Stealing an Ethnographic Move from Gerald Grant to Understand a School in Connecticut

Bassick High School Tennis Champions, 1949

That is, I've been glancing through photographs of what once was and reflecting on the very moments we have right now.

"Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full-time job." Adlai E. Stevenson

When I was collecting data in Syracuse, New York, I read Gerald Grant's book Hope and Despair in the American City in which he revisited his study of "Hamilton High School" in Syracuse and reflected on the changes he saw in its demographics over time, especially with urban school districts today. His strategy was to thumb through stored yearbooks as a way to gain knowledge of the ways civil rights and equality affected student bodies in a period of twenty years. He noticed locations of testimony depicting a cultural thumbprint of the time (and when I read his work, I laughed - "Hamilton High" is more diverse now than he ever experienced during his research. In fact, the hallways are filled with languages from over 42 countries - refugee relocation has changed the fabric of what he once studied)

Last week, while working with Bassick High School, the principal and I looked at photographs he had hanging in his office - artifacts of Bridgeport's history and a small location of history. One photography from 1949 caught my attention. Why? It is a representation of a student body very unlike the demographics Bridgeport City Schools serves today. 1949 began the economic boom in many U.S., post World War II cities. 1949 was also the year that South Africa established Apartheid. (Interestingly, it was the year the song, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" premiered and George Orwell's 1984 hit bookshelves). 

Driving through Bridgeport now, I can't help but see a forgotten city - one that is a shell of what it once was before industry moved in pursuit of cheaper labor.  I wonder what the 15 boys above would think about the state of education at their alma mater and what perspective they would take on the city they knew as young men. I wonder if they would feel a sense of responsibility to Bridgeport's history and/or a tinge of disgruntled embarrassment at the reality of Connecticut today. Maybe they would be proud. I would hope not.

Bridgeport, like many cities across the U.S., is a sign of the times - one I hope politicians will begin working to restore. Jobs would help. So would more support for educators and students in the public school system. We need real leadership locally, state-wide, and nationally that begins to reign and contain the vast economic gaps of our country. Too few have too much. Too many have too little. Then there are those in-between working too hard to make ends meet to have time to propose better solutions.

1949 - S. Africa

2013 - The United States

I wonder who is working to bring a change for the better. I hear a lot of rhetoric. I see very little action.