JCMP
is an important organization that needs to exist because the best way to
prevent past flaws is by educating people on those flaws. It is naïve and
dangerous to forget the past or worse, remember the past wrong. JCMP as an
outreach organization hopes to remind the people of Jefferson county of its
racist history, a history that has not been accurately portrayed. A major
problem in society today is that people have misconceptions about our racist
past and present and that will lead to a racist future. When I say that we have misconceptions I am
referring to an educational system that waters down how it covers civil rights
abuses in the classroom, for example referring to the civil war as a states
rights’ issue instead of what it was, a war about slavery. Another great example
not specific to Birmingham is how North Carolina textbooks don’t accurately cover
a violent coup that occurred in the late 1800s Wilmington. This coup of a local
government occurred because too many black people were elected to office. These
failures in educating our youth about history lead them to believe that racism
no longer exisits and that it is no longer a problem. The danger here lies in
that fact that because racism and racist policies still do exist today that if
we ignore changing them in favor of the status quo then our country will continue
to exist in a perpetually unequal state. JCMP and our fellows work each year to
update and further inform the populous of that flawed recollection of the past
events in order to prevent the youth of today from accepting the inequity that
exists today. Getting to maybe has helped me understand that in order for our organization
to be successful we need to set reasonable goals and that we , as an organization
cannot get complacent. Our organization must always be looking for new ways to
reach people and must always be open to new suggestion. We also cannot place
the burden of ending injustice on our own shoulders, we must understand we are
a cog in the equity machine and that everything we do helps. This internship has helped me realize that I
do have a passion for history and I Realize the importance of using that
history to promote good. I will certainly look to work in similar organizations
such as JCMP throughout my life.