{"id":4646,"date":"2017-03-01T15:31:36","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T20:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/?p=4646"},"modified":"2020-01-30T10:20:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T15:20:27","slug":"graduate-of-modjeska-simkins-school-talks-about-lessons-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/2017\/03\/01\/graduate-of-modjeska-simkins-school-talks-about-lessons-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"Modjeska School graduate talks about lessons learned"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Rep. Joe Neal congratulations Kyle Criminger at the 2015 graduation ceremony for the inaugural class of the Modjeska Simkins School. <\/em><\/p>\n

As the Modjeska Simkins School<\/a> prepares for its upcoming session, we thought it timely to share Kyle’s thoughts about the school and lessons learned there.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0 \u2022\u00a0 \u2022<\/p>\n

We got perspective at the Modjeska Simkins School<\/a>: a big-picture analysis\u2014a Modjeska Simkins analysis\u2014of South Carolina\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

We learned that there is a direct line of malice from John C. Calhoun, who defended slavery as \u201ca positive good,\u201d to Ben \u201cPitchfork\u201d Tillman\u2019s white supremacist state Constitution of 1895 (under which our state continues to operate to this day), to the coded racism of Harry Dent and Lee Atwater\u2019s Southern Strategy. Always the substance of South Carolina public policies has shown that black lives don\u2019t matter here.<\/p>\n

The imbalance of power in South Carolina is no accident. Because of unprecedented partisan gerrymandering, we have the least competitive legislative elections in the United States. Three out of four representatives faced no major party competition in the 2014 general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our legislators in South Carolina are winning with 99% of the vote,\u201d said Brett Bursey, Executive Director of the SC Progressive Network<\/a>. \u201cThe old Soviet elections we used to make fun of? Well, we now have that here.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Carolinians have the lowest combined state and federal tax burden in the country, yet our legislature tells that us we\u2019re broke when we\u2019re not. In fact, we leave more money on the table in special interest tax exemptions than we take in. We get immoral budgets and refused Medicaid Expansion for 250,000 of us because of petty partisan politics.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s maddening, but our problems aren\u2019t new. \u201cThe names and faces have changed,\u201d notes Progressive Network Communications Director Becci Robbins in Modjeska Monteith Simkins\u2014A South Carolina Revolutionary<\/em><\/a><\/strong>, \u201cbut the political and social dynamics of exclusion, extremism and institutional racism remain stubbornly intact in South Carolina. We share Modjeska Simkins\u2019 frustration and sense of urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time and again, South Carolina history shows us how Modjeska Simkins and so many others have resisted. We are not alone, you see. Have you heard of the Yemassee War, or the Stono Rebellion? Denmark Vesey, or the Grimk\u00e9 sisters? What about Robert Smalls and our state\u2019s Reconstruction legislature, which was the only majority black House of Representatives in the nation? The Lighthouse and Informer<\/em> newspaper, Judge J. Waties Waring, or the Rev. J.A. Delaine?<\/p>\n

Maybe you don\u2019t know these names, events and institutions because the “winners” have written our textbooks. Generations of South Carolinians used Mary Simms Oliphant\u2019s infamous history text into the 1980s. The book spoke of “happy slaves,” and was sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan. (In the 1920s, as a teacher at Booker T. Washington High School in Columbia, Modjeska Simkins refused to use the Oliphant textbook, deeming it racist.)<\/p>\n

So we have on the one hand a state that has lived and died by the Golden Rule. Everybody knows the Golden Rule: regrettably, he who has the gold makes the rules<\/em>. But beside that Rule, we also have stories of rebellion and revolutionary spirits, a South Carolina \u201cpeople\u2019s history\u201d of organizing. And the task Modjeska Simkins and so many other South Carolinians like her have laid out before us: we must organize to form a community of shared values.<\/p>\n

That is 24-7 work. It\u2019s a process.<\/p>\n

Organizing means preparing for opportunities. It entails building an organization that returns phone calls, pays staff, and fosters relationships in the community based on trust and confidence. And it is strategic, a disciplined use of collective energies on effective projects, not by simply being reactive. The best organizers leverage already-existing, well-thought-out organizing tools, and tap into the collective wisdom and experience of those who have come before, just like Modjeska Simkins did.<\/p>\n

We must connect the dots to see that there is only one struggle, and it is for human rights. \u201cIf you have enough sense in your noggin,\u201d Simkins once said, \u201cyou\u2019re going to know a fight is there\u2014and not just for black people, but for all mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The need for exploring our history has never been more critical. The Modjeska School provides an education like none other in South Carolina, one that benefits not just the students but the larger community, as well. As a graduate, I can attest to its value.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0 \u2022\u00a0 \u2022<\/p>\n

Kyle Criminger, a Spanish-language interpreter, serves as Co-chair of the SC Progressive Network. He was one of 35 inaugural graduates of the Modjeska Simkins School for Human Rights. You can support the school by making a secure donation here<\/a>, or by calling 803-808-3384 or sending an email to network@scpronet.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Joe Neal congratulations Kyle Criminger at the 2015 graduation ceremony for the inaugural class of the Modjeska Simkins School. As the Modjeska Simkins School prepares for its upcoming session, we thought it timely to share Kyle’s thoughts about the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[128,142,265,253,136,44],"class_list":["post-4646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-network-newsevents","tag-becci-robbins","tag-brett-bursey","tag-kyle-criminger","tag-modjeska-monteith-simkins","tag-rep-joe-neal","tag-sc-progressive-network"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4646"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5685,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646\/revisions\/5685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}