The Right Thing to Do: Public Talk by Dr. Terrence Roberts

I attended an event on public talk by Dr. Terrence Roberts titled, "What Lessons Can We Learn from Little Rock” on May 11th, 2010 at Antelope Valley College Cafeteria. It was a great moment to find personal connection to the civil rights movement period, because I get chance to interact with the person who experienced the historical event. I have learned about “little rock nine” when I took African American History Honors class in Fall 2009 Semester, thus I was very excited to hear Dr. Roberts’ personal experience and his point of view. In fact, he answered my question on “how can we take a step to get rid of discrimination?” His answer encouraged me to practice “the right thing to do” with confidence to improve the society and the mind of people.

The event started with welcome speech by Professor Scott Memmer to appreciate Dr. Terrence and his supporters to attend this event. He also thanked the stuff and instructors who coordinated and set this event. Shortly after the speech, we reviewed brief educational film regarding to historical event of Little Rock Nine in 1957. The film suggested that after 1954 court decision of Brown vs. Board of Education led all segregated public schools in the nation to convert to racially integrated school. Film also acknowledged us that “Little Rock Nine” was a historical event since nine Black students attended their first day of formally White school with National Guard in order to prevent violence from White students. The circumstance in Little Rock High School was particularly bad because majority of population there did not want to support integration; even Arkansas Governor did not want to support racial integration because he wanted to earn popularity from majority of White people in Arkansas who were segregationists, but Federal Government forced to do so.

Then, Dr Roberts initiated to speak his personal experience on racial issue. He exposed that he was taught from his mother that “what to be a black kid in the U.S.” Thus, he was aware of racial problem and became obedient child. He also acknowledged us the experience he have had when he was thirteen years old; he entered to the restaurant for white people by front door and sat there; immediately after sating down, he felt close attention from surroundings. Even though no one said a word, non verbal message was strong enough to convince him that he was been rejected. Thus he ran out from the store running with emotional mess, fear, anger, and hopelessness; then he realized that he could been killed by crowd, just as thirteen years old Emmitt Tilt, Black boy from Chicago who had same age as little Terrence and was killed by white people in Mississippi due to just talking with White lady. When I heard this incident, I was terrified by the fact that how racial tension was strong and injustice was openly practiced under Jim Crow law. Two years later, he voluntarily decided to attend formally segregated white school as one of the first Black students in school history. He revealed that originally 115 students were planned to attend that Little Rock high school; however, rumor, parents, and kids themselves pulled from an option: only nine of them remained. Many people thought Terrence as insane kid because he was taking risk to attend there. Nevertheless, he decide do attend there because he believed that it was “the right things to do.” In fact, little Terrence experienced strong racism. Dr. Terrence Roberts described the very first day of school that he felt atmosphere of non verbal expression of “we don’t like you” from other students, and also felt he is in a “wrong place.” Dr. Roberts exposed the cruel fact that he experienced any physically and psychologically offense which we can image. The words from Dr. Roberts, who experienced the racial struggle, were much more powerful than acquiring the information from the text book. I felt the reality of racism rather than just understanding as a concept by listening to one’s personal struggle in racial issue.
After addressing his personal experience, Dr Roberts allowed us to have open question time. More or less, ten students asked each question. His answers included the idea of “accepting the fact is good, and it does not necessarily mean to accept the idea, because knowing the truth is important to face the issue.” Another idea by Dr. Roberts was that “we are so connected each other; someone impacts another in some way.” He also acknowledged us that “the language is power; people are going to judge based on that.” And the most important idea of all, he addressed that “choosing moral behavior with strongly determined attitude will make others to follow us;” in other words, we should practice what we think “the right things to do.” Dr. Roberts gave us lots of key ideas which help us to be a better person or a role model.

This public talk, on “What Lessons Can We Learn from Little Rock” by Dr. Terrence Roberts, was very productive to recognize that racial issue existed and still continues to exist. There was also a connection to our English class because Dr. Terrence emphasized the importance of the language which we covered in chapter ? of Exploring Literature text book; after studying in our class, I really agree with Dr. Terrence that indeed “language is power.” His humorous tone was unexpected to me; however, this positive attitude of talking on racial issue gave me an impression that he is a very strong minded person who does not flinch with threat. Maybe his optimistic attitude could be one of the factors which succeeded him to be a part of historical movement. His argument of practicing moral behavior as a strong tool to change the society was very convincing after knowing some reflection of Dr. Roberts’ personal character. He demonstrated us that practicing “the right things to do” indeed attract people to follow him. Dr. Roberts’ encouragement of practicing powered moral behavior would nurture future role models from Antelope Valley College who are touched by his words. I will continue believing in my moral behavior to lead society to the right direction.

Works Cited
Roberts, Terrence. What Lessons Can We Learn from Little Rock. May 11, 2010. Lecture.