, they sought to “supply the missing pieces of Black culture,” which would be “the well-spring from which all areas will flow, and counter the total focus in today’s curriculum on the European Anglo-Saxon experience.”</p>
<p>During <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/803382499">the strike</a>, Ocean Hill-Brownsville parents worked with the teachers who had defied the union and staffed the schools to help implement an ambitious Black history curriculum. It included lessons on Black revolutionary leaders <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/19/1112040871/denmark-vesey-is-honored-his-slave-revolt-was-thwarted-and-he-was-executed">Denmark Vesey</a>, <a href="https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/turners-revolt-nat-1831/">Nat Turner</a> and <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/malcolm-x">Malcolm X</a>. </p>
<p>Their recommendations would eventually influence the direction of curricula in the New York City public school system as a whole.</p>
<h2>A constant struggle</h2>
<p>This example of parental rights serves as a reminder to those who assume that white conservatives are the only active and involved parents trying to assert their rights.</p>
<p>Indeed, in Virginia itself, Black parents are still having an effect on what is taught in public schools. In one example, the <a href="https://richmond.com/news/local/education/new-draft-history-standards-reorient-framing-of-race-relations/article_4504a142-7775-546d-9ea0-3c4272436a00.html">Youngkin administration</a> proposed a set of revisions to the state’s Standards of Learning in history and social sciences that failed to mention Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. </p>
<p>Black politicians and parents <a href="https://www.virginiamercury.com/2022/11/17/missing-context-political-bias-some-of-critics-objections-to-virginias-new-history-standards/">criticized those revisions</a> as “white-washing,” and the changes were later <a href="https://richmond.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/board-of-education-rejects-youngkins-proposed-revisions-to-k-12-history-standards/article_ac6dbdb1-8632-5abd-97e4-39b978982b3f.html">rejected by the state Board of Education</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A classroom with Black students has large photographs of Black leaders and a map of Africa." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555411/original/file-20231023-19-euw8py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555411/original/file-20231023-19-euw8py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555411/original/file-20231023-19-euw8py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555411/original/file-20231023-19-euw8py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555411/original/file-20231023-19-euw8py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555411/original/file-20231023-19-euw8py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555411/original/file-20231023-19-euw8py.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black students during a class at a school in Brooklyn’s Ocean Hill-Brownsville neighborhood in November 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/school-boys-during-a-class-at-an-school-in-the-ocean-hill-news-photo/1429049619?adppopup=true">Anna Kaufman Moon/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In a further blow to conservatives, parental activists helped shepherd <a href="https://www.doe.virginia.gov/teaching-learning-assessment/k-12-standards-instruction/history-and-social-science/standards-of-learning">new, more historically inclusive</a> standards that were approved in April 2023. </p>
<p>The standards state unequivocally that “the institution of slavery was the cause of the Civil War.” In addition, they recognize “the indelible stain of slavery, segregation, and racism in the United States and around the world” and emphasize “the development of African American culture in America.”</p>
<p>Most important, at least to those who agree that parents should have an active role in the education of their children, the standards state that “parents should have access to all instructional materials utilized in any Virginia public school.”</p>
<p>The parental rights movement, then, in Virginia and elsewhere, is not solely the province of the right. As history has shown – and today’s debates over school curricula show – “parental rights” are for all parents.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215205/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerald Podair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With control over the Virginia Legislature at stake in the Nov. 7 election, the historic battle over what is taught in public schools remains a priority for both Democrats and Republicans.Jerald Podair, Professor of History, Lawrence UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1972502023-01-30T13:13:56Z2023-01-30T13:13:56ZMeet Bayard Rustin, often-forgotten civil rights activist, gay rights advocate, union organizer, pacifist and man of compassion for all in trouble<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505703/original/file-20230121-31574-irg6sz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=95%2C106%2C3647%2C5044&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"> In this Feb. 2, 1964, image, Bayard Rustin talks on a telephone from a church in Brooklyn, New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/civil-rights-activist-bayard-rustin-spokesman-for-the-news-photo/3248636?phrase=bayard%20rustin&adppopup=true">Patrick A. Burns/New York Times Co./Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As I began writing “Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer,” <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742545137/Bayard-Rustin-American-Dreamer">my biography</a> of the 20th-century radical leader and activist, one of my colleagues cautioned me not to “fall in love.” </p>
<p>This, of course, is good advice for any biographer, and I tried to follow it.</p>
<p>But it wasn’t easy, because <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bayard-Rustin">Bayard Rustin</a> was America’s signature radical voice during the 20th century, and yes, I believe those voices includes that of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whom Rustin trained and mentored. </p>
<p>His <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/08/974941349/bayard-rustin-an-architect-of-the-civil-rights-movement-you-may-have-never-heard">vision</a> of nonviolence was breathtakingly broad.</p>
<p>He was a civil rights activist, a labor unionist, a socialist, a pacifist and, later in life, a gay rights advocate. </p>
<p>Today, scholars would call Rustin an <a href="https://www.intersectionaljustice.org/what-is-intersectionality">intersectionalist</a>, a man who understood the complex effects of multiple forms of discrimination, including racism, sexism and classism. </p>
<h2>Early days and activism</h2>
<p>Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on March 17, 1912, Rustin was one of 12 children raised by their grandparents. It is believed that his devotion to civil rights was formed by his grandmother, whose <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/rustin-bayard">work with the NAACP</a> resulted in leaders of the Black community, such as <a href="https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/web-du-bois">W.E.B. Du Bois</a> and <a href="https://www.cookman.edu/history/our-founder.html">Mary McLeod Bethune</a>, visiting the Rustin home during his Quaker upbringing.</p>
<p>Rustin was present at the creation of a host of pivotal American liberation movements. He helped found the <a href="https://www.thecongressofracialequality.org/bayard-rustin.html">Congress of Racial Equality</a> and the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/southern-christian-leadership-conference-sclc">Southern Christian Leadership Conference</a>, two civil rights organizations that were focused on ending the Jim Crow era of racial segregation. </p>
<p>He worked with Black trade unionist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/A-Philip-Randolph">A. Philip Randolph</a> on the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt6wr5b1">1941 March on Washington Movement</a>, which bore fruit in <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-8802">an executive order</a> by President Franklin Roosevelt banning racial discrimination in the nation’s defense industries.</p>
<p>Rustin and Randolph worked again in 1948 on a successful campaign <a href="https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/precursor-desegregating-armed-forces">to end segregation</a> in the U.S. military under President Harry Truman. </p>
<p>A pacifist, Rustin protested World War II by resisting the draft and, as a result, was imprisoned in 1944 as a conscientious objector.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two head shots of the same black man -- a side view and a head-on view -- are seen in these photographs taken in federal prison." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505701/original/file-20230121-20-h81yrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505701/original/file-20230121-20-h81yrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505701/original/file-20230121-20-h81yrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505701/original/file-20230121-20-h81yrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505701/original/file-20230121-20-h81yrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505701/original/file-20230121-20-h81yrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505701/original/file-20230121-20-h81yrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In these Aug. 3, 1945, images, Bayard Rustin is seen in federal prison after his conviction on draft evasion charges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bayard-rustin-one-of-the-organizers-of-the-1963-march-on-news-photo/644663420?phrase=bayard%20rustin&adppopup=true">Bureau of Prisons/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>After his release in 1946, Rustin became a major figure for the next two decades in two prominent pacifist organizations, the <a href="https://forusa.org/the-fellowship-of-reconciliation-and-bayard-rustin-an-amends/">Fellowship of Reconciliation</a> and the <a href="https://www.warresisters.org/resources/remembering-bayard-rustin-100">War Resisters League</a>, both of which opposed the use of violence to settle disputes between individuals or nations. </p>
<p>In 1947, he and members of the Congress of Racial Equality planned the <a href="https://snccdigital.org/events/cores-journey-of-reconciliation/">Journey of Reconciliation</a>, the first organized effort to desegregate interstate bus transportation in the South. </p>
<h2>Role in Montgomery bus boycott</h2>
<p>Because of that work to integrate public transportation, Randolph suggested in 1956 that <a href="https://www.history.com/news/bayard-rustin-march-on-washington-openly-gay-mlk">Rustin meet with a young preacher</a> in Alabama who was organizing a bus boycott there.</p>
<p>That meeting with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/rustin-bayard">Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1956</a> changed both men forever.</p>
<p>From then on Rustin advised King on the principles of Gandhi and nonviolent direct action that – when combined with lawsuits, voter registration drives and lobbying efforts – ultimately led to passage of both the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act">Civil Rights Act of 1964</a> and the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/voting-rights-act">Voting Rights Act of 1965</a>. </p>
<p>For Rustin, Black progress depended on politics and economics. To that end, in 1966 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5bgmFTJ1FQ">Rustin proposed</a> the “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qg4r6">Freedom Budget for All Americans</a>” that promised every American employment, an income and access to health care. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of men are sitting around a large table with sheets of paper in front of them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505694/original/file-20230121-23029-ifczsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505694/original/file-20230121-23029-ifczsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505694/original/file-20230121-23029-ifczsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505694/original/file-20230121-23029-ifczsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505694/original/file-20230121-23029-ifczsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505694/original/file-20230121-23029-ifczsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505694/original/file-20230121-23029-ifczsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Civil rights leaders, from left, Bayard Rustin, Jack Greenberg, Whitney M. Young Jr., James Farmer, Roy Wilkins, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph and Courtland Cox attend NAACP meeting on July 29, 1964.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-york-ny-at-a-meeting-here-in-n-a-a-c-p-headquarters-news-photo/517350918?phrase=bayard%20rustin&adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
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<p>His proposal became the template for progressive political activists in the 21st century.</p>
<h2>Jobs and freedom</h2>
<p>Rustin is best remembered as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/100-amazing-facts/who-designed-the-march-on-washington/">the organizer and orchestrator</a> of arguably the seminal event in American civil rights history – <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/08/15/212338844/bayard-rustin-the-man-who-organized-the-march-on-washington">the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom</a>.</p>
<p>But it almost did not happen. </p>
<p>Rustin’s homosexuality had always been an issue, and not just to his opponents on the American right or to <a href="https://vault.fbi.gov/bayard-rustin/bayard-rustin-part-01-of-07">J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI</a>. </p>
<p>Many progressive activists who were open-minded on matters relating to civil and labor rights were much less so when it came to Rustin’s sexuality. </p>
<p>Rustin had been fired by the Fellowship of Reconciliation after <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bayard-rustin-civil-rights-icon-tarnished-arrest-homosexual-encounter-pardoned-california-180974143/">his 1953 conviction in Pasadena, California</a>, on what was then known as a “public indecency” offense, involving sex with two other men in a parked car.</p>
<p>A few years later, <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/rustin-bayard">King forced him out</a> of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, fearful of the damage the issue of Rustin’s homosexuality could do to his organization.</p>
<p>It took the direct intervention of Randolph, Rustin’s lifelong friend and champion, to get King and other major civil rights leaders to agree to his selection as the organizer and orchestrator of the March on Washington in 1963. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two Black men are standing next to a sign that says March on Washington for jobs and freedom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505702/original/file-20230121-15446-oomhc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505702/original/file-20230121-15446-oomhc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505702/original/file-20230121-15446-oomhc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505702/original/file-20230121-15446-oomhc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505702/original/file-20230121-15446-oomhc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505702/original/file-20230121-15446-oomhc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505702/original/file-20230121-15446-oomhc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bayard Rustin, left, is seen on Aug. 7, 1963, talking with Cleveland Robinson during the March on Washington.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bayard-rustin-left-and-cleveland-robinson-shown-during-the-news-photo/639609323?phrase=bayard%20rustin&adppopup=true">Orlando Fernandez/Library of Congress via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rustin then had to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/23/bayard-rustin-march-on-washington">survive a denunciation</a> by segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond on the floor of Congress shortly before the march, during which the South Carolina lawmaker read from FBI reports on Rustin’s <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/civilrights/bayard-rustin.htm">flirtation with communism</a> – he had belonged to the Communist Party briefly as a young man – and his homosexuality and <a href="https://www.pasadenanow.com/main/king-confidante-arrested-in-pasadena-receives-posthumous-pardon">arrest in Pasadena</a>. </p>
<p>But Rustin’s ability to organize was now too valuable to lose, and this time King stood by him. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742545137/Bayard-Rustin-American-Dreamer">my research shows</a>, King knew that only Rustin, who had spent the previous two decades leading demonstrations and walking picket lines, had the knowledge and experience to move 250,000 people in and out of Washington, D.C., on a hot summer day. </p>
<p>King also knew that Rustin could manage everything in between, including the order of the speakers.</p>
<p>By insisting that King be placed last on the program, Rustin ensured that King would have the final word and maximum dramatic effect. Though Rustin didn’t know it at the time, King’s “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety">I Have a Dream</a>” remarks eventually constituted one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in American history. </p>
<h2>Rustin’s internal conflicts</h2>
<p>The constituent parts of Rustin’s radical vision were often at odds and difficult to achieve, forcing Rustin into wrenching choices, as I learned during my research. </p>
<p>During World War II, for instance, he chose pacifism over the cause of civil rights when he refused to bear arms against a racist Nazi regime.</p>
<p>During the Vietnam War, he chose socialism over pacifism when he muted his criticism of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s policies in the hope of enacting his <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/a-freedom-budget-for-all-americans-annotated/557024/">Freedom Budget for All Americans</a>.</p>
<p>And in 1968, as a white-led teachers union and Black activists struggled for control of New York City’s public education system during the bitter <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/17/opinion/teachers-strike-liberals-ocean-hill-brownsville.html">Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis</a>, Rustin chose labor rights over civil rights and class over race as he lent his support to the union.</p>
<p>These choices <a href="https://jacobin.com/2018/05/the-tragedy-of-bayard-rustin">cost Rustin allies and friendships</a>, as former colleagues who afforded themselves the luxury of one-issue purity denounced him as an apostate, a hypocrite, a turncoat or worse.</p>
<p>But Rustin was none of those. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Black man wearing sunglasses is sitting next to another Black man who is taking notes on a pad of paper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505707/original/file-20230121-8930-3w8ef2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505707/original/file-20230121-8930-3w8ef2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505707/original/file-20230121-8930-3w8ef2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505707/original/file-20230121-8930-3w8ef2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505707/original/file-20230121-8930-3w8ef2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505707/original/file-20230121-8930-3w8ef2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505707/original/file-20230121-8930-3w8ef2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bayard Rustin, at right, sits next to acclaimed writer James Baldwin on the speakers’ platform in Montgomery, Ala., during the 1965 civil rights march from Selma.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/speakers-platform-1965-selma-to-montgomery-alabama-civil-news-photo/459534210?phrase=bayard%20rustin%20randolph&adppopup=true">Stephen F. Somerstein/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He dedicated his life to helping, as he put it, “people in trouble,” whomever and wherever they might be. </p>
<p>Accordingly, he put himself on the line for democracy advocates all over the world. They included African Americans, Latinos, working men and women, union members, the poor, war critics, anti-nuclear protesters, gays and lesbians, students, leftists, Soviet Jews, and Haitian, Hmong and Afghan refugees.</p>
<p>If those allegiances appear to be contradictions, in my view they were of the best kind. </p>
<h2>Love for Rustin?</h2>
<p>Above all else, Rustin chose to help people in trouble based on their condition, not their identity. </p>
<p>For that he has, if not my love, then my profound respect. </p>
<p>Of all the voices I’ve heard on my journeys through America’s 20th-century history, it is his that resonates most with me.</p>
<p>Rustin died in 1987, his radical vision unwavering until the end.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerald Podair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bayard Rustin led a long and complicated life dedicated to the fight for equal rights. Targeted by the FBI, Rustin became a close adviser to Martin Luther King Jr.Jerald Podair, Professor of History, Lawrence UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962672022-12-21T13:41:50Z2022-12-21T13:41:50ZTeddy Roosevelt’s failed Bull Moose campaign may portend the future of the GOP and Donald Trump<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501401/original/file-20221215-22-9ln2hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=715%2C187%2C3194%2C2251&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A bold and brash Teddy Roosevelt during a visit to the Badlands in 1885. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-politician-and-future-president-of-the-united-news-photo/3090049?phrase=teddy%20roosevelt&adppopup=true">MPI/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What happens when a former president decides he wants his old job back, regardless of what stands in his way? </p>
<p>As Donald Trump launches <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/politics/trump-2024-presidential-bid/index.html">his third run</a> for the White House, it is useful to look back at another ex-president, <a href="https://virginia.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/theodore-roosevelts-bull-moose-party-1912-election/ken-burns-the-roosevelts-video/">Theodore Roosevelt</a>, whose campaign to regain the office from his successor, <a href="https://millercenter.org/president/taft/campaigns-and-elections">William Howard Taft</a>, divided the Republican Party and ensured the victory of Democrat <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/wilson-election-1912/">Woodrow Wilson</a> in the presidential election of 1912.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://faculty.lawrence.edu/podairj/">my view</a> as a scholar of 20th-century American history, Roosevelt’s sense of entitlement, moral narcissism and belief in his own indispensability led him to turn his back on his party.</p>
<p>The disastrous results may presage what awaits the GOP in 2024.</p>
<h2>The Roosevelt charm and ego</h2>
<p>There is little question that <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/theodore-roosevelt/">Roosevelt’s presidency</a> from 1901 to 1909 was filled with successes – <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tr-domestic/">labor rights</a>, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/03/this-day-in-politics-december-3-1027800">anti-monopoly initiatives</a>, <a href="https://www.doi.gov/blog/conservation-legacy-theodore-roosevelt">the birth of environmentalism</a>, <a href="https://millercenter.org/president/roosevelt/domestic-affairs">consumer protection</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/Theodore-Roosevelt-and-the-Progressive-movement">democratic electoral reforms</a>, <a href="https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2020/august/theodore-roosevelt-naval-expansion-and-guaranteeing">a modern navy</a>, even <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1906/roosevelt/biographical/#:%7E:text=Theodore%20Roosevelt%2C%20President%20of%20the,recommended%20by%20the%20peace%20movement">a Nobel Peace Prize</a>. </p>
<p>As the first modern president, Roosevelt was an activist, a nationalist and a celebrity. And it is this last quality that may have defined Theodore Roosevelt most of all. </p>
<p>He reveled in his notoriety and visibility. </p>
<p>“My father,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1980/02/21/princess-alice-roosevelt-longworth/81b5fa2d-69a4-431d-8233-2f4a02b21ffa/">his daughter Alice</a> remarked, “always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening.” </p>
<p>He was exuberant, vociferous and a showman – a showoff, his critics complained – whose favorite exclamation, “Bully,” expressed perfectly his almost childlike zest for life in the public eye. </p>
<p>“You must always remember,” one of his ambassadors ruefully observed, “that the president is 6 years old.” </p>
<h2>A bitter fight between two former friends</h2>
<p>It was thus wrenchingly difficult for Roosevelt, having made an impulsive <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tr-politics/">promise not to run again</a>, to turn over his office to his hand-picked successor, Taft.</p>
<p>Regret set in almost immediately, and as soon as Roosevelt returned
from a yearlong trip to Africa and Europe in June 1910, he <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1912-republican-convention-855607/#:%7E:text=William%20Howard%20Taft%20and%20Theodore,chances%20for%20victory%20in%20November.">began to pick arguments</a> with the cautious and uncharismatic Taft. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two white men dressed in business suits and overcoats are standing next to each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501389/original/file-20221215-20-brhb6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501389/original/file-20221215-20-brhb6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501389/original/file-20221215-20-brhb6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501389/original/file-20221215-20-brhb6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501389/original/file-20221215-20-brhb6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501389/original/file-20221215-20-brhb6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501389/original/file-20221215-20-brhb6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Theodore Roosevelt, left, and William Howard Taft standing together on Jan. 1, 1912.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/news-photo/2664156?phrase=william%20howard%20taft&adppopup=true">Topical Press Agency/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some were imagined, others real, but they were essentially beside the point.</p>
<p>Roosevelt wanted the limelight that went with the presidency again. In early 1912, he announced that he would <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/william-h-taft-recalls-dispute-theodore-roosevelt-1922">run against the incumbent president</a> of his own party, a longtime close friend and colleague whose nomination he had engineered four years earlier. </p>
<p>Because Taft controlled the Republican Party machinery, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30238426">Roosevelt’s path to the nomination</a> ran through the new mechanism of state primaries, an early product of Progressive reform. </p>
<p>Roosevelt took nine of the 12 that were contested, but most of the delegates to the Republican convention were selected by local bosses, and Taft won almost all of them.</p>
<p>At the national convention in Chicago in June, Roosevelt broke with tradition and appeared in person. He challenged the credentials of Taft delegates, especially those from the South, which held a quarter of the total votes despite the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/segregation-era.html">Republican Party’s moribund position</a> in the region at that point. </p>
<p>When his objections failed and Taft was nominated on the first ballot, Roosevelt could have done what virtually every defeated candidate for a party nomination does: swallow his disappointment and, however grudgingly, offer his support to the winner. </p>
<p>But that response was not in Roosevelt’s DNA. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="This cartoon shows a man dressed as clown who is beating a large drum as he walks through a circus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501157/original/file-20221214-13948-dpu0jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501157/original/file-20221214-13948-dpu0jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501157/original/file-20221214-13948-dpu0jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501157/original/file-20221214-13948-dpu0jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501157/original/file-20221214-13948-dpu0jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501157/original/file-20221214-13948-dpu0jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501157/original/file-20221214-13948-dpu0jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=859&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this 1912 Harper’s Weekly illustration, Theodore Roosevelt is seen campaigning as a Bull Moose Party candidate for president.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/theodore-roosevelt-shown-trying-to-get-support-for-his-news-photo/107460122?phrase=teddy%20roosevelt%20bull%20moose&adppopup=true">Stock Montage/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Embarrassed and furious, he charged that Taft had stolen the nomination through fraud and announced <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1912-republican-convention-855607/">the formation of a new party</a> as his personal vehicle. </p>
<p>Unofficially called <a href="https://millercenter.org/transforming-american-democracy-tr-and-bull-moose-campaign-1912">the Bull Moose Party</a>, the <a href="https://dp.la/exhibitions/outsiders-president-elections/third-party-reform/roosevelt-progressive-party">Progressive Party duly nominated Roosevelt</a> at a hastily organized <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2007663527/">August convention</a>, in an atmosphere replete with high moral dudgeon.</p>
<p>The delegates adopted “Onward, Christian Soldiers” as their anthem and heard their leader describe the upcoming campaign as an “Armageddon” and a “battle for the Lord.”</p>
<p>Roosevelt spent a great deal of his time on the general election campaign trail, during which he barely <a href="https://wisconsinlife.org/story/shot-in-the-chest-theodore-roosevelt-kept-talking-in-milwaukee/">survived an assassination attempt</a>, claiming that <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/trspeech.html">he had been cheated</a> of the Republican nomination.</p>
<p>Roosevelt also <a href="https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record?libID=o285244">stooped to personal vitriol</a>, describing Taft as having “brains less than a guinea pig” and appearance-shaming the 300-pound-plus president as a “fathead.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A middle-aged man dressed in a business suit stands above a crowd of people as he delivers a speech." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501395/original/file-20221215-20-i8nf0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501395/original/file-20221215-20-i8nf0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501395/original/file-20221215-20-i8nf0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501395/original/file-20221215-20-i8nf0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501395/original/file-20221215-20-i8nf0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501395/original/file-20221215-20-i8nf0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501395/original/file-20221215-20-i8nf0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teddy Roosevelt campaigning for president on the Bull Moose ticket.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/teddy-roosevelt-campaigning-for-president-on-the-news-photo/514900304?phrase=teddy%20roosevelt%20bull%20moose&adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Taft was deeply hurt by the rift with his former friend. He ran <a href="https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/explore/savior-spoiler-teddy-roosevelt-third-party-candidate-1912/">a less than energetic campaign</a> and was resigned to losing the general election almost as soon as he won the nomination.</p>
<p>Unlike Roosevelt, Taft’s career ambition was not to be president but chief justice of the Supreme Court, <a href="https://millercenter.org/president/taft/life-after-the-presidency">one that he achieved</a> in 1921.</p>
<h2>Does history repeat itself?</h2>
<p>The result in November, as Roosevelt knew it would be, was <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/presidential-election-1912">a landslide victory for Wilson</a>, who carried 40 of the then 48 states. </p>
<p>But between them, Roosevelt and Taft had taken over half the popular vote, a stark reminder of the importance of intraparty unity and of accepting defeat with grace and dignity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man is surrounded by a crowd of people as he delivers his speech." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501398/original/file-20221215-11305-offkps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501398/original/file-20221215-11305-offkps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501398/original/file-20221215-11305-offkps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501398/original/file-20221215-11305-offkps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501398/original/file-20221215-11305-offkps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501398/original/file-20221215-11305-offkps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501398/original/file-20221215-11305-offkps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Woodrow Wilson speaks at his presidential inauguration in 1913. At right is outgoing president William Howard Taft.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woodrow-wilson-speaking-at-his-inauguration-news-photo/640476559?phrase=president%20woodrow%20wilson&adppopup=true">Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While unintended, Roosevelt’s self-aggrandizement had another consequence that still burdens his legacy with the weight of historical responsibility.</p>
<p>Wilson, a product of the antebellum South, <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/158356/woodrow-wilson-racism-princeton-university">carried the racial attitudes</a> of his region and class into the White House.</p>
<p>He segregated parts of the federal civil service, offered praise to the racist film “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/hundred-years-later-birth-nation-hasnt-gone-away">Birth of a Nation</a>” when it appeared in 1915, insulted and demeaned <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/wilson-legacy-racism/417549/">Black civil rights leaders</a> on the rare occasions when he deigned to meet with them at all, and even refused to offer Black Southerners the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/shfgpr00">federal jobs</a> they had negotiated under Republican administrations.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/teddy-roosevelt-s-racist-progressive-legacy-historian-says-part-monument-n1234163">Roosevelt’s racial animosities</a> were not as deeply held as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/wilson-and-race-relations/">those of Wilson</a>, he nonetheless helped usher in an era of greater racial discrimination.</p>
<p>Mark Twain <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/history-doesnt-repeat-but-it-often-rhymes_b_61087610e4b0999d2084fb15">once said</a> that “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.”</p>
<p>As today’s <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3766318-georgia-loss-fuels-gop-divisions-over-trump/">sharply divided GOP</a> looks to the 2024 election, Roosevelt’s promotion of his own ego and vanity over the institutional well-being of the political party through which he had become New York governor, vice president and president provides an ominous example of the tendency of history to rhyme. </p>
<p>Just as it was in 1912, the <a href="https://time.com/6233840/donald-trump-gop-hostage-announcement/">Republican Party is being held hostage</a> to the whims of a former president who has shown that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-sore-loser/2020/11/14/b6c58500-2375-11eb-a688-5298ad5d580a_story.html">he will storm away</a> from a game he loses, petulantly overturning the board as he leaves.</p>
<p>If Trump does so, I believe the continued existence of the Republican Party will be in jeopardy. </p>
<p>The GOP survived 1912. </p>
<p>It may not be as fortunate next time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerald Podair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If Donald Trump decides to leave the Republican Party and start his own, Teddy Roosevelt and the presidential election of 1912 offer the GOP an ominous warning. Hint: The Democrats win.Jerald Podair, Professor of History, Lawrence UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/739672017-03-24T09:43:01Z2017-03-24T09:43:01ZDangers of the witch hunt in Washington<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162312/original/image-20170324-4938-idddo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers at hearing on allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an anthropologist, I know that all groups of people use informal <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/anthropology/social-and-cultural-anthropology/witchcraft-sorcery-rumors-and-gossip">practices of social control</a> in day-to-day interactions. Controlling disruptive behavior is necessary for maintaining social order, but the forms of control vary.</p>
<p>How will President Donald Trump control behavior he finds disruptive? </p>
<p>The question came to me when Trump called the investigation of Russian interference in the election “<a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-russia-focus-political-witch-hunt">a total witch hunt</a>.” More on that later. </p>
<h2>Ridicule and shunning</h2>
<p>A common form of social control is ridicule. The disruptive person is ridiculed for his or her behavior, and ridicule is often enough to make the disruptive behavior stop. </p>
<p>Another common form of social control is shunning, or segregating a disruptive individual from society. With the individual pushed out of social interactions – by sitting in a timeout, for example – his or her behavior can no longer cause trouble.</p>
<p>Ridicule, shunning and other informal practices of social control usually work well to control disruptive behavior, and we see examples every day in the office, on the playground and even in the White House. </p>
<h2>Controlling the critics</h2>
<p>Donald Trump routinely uses ridicule and shunning to control what he sees as disruptive behavior. The most obvious examples are aimed at the press. For example, he refers to The New York Times as “<a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/02/new-york-times-ceo-takes-on-trumps-false-failing-claims-234541">failing</a>” as a way of demeaning its employees. He infamously <a href="http://www.people.com/politics/trump-denies-mocking-journalist-disability-watch-video/">mocked a disabled reporter</a> who critiqued him. </p>
<p>On the other side, the press has also used ridicule, calling the president <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/8/1631304/-The-world-has-taken-Donald-Trump-s-measure-toxic-incompetent-and-weak">incompetent</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/opinion/is-it-time-to-call-trump-mentally-ill.html">mentally ill</a> and even making fun of the <a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a47296/donald-trump-hand-size-chart/">size of his hands.</a> </p>
<p>Trump has shunned the press as well, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/14/media/donald-trump-media-blacklist/">pulling press credentials</a> from news agencies that critique him. Press Secretary Sean Spicer used shunning against a group of reporters critical of the administration by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/white-house-sean-spicer-briefing.html">blocking them from attending</a> his daily briefing. And Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shook off the State Department press corps and headed off to Asia with <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/rex-tillerson-reporters-asia-state-236109">just one reporter invited along</a>. </p>
<p>Again, the practice cuts both ways. The media has also started asking themselves if they should shun Trump’s surrogates – such as Kellyanne Connway – <a href="http://www.gq.com/story/heres-an-idea-stop-putting-kellyanne-conway-on-tv">in interviews</a> or <a href="http://pressthink.org/2017/01/send-the-interns/">refuse to send staff reporters</a> to the White House briefing room.</p>
<h2>Accusations of witchcraft</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161639/original/image-20170320-9114-1hbuhky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161639/original/image-20170320-9114-1hbuhky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161639/original/image-20170320-9114-1hbuhky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161639/original/image-20170320-9114-1hbuhky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161639/original/image-20170320-9114-1hbuhky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161639/original/image-20170320-9114-1hbuhky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161639/original/image-20170320-9114-1hbuhky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Witches persecuted in Colonial era.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2003677981/">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But what happens when informal means of control don’t work?</p>
<p>Societies with weak or nonexistent judicial systems may control persistent disruptive behavior by accusing the disruptive person of being a witch.</p>
<p>In an anthropological sense, <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/witchcraft-oracles-and-magic-among-the-azande-9780198740292?cc=us&lang=en&">witches</a> are people who cannot control their evil behavior – it is a part of their being. A witch’s very thoughts compel supernatural powers to cause social disruption. If a witch gets angry, jealous or envious, the supernatural may take action, whether the witch wants it to or not. In other words: Witches are disruptive by their very presence.</p>
<p>When people are threatened with an accusation of witchcraft, they will generally <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Navaho-Witchcraft-Clyde-Kluckhohn/dp/0807046973">heed the warning</a> to curb their behavior. Those who don’t are often those who are already marginalized. Their behavior – perhaps caused by mental disease or injury – is something they cannot easily control. By failing to prove they aren’t a “witch” – something that’s not easy to do – they give society a legitimate reason to get rid of them. </p>
<p>When communities and their leaders turn to accusation of witchcraft as a means of social control, it usually leads to executions. From the 15th to the 17th century, as many as 100,000 accused witches were put to death <a href="http://www.routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138808102/">in Europe</a>. And in Salem, Massachusetts, 20 people were executed during the notorious <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/">witch trials</a> of 1692 and 1693.</p>
<h2>Modern societies aren’t immune</h2>
<p>While few people today believe in witches that doesn’t mean that modern societies have given up the idea that there are people who are inherently disruptive or even dangerous to society. We might not always use the word “witch,” but the idea of purifying society of uncontrollable evil is still with us. </p>
<p>In the <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/jim-crow.html">Jim Crow South</a> blacks were seen as inherently disruptive to white society and formally segregated. In some cases, they were lynched. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143">Holocaust</a> followed the pattern of a modern witch hunt. The Nazis saw Jews as inherently dangerous and disruptive to social order. At first they humiliated and ridiculed them, then they segregated them in ghettos and finally they executed them. </p>
<p>One could argue that Americans are already accusing immigrants and Muslims of being the witches of our time. Both groups are seen by some in power as disruptive to social order by their very presence. Some even see them as inherently <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442565/muslim-immigration-ohio-state-stabbing-shows-dangers-lets-be-honest">dangerous</a>. Indeed, there are ongoing efforts to separate them from the United States, both by deportation and blocking their entry into the country.</p>
<p>Still, the U.S. has a strong judicial system, so why worry that Americans might turn to accusations of witchcraft – albeit by another name – to control behavior? </p>
<p>The worry is that the Trump administration has shown itself to be highly effective in exploiting informal means of social control to shape public discourse, and has <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-judge-attack-backfire-234649">repeatedly berated</a> the judicial system as ineffective or corrupt. </p>
<p>If the judicial system continues to block the administration’s efforts to control Muslims and immigrants, what will the administration do next?</p>
<p>We need to be mindful of the consequences of identifying people as inherently disruptive to social order, as unable to control an innate evilness, or as being, in anthropological terms, witches. When we start to see witches among us, the end game is death.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Neal Peregrine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A ‘witch hunt’ is what Trump called investigations into his campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. An anthropologist explains the connection between witch hunts and social control.Peter Neal Peregrine, Professor of Anthropology and Museum Studies, Lawrence UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/727332017-02-24T02:06:55Z2017-02-24T02:06:55ZSeeking truth among ‘alternative facts’<p>Part of what I do as an archaeologist is judge between competing claims to truth. Indeed, you could say this is the entire purpose of science. Before we make a judgment about what is true, there are facts that have to be examined and weighed against one another.</p>
<p>When Trump’s senior advisor Kellyanne Conway made her now infamous <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/conway-press-secretary-gave-alternative-facts-860142147643">reference</a> to “alternative facts,” many viewers were stunned. But I am a scientist. I spend my days trying to pull “facts” out of the remains of the past. After thinking about what Conway said, I realized that it was not ridiculous at all.</p>
<p>There are always “alternative facts.” What matters is how we decide which of those alternative facts are most likely to be true. </p>
<h2>Science or authority?</h2>
<p>What made Conway’s suggesting “alternative facts” about the size of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration seem so ridiculous was that, from a scientific perspective, it was <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/24/fact-check-inauguration-crowd-size/96984496/">obviously false</a>. In science, we use empirical observations to generate “alternative facts” that we judge against one another using established bodies of method and theory and logical argument. Photos of the relatively small crowd at Trump’s inauguration gave empirical evidence that Conway’s “alternative facts” that the crowd was enormous were unlikely to be true. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157034/original/image-20170215-27423-svbxzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157034/original/image-20170215-27423-svbxzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157034/original/image-20170215-27423-svbxzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157034/original/image-20170215-27423-svbxzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157034/original/image-20170215-27423-svbxzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157034/original/image-20170215-27423-svbxzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157034/original/image-20170215-27423-svbxzt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Neanderthal stone tools, c. 50,000 to 70,000 years old in Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Stone_tools%2C_Neanderthal%2C_Bad_Urach%2C_Wittlingen%2C_c._50%2C000_to_70%2C000_years_old_-_Landesmuseum_W%C3%BCrttemberg_-_Stuttgart%2C_Germany_-_DSC02685.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’m often asked how archaeologists know whether an object is a stone tool rather than a fragmented rock. We don’t always. Looking at the same rock I might see a tool, while another archaeologist might not. Through science we can usually determine what is true.</p>
<p>We look at how the rock was broken, and whether the breaks were more likely from natural or human processes. We look at wear on the stone to see if it matches that of other known tools. In short, we use empirical observations and methods to decide which description best represents reality.</p>
<p>Conway’s statement was not based on a scientific perspective, but rather on a much older tradition of deciding what is true: the argument from authority.</p>
<p>It was the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/">Enlightenment</a> that gave us science as we know it today. The scientific method was an active creation of men – and a few stalwart women – in the aftermath of the <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/01/economist-explains-5">Thirty Years’ War</a> who were intent on upending what at the time was viewed as a venerable method of judging between competing claims to truth: Whatever the people in power said was true. That an individual saw or thought or reasoned something different did not matter. The men who created science believed argument from authority caused the Thirty Years’ War, and they developed science so it could <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6bYgQ26xGXMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:0226808386&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9haWDwYjSAhUIxVQKHUC9AHQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">never happen again</a>.</p>
<p>By contrast, Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sean-spicer-berates-media-over-inauguration-crowd-size-coverage-2017-1">statement</a> on the inauguration shows argument from authority in its clearest form: “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.” His attitude isn’t just anti-fact, it’s anti-science.</p>
<h2>Are we entering a post-Enlightenment world?</h2>
<p>We seem to have raised the argument from authority to a new level of acceptance, culminating in this election’s cascade of “false news” and “alternative facts.” I believe it is the culmination of a <a href="http://www.salon.com/2008/02/15/susan_jacoby/">long retreat</a> from the scientific perspective on truth. </p>
<p>When I was a new professor in the early 1990s teaching human evolution, I found myself pitted against creationists who believed God created humans exactly as we are today, without any process of evolution. Theirs was an argument from authority; specifically, the authority of the first two chapters of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1">Genesis</a>. I did not recognize that argument at the time, and tried to counter it with scientific facts. </p>
<p>I realize now that my approach did not work because we were not arguing about the scientifically accepted facts. We were using different methods of judging what is and what is not a fact. This debate had been active since the Scopes “<a href="http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/trials.php?tid=7">Monkey Trial</a>” in 1925, where high school science teacher John Scopes was arrested and tried for teaching human evolution in a public school. But in the 1980s, the debate became a tool in the political arsenal of the religious right. Their growing power in American politics rekindled a longstanding American tradition of <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/09/richard-hofstadter-and-america-s-new-wave-of-anti-intellectualism.html">anti-intellectualism</a> and unease with the scientific perspective. </p>
<p>Empirical data carry little weight against an argument from authority. And the reverse is true too.</p>
<p>In 2010 I became embroiled in a debate within the American Anthropological Association about their revised mission statement, which had thrown into question the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/science/10anthropology.html">role of science in anthropology</a>. All references to “science” had been removed from the mission statement. I argued that anthropology had been led astray by postmodernism and needed to reestablish science as its guide. </p>
<p>Postmodernism arose out of linguistics, but was adopted widely in literary criticism and anthropology. <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/soc-sci/#SSH2cii">Postmodernism</a> argues that empirical reality cannot be separated from the experiences and biases of the observer. For example, if I were in the crowd at Trump’s inauguration I might think it was the largest ever because it was the largest crowd I had ever experienced. But the experience of someone who regularly attends large events might think the crowd was relatively small. Even though we would be observing the same “fact,” our understanding of the “truth” of the inaugural crowd size would differ because of our differing experiences with crowds. In effect, both would be true.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"822548522633400321"}"></div></p>
<p>In a postmodern world, facts are slippery because they are shaped by personal experience. In its extreme form, postmodernism melds into <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/solipsis/">solipsism</a>, which is the idea that there is nothing real outside one’s own mind. In solipsism the inaugural crowd exists only in one’s mind. The inauguration broke attendance records because it did in Trump’s mind. In this way all argument devolves into an argument from authority – the authority of the self.</p>
<p>Is Trump’s presidency part of a larger movement toward a solipsistic world? Perhaps. And if so, which solipsist gets to say what is fact and what is not? </p>
<p>And where does that leave science?</p>
<p>We must recognize the logic we use to discriminate fact from nonfact. Showing something to be false by “fact checking” has little impact on those whose facts are determined by authority. If we want to undermine the argument from authority we cannot do it through science – we have to do it by undermining the authority itself. And if we want to undermine science – well, we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that already.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Neal Peregrine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How do we determine what is fact? An archaeologist explains how the answer has changed over time and why it matters so much now.Peter Neal Peregrine, Professor of Anthropology and Museum Studies, Lawrence UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/454122015-08-13T05:56:15Z2015-08-13T05:56:15ZBetter policies are needed to support local adoptions for children orphaned by Ebola<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91103/original/image-20150807-9923-1qqvlu9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Better policies could do a lot to help children orphaned by Ebola.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unicefguinea/15463546618/in/photolist-pysHEJ-pQYZTJ-r5ndGw-oerhxP-rwjPiC-ryvKVC-sxxkhj-sQ8odZ-rTmqpZ-rT8Lto-sxFrin-sxzCX7-rT9CT1-sxxHwE-sPXwLS-rTm4wX-sxGSLV-sPWrsY-sQa1jP-sxF3Gk-sxysQq-sQ9qoD-rTkDaa-rTkcJR-sMQPCh-rTk88M-sPWYAQ-rT8bFU-pzfgiA-ocvwnC-oeri1x-ocAdRU-ocEnhB-oaC3rY-nVaX1B-oaC4wJ-oaC3YE-ocEmMt-nVbPzR-rJN9R3-pJhysz-nVazSf-rqyqtk-rqqYhq-roGdBZ">UNICEF Guinea</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>While the worst of the Ebola epidemic has passed, its impact is far from over for the orphans left behind. In Sierra Leone alone, a country of just over six million people, the Ebola epidemic has orphaned more than 12,000 children who have lost one or both family members, according to <a href="http://www.street-child.co.uk/ebola-orphan-report">Street Child</a>, a British charity.</p>
<p>It might seems like adoption is the most obvious solution to help these orphaned children. But adoption in this scenario, whether to relatives nearby or prospective parents overseas, is difficult. Instead, governments in West Africa and international aid agencies should help facilitate adoptions locally and provide better health care and education to support entire communities.</p>
<h2>Family adoption isn’t always easy</h2>
<p>I first went to Sierra Leone in 2005 as a Fulbright Scholar to research the impact of humanitarian aid on children and other vulnerable groups. The orphans I encountered faced many health and educational challenges, but they usually were not homeless. Instead, relatives within an extended family group cared for them.</p>
<p>Traditional adoption, however, is unlikely to help all Ebola orphans throughout West Africa. These orphans are often stigmatized by their association with the disease. In some cases, the orphans are also the only member of their extended family to survive. And the children who endured the disease often need additional medical attention for lingering health problems, such as poor eyesight and joint pain, which few families can cope with alone.</p>
<p>Arranging family adoption is also problematic, as Ebola orphans are clustered in separate communities. Francis Mason, director of the Conforti Community Aid Children Organization (CCACO) of Freetown, emphasized in an interview with me that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The problem is not so much of individual orphans but of groups of orphans in communities where whole families are missing. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the village of Romeni, located in Port Loko province, community members now struggle to care for 522 officially registered orphans. While Romeni, which had a pre-Ebola population of over 2,000, accepts responsibility for the children, the sheer numbers add to the economic stress caused by the epidemic. Food shortages are common, and even clothing the children is a problem. Many have only rags to wear. </p>
<p>In other cases, orphans have moved multiple times, having been taken from their home village to a distant Ebola Treatment Center, and then returned, only to be passed between relatives. Some are unable to be reunited with family members. </p>
<p>While on a recent visit to Port Loko, I learned of one small boy, age six, who became stranded in a care center in Bo, a city far away from his original home. While the boy knew his name, he was uncertain of his home. Despite repeated attempts to find relatives, his village has yet to be located, leaving him for an indefinite time in the care center, separated from family members.</p>
<h2>International adoption won’t help many children</h2>
<p>In past responses to epidemics, international adoption has helped to supplement local solutions. But in this case, foreign adoption is unlikely to be widely used. The policies of both national governments and international organizations make this process complex and lengthy. </p>
<p>In addition, <a>regional norms</a>, developed by the African Child Policy Forum (<a href="http://www.africanchildforum.org/en/index.php/en/">ACPF</a>), actively discourage adoption of Africans by foreigners. </p>
<p>According to Mark Montgomery, professor of economics at Grinnell College and an expert on international adoption, “Very few African countries allow more than a trickle of children to be adopted abroad.”</p>
<p>Although Sierra Leone does not officially prohibit adoption, prospective parents must fulfill a six-month residency requirement. The entire adoption process can take up to two years and includes mandatory field investigations by the US Department of State. </p>
<p>According to the State Department, only <a href="http://travel.state.gov/content/adoptionsabroad/en/country-information/learn-about-a-country/sierra-leone.html">33 children</a> from Sierra Leone were adopted by Americans in 2013.</p>
<h2>Policies to support orphans within their communities</h2>
<p>Adoption alone is unlikely to meet the needs of Ebola orphans. But an integrated approach that enhances traditional solutions with special measures for orphans, their families and their wider communities could do that.</p>
<p>A starting point for this strategy is to establish the legal status of orphans and secure their position with a family member or other caregiver. This may require outside intervention from international humanitarian agencies. It may be necessary to search for surviving relatives in another community or bring children from a distant treatment center back to their village. </p>
<p>In Sierra Leone, <a href="http://www.unicef.org/appeals/files/UNICEF_Sierra_Leone_EVD_Weekly_SitRep_15_July_2015.pdf">UNICEF</a>, in conjunction with the national <a href="http://mswgca.gov.sl/Ebola/index.html">Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs</a>, supports civil society groups that reunite Ebola orphans with family members and help to establish guardianship. Children may be moved from one home to another if their current family setting is unsuitable.</p>
<p>Orphans also need to be protected from the danger of illegal activities. “Ebola has put children more at risk for child trafficking, child abuse, and child labor,” says Haley Clark, Child Protection Officer at <a href="http://www.worldhope.org/locations/africa">World Hope International</a>, an American humanitarian organization, who spoke with me in Freetown. She says that there needs to be more coordination between aid and support services to address human trafficking and child labor in both rural and urban settings. </p>
<p>Most importantly, support for individual orphans could be combined with broader community development efforts that address education, health care, food security and housing. This approach would supplement major initiatives undertaken by the <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/09/25/world-bank-group-nearly-double-funding-ebola-crisis-400-million">World Bank</a> to improve medical care in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In addition, orphans need targeted support efforts in places that are former Ebola hot-spots.</p>
<p>For instance, support for local schools in villages hard-hit by Ebola will help not only orphans but also other children as well. Greater attention to clean water and adequate sanitation in both urban and rural areas is especially important, as improvements in these areas can help to prevent the outbreak of future epidemics.</p>
<p>Greater integration between programs targeted at individual orphans and those designed to help their wider community can help heal the ravages of the Ebola epidemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45412/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claudena Skran received funding from the US government - Fulbright Fellowship (2005-06) and UNHCR - consultant (2011-12) to conduct research on aid projects in Sierra Leone. She is affiliated with the Kidsgive - Sierra Leone scholarship program, supported by Lawrence University and private donors..</span></em></p>Governments in West Africa and international aid agencies should help facilitate adoptions locally and provide better health care and education to support entire communities.Claudena Skran, Professor of Government and West Professor of Economics and Social Science, Lawrence UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/364652015-01-21T17:19:18Z2015-01-21T17:19:18ZThe State of the Union 2015 – a closer look at the president’s ‘ambitious agenda’<p><em>Editor’s note: “The state of the union is good,” and the attitude of President Barack Obama in his annual speech to Congress was upbeat. Good economic news and no more election campaigns were the backdrop to the president’s “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/us/state-of-the-union-obama-ambitious-agenda-to-help-middle-class.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=homepage">ambitious agenda</a>” and “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/?reload=true">assertive</a>” call to action. Here scholars from around the US give their reactions to particular items that the president has put on that agenda.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Tax proposals progressive but not populist</h2>
<p><strong>Elizabeth Pearson, University of California Berkeley</strong></p>
<p>President Obama’s State of the Union tax proposals formed the building blocks of the commitment to “middle class economics” he outlined in his speech. </p>
<p>These proposed tax changes are more progressive than populist: the plan would increase taxes for the very richest Americans and use new revenues to fund proposals aimed at middle- and working-class families, but the speech did not emphasize the tax system’s role in addressing income equality or poverty. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/17/fact-sheet-simpler-fairer-tax-code-responsibly-invests-middle-class-fami">According to specifics from the White House</a>, the tax increases have three main components: raising the top rate for capital gains taxes, imposing a fee on large financial institutions, and removing a tax break for wealthy estates. </p>
<p>Higher revenues would fund expanded child-care tax credits, a new tax credit for two-earner households and additional tax credits for higher education. </p>
<p>Although Republicans in Congress are open to the idea of using tax credits to deliver benefits to working families, using higher taxes on wealthy Americans and firms to pay for these credits is sure to be a non-starter. Obama’s State of the Union tax proposals are best viewed as an effort to set the agenda for a 2016 Democratic party platform focused squarely on middle-class households. </p>
<hr>
<h2>President Obama and the budget: expect more gridlock, no solutions to long-term problems</h2>
<p><strong>Philip Joyce, University of Maryland, School of Public Policy</strong> </p>
<p>State of the Union speeches are opportunities for Presidents to tell us what they stand for and President Obama’s speech was no exception. </p>
<p>The policies that he outlined -— free community college, improvements in infrastructure, tax credits for child care — are consistent with his past agenda. He would apparently pay for those policies by raising taxes on the top one percent -— a recurring idea from this administration.</p>
<p>Regardless of what one thinks about the substance of these ideas, there are two things that we can say with reasonable certainty. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>The tax proposals aren’t going anywhere. With both parties of the Congress in Republican hands, we are more likely to see tax cuts for the top one percent pass than tax increases for any Americans. </p></li>
<li><p>While the President is correct that budget deficits have come down by two thirds between fiscal years 2009 and 2014, the federal debt has risen from 50 percent of GDP to more than 70 percent of GDP over this same period; it is projected to remain there over the next ten years. We heard nothing in the speech about policy proposals -— tax increases for deficit reduction, or entitlement reform – that would put the budget on a sustainable path for the future. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>There seems to be little question that the President’s proposals represent his policy preferences; there is also little doubt that they remind us that we should expect two more years of partisan gridlock. </p>
<hr>
<h2>How education is the key to a model nation</h2>
<p><strong>Stella M. Flores, Vanderbilt University</strong></p>
<p>President Obama issued a State of the Union address that emphasized global leadership on economy and education. </p>
<p>What was not explicitly stated is what <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/attainment-agenda">scholars</a> Laura Perna and Joni Finney, among others, document: that a key factor distinguishing economically prosperous nations from their poorer counterpart nations is the extent to which the poorest of citizens are provided the opportunity for increased education, which can can be translated into skills that enhance national economic growth. </p>
<p>Although the president’s proposals were short on detail, their substance indicates that small steps are indeed being taken toward regaining global leadership on educational attainment. </p>
<p>Obama highlighted notable successes in math scores, high school graduation rates, and college enrollment. But these rates for the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/high-school-graduation-rates-at-historic-high/2014/04/28/84eb0122-cee0-11e3-937f-d3026234b51c_story.html">poorest Americans</a> remain unacceptable. A proposal for free community college – the new standard for the 21st century American Dream – could be a remedy and here is why. </p>
<p>Free college may provide the greatest opportunity for middle-class entry into the 21st century economy not previously imagined for many. The proposal is not without challenges but it could provide a clear and strong signal to those who otherwise are receiving little or confusing information about their ability to access higher education. </p>
<p>President Obama did not venture into discussing his administration’s <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/documents/college-affordability/framework-invitation-comment.pdf">controversial proposals</a> to put together a new college rating system. Instead he focused on providing the bricks and mortar to build the new educational standard for Americans and to reduce student debt. </p>
<p>This strategy addresses opportunity gaps for the poor who still believe in mobility as well as how to sustain any hard-won mobility. The next generation will be stronger because of such efforts.</p>
<hr>
<h2>A lost opportunity to chart education</h2>
<p><strong>Arnold F. Shober, Lawrence University</strong></p>
<p>President Obama’s sixth State of the Union was a missed opportunity for American education. </p>
<p>Yes, he used significant real estate on community college, but what was unmentioned in the speech was that two major federal laws supporting K-12 and higher education need re-authorization by this Congress. </p>
<p>Both the <a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2014/12/what_might_a_republican_no_chi.html">No Child Left Behind Act</a> and the <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/11/05/11hea.h34.html">Higher Education Act</a> were last reauthorized with bipartisan support (in 2001 and 2008, respectively). </p>
<p>Significantly, President Obama has shared ground with several key Republicans on both bills. For K-12 education, the president supports some school choice and public accountability for results. On higher education, some Republicans agree with his views about streamlining student-aid financing and requiring a form of college accountability. He could have used the State of the Union to offer an olive branch on these upcoming bills. </p>
<p>Unfortunately for the president, his community college plan is not likely to win many plaudits from the majority party. </p>
<p>The president called for “zero” cost community college if students kept high grades and graduated “on time.” Republicans are likely to hear a proposal to increase federal spending and expand federal mandates regarding grades and graduation. Neither is likely to sit well with Representative John Kline (R-MN) or Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the chairmen of Congress’ education committees. Alexander has been an especially strenuous opponent of federal regulation of higher education.</p>
<p>Obama seemed at pains to tweak Republicans and propose policies a bit further left of previous addresses. </p>
<p>This, to my mind, is a lost opportunity. To date, the president has enacted his education agenda through temporary waivers and regulations that a future administration can easily revoke. This was his last chance to cement his vision for American education. </p>
<hr>
<h2>Chance for a new approach in energy and climate</h2>
<p>*<em>Michael Greenstone, The University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC)
*</em></p>
<p>President Obama’s former chief of staff and Chicago’s current Mayor Rahm Emanuel once said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste…it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” The same is true of good luck. The recent remarkable reductions in natural gas and oil prices are good luck that we should not waste.</p>
<p>In his State of the Union, president Obama issued another strong call to confront climate change and emphasized the efforts his administration has taken to act on this front. While his efforts have transformed US climate policy, there is a golden opportunity staring us in the face. </p>
<p>Energy price declines present a rare chance to move away from regulatory approaches and set a price on carbon. This move would not only combat climate change and very likely spur further action to reduce greenhouse gases by other countries, but it would also provide the revenues necessary to address several other national priorities, including increasing access to education, infrastructure improvements, shoring up our entitlement programs, and reducing taxes – all of which the president mentioned in his address.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Past time for regulation to deal with cybercrime</h2>
<p><strong>Daniel Lopresti, Lehigh University</strong> </p>
<p>Drawing an analogy to the war on terrorism, President Obama noted – about 41 minutes into his State of the Union address – that he is proposing legislation to protect companies and consumers against cybercriminals. </p>
<p>As we have just witnessed in the attack on Sony Pictures which has been connected to North Korea, such threats are very real, potentially devastating and guaranteed to escalate over time. </p>
<p>In an increasingly interconnected world – an era now becoming known as the “internet of Things” – anything and everything connected to a network becomes vulnerable, including not only computers, but smartphones, TVs, portions of the transportation infrastructure, public utilities, medical devices, appliances, etc.</p>
<p>Beyond the steps government can take to provide law-enforcement agencies with the tools needed to combat high-tech crime, we need a public educated to the nature of these threats so that they are less likely to fall victim, as well as basic research on cybersecurity and cyberdefense. </p>
<p>It is also important to recognize that cybercrime is fundamentally different from traditional crime in that it leverages the interconnectedness of people and systems. Hackers look for the weakest link in a chain which they then use as an entry point to escalate their attack. </p>
<p>That companies should be required to report when their systems have been compromised seems straightforward enough – this is one of the thrusts in the president’s message – but surprisingly regulations like this have generated<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/us-hacking-disclosures-idUSTRE8110YW20120202"> pushback</a> in part because they appear to expose one’s weaknesses to the outside world. This old-fashioned view is dangerous and we need to get over it.</p>
<p>Consider the case of a free, entertainment website that requires no payment and stores nothing more than a user’s login ID and password. Data harvested by attacking a weak system can be turned around and applied in attempts to gain access to more vital systems (e.g., online banking, medical records or email accounts). The weak links in your chain are the systems you use that are not carefully maintained and protected. </p>
<hr>
<h2>The need for cyberhygiene</h2>
<p><strong>Anupam Joshi, University of Maryland Baltimore County</strong></p>
<p>The fact that cybersecurity found mention in the president’s SOTU address, among weighty issues like fundamental new approaches to taxation and foreign policy, is a testament to how important this issue is today. From (corporate) espionage and identity theft to financial crimes and ransomware, cyberspace is where sophisticated state, non-state and criminal enterprise actors are now most active. </p>
<p>The president correctly identified that we need to protect cyberspace to reap the benefits of the digital revolution, focusing on greater information sharing to improve security. </p>
<p>Presumably, this refers to passage of proposed legislation to provide targeted liability protection that would enable more information about private sector attacks to reach the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center. Such legislation will enable researchers to have the data to better understand, detect, and deter attacks, but there are also significant issues around privacy and data security that need to be carefully addressed. </p>
<p>Earlier this month, the White House suggested that better tools for law enforcement, newer requirements on reporting data breaches, and support for cybersecurity education are needed.</p>
<p>These are all important, but I would urge a particular focus on significantly expanding cybersecurity education far beyond the typical college-level courses to train cyber defenders. </p>
<p>What we need is a greater awareness of “cyberhygiene” for the average internet user – simple “preventative medicine” tactics to minimize risk for individuals and for us all. Just as kids are taught to wash hands for 20 seconds or be careful around strangers for example, they should be taught to be careful when clicking on links embedded in emails.</p>
<hr>
<h2>It’s in foreign policy that the president will make a difference</h2>
<p>*<em>I M Mac Destler, University of Maryland
*</em></p>
<p>Obama’s economic proposals have won the headlines, but the international measures he highlighted in his State of the Union will likely be what matter most in his last two years. </p>
<p>Unlike his domestic tax initiatives, which cannot be realized in his presidency, serious, durable change is within reach across a range of foreign issues: Pacific and Atlantic trade, nuclear talks with Iran, relations with Cuba, global agreement on climate change. Congressional action will be needed on some of these, and on the struggle against radical Islam. </p>
<p>Obama is leading on key international matters, and can make a difference.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Health care: still in play</h2>
<p><strong>George A. Nation III, Lehigh University</strong></p>
<p>The State of the Union speech made it clear that the 2016 election season has begun. The speech was about staking out political turf – not about laying out a plan to govern. </p>
<p>With regard to health care, the President proudly stated that today more Americans have health insurance than ever before, and that healthcare inflation is the lowest in 50 years. The President also stated forcefully that he would veto any attempt by Republicans to roll back the progress of the Affordable Care Act (ACA.) Republicans advocate repeal and replace, although they did not discuss the replacement.</p>
<p>The ACA is far from an unmitigated success. The Congressional Budget Office estimates <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/publication/44176">31 million Americans</a> will still be without health insurance in 2023. The reduction in <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/11/06/obamas-claim-that-obamacare-has-reduced-health-care-inflation-every-single-year-since-it-was-passed/">healthcare inflation</a> is likely attributable at least as much to the recession as to the ACA and the process of acquiring insurance is still confusing to many and expensive. </p>
<p>Moreover, President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, according to the <a href="http://kff.org/interactive/health-tracking-poll-exploring-the-publics-views-on-the-affordable-care-act-aca/">polls</a>, is not popular and will likely remain so, as health insurance gets significantly more expensive when <a href="http://kff.org/interactive/health-tracking-poll-exploring-the-publics-views-on-the-affordable-care-act-aca/">two important provisions</a> – risk corridors and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/15/delaying-obamacares-reinsurance-fee-would-be-a-win-for-insurers/">reinsurance</a> (both of which help protect insurers) – expire in 2017.</p>
<p>Moreover, the survival of the ACA is in jeopardy and not just from Republicans. This spring the <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/227891-obamacare-case-scheduled-for-supreme-court">Supreme Court </a>may decide that subsidies are unavailable on federal exchanges, and this would effectively kill the ACA. </p>
<p>While the President can veto any attempt by Congress to repeal and replace the ACA, even his pen cannot veto a Supreme Court decision.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stella M Flores received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anupam Joshi has received funding from both government (eg NSF, DoD and NASA) and industry (including IBM, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin) </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prof. Shober has previously received funding from the Institute for Education Sciences.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel P Lopresti previously received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>From 2010-2014, Elizabeth Pearson received support for her graduate research on taxation in the United States from the U.S. Department of Education through the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>George A Nation III is affiliated with the Philadelphia Bar Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>IM 'Mac' Destler is a registered Democrat. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Greenstone receives funding from the National Science Foundation, EPA and the Sloan Foundation. He is a fellow with the Brookings Institute.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip G Joyce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Editor’s note: “The state of the union is good,” and the attitude of President Barack Obama in his annual speech to Congress was upbeat. Good economic news and no more election campaigns were the backdrop…Stella M Flores, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Higher Education, Dept. of Leadership, Policy & Organizations, Peabody College, Vanderbilt UniversityAnupam Joshi, Professor, Department of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering , University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyArnold F. Shober, Associate Professor of Government, Lawrence UniversityDaniel P Lopresti, Interim Dean, P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science; Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Lehigh University Elizabeth Pearson, PhD Student in Sociology, University of California, BerkeleyGeorge A Nation III, Professor, Perella Department of Finance and Law , Lehigh University IM 'Mac' Destler, Saul Stern Professor of Civic Engagement, University of MarylandMichael Greenstone, Professor in Economics; Director, Energy Policy Institute, University of ChicagoPhillip G Joyce, Professor of Public Policy, School of Public Policy , University of MarylandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.