MEA lauds three with Human Rights honors
Harold Bragg, Christina Arnold, Sharon Claytor Peters receive prestigious awards for their long-time efforts.
Coloma teacher receives Coleman Award
‘If we love rather than hate, if we promote rather than look for ways to divide, we’ll all be better people.’—Harold Bragg.
For teacher Harold Bragg and his
students at Coloma High School,
civil rights is more than a history lesson
about race relations in America.
But don’t jump to the conclusion that the historical context of the civil rights movement isn’t important, because it is.
Bragg wants his students—who were born more than 30 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional—to understand and appreciate the roles they play in an evolving global society.
“Sadly, if we’ve been born in America, I don’t think anybody can escape race and prejudice,” says Bragg, who started teaching in Coloma about 24 years ago. “If we can’t live in harmony here, how can we hope to live in harmony with peoples from other parts of the world with different cultures?”
Valuing relationships
Bragg works hard to help students value relationships with others. His work was recognized in April when he was awarded the Herman W. Coleman Award from MEA. The award, one of the association’s highest honors, recognizes a program, special event or person who has demonstrably served to improve the quality of human relationships.
Bragg teaches world history, U.S. history, human relations and global studies. His students adore him—during a recent visit, students praised him as a positive role model who respects their ideas and views. He also works with students who participate in a conflict resolution group called the Student Forum.
Healing hatred
Bragg started the Student Forum as a way to heal racial misunderstandings and hatred among students.
“I talk about love all the time,” Bragg said. “My attitude is that in the future, if we love rather than hate, if we encourage rather than discourage, if we promote rather than look for ways to divide...we’ll all be better people.”
Historical disconnect
One of the challenges that Bragg faces is the disconnect that some students have with historical events of the civil rights movement. A film last spring that depicted a white man shooting a black man prompted one student to ask: “Did that really happen?”
It’s a question that Bragg welcomes because, he says, “too few are even aware of the history.”
Observing the struggle
Bragg uses his own first-hand observations of the struggle for equality in America as a way to illustrate human relationships. Bragg attended the march on Washington in 1963, the largest demonstration ever seen in Washington, D.C., and was present when the Rev. Bruce Klunder was killed by a bulldozer in 1964 while protesting the construction of a segregated school in Ohio.
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Bragg earned degrees from Kenyon College and Kent State University. He completed graduate work at Harvard University. He is married and has two adult children and two granddaughters.
Respecting diversity at the heart of Grand Rapids CC program
McMahon Award recipient Christina Arnold: ‘There are so many dimensions to diversity. We’re really proud of how we define diversity.’
Childhood visits with her grandfather
to camps for migrant farm workers left a
lasting impression on Christina Arnold.
“He took us there so that we could appreciate what we had and to teach us that not everybody had what (we) had,” recalls Arnold. “To respect people, to respect all people, regardless of what they do. Regardless of if they speak English. Regardless of whether they’re working in the fields or corporate America. You treat everybody with respect.”
Arnold’s professional life is all about respect. As director of the Bob and Aleicia Woodrick Diversity Learning Center at Grand Rapids Community College, Arnold devotes much of her time to helping others learn why it’s important to respect diversity.
In April, Arnold received the David McMahon Award from MEA, one of the association’s highest honors. The award recognizes groups or individuals outside of the MEA that distinguish themselves by courageously accepting the challenge of moral and ethical leadership in the field of human and civil rights.
Valuable resource for college and community
The Diversity Learning Center is a resource for college students as well as the greater Grand Rapids community. Many of the programs sponsored or organized by the center are free and open to the public.
From lectures and conferences attended by hundreds to more intimate training sessions with 10 or 20 participants, the center offers programs that help expand one’s view of diversity.
“Diversity to us means much more than race or ethnicity,” Arnold explains. “It’s so much more than that. It’s age. It’s disability. It’s sexual orientation. It’s mental health issues. It’s diversity of thought. There are so many dimensions to diversity. We’re really proud of how we define diversity here.”
Grand Rapids Community College’s diversity program dates to 1994, when a diversity team was first organized. From that team of staff, faculty and students grew the Diversity Learning Center, an entity with its own offices in the heart of the college campus that reaches thousands of people every year.
Proud accomplishments
Arnold is proud of the center’s accomplishments. Whether helping an individual appreciate diversity or hosting a youth conference for 800 eighth-graders, including scores of Latino youth, to underscore the importance of a college education, she knows that her work is impacting others.
Over the past year, the center has offered events with compelling titles on serious subjects, including a lecture from the author of “Prozac Nation,” and another titled “Does Hip Hop Hate Women?”
All about respect
Arnold grew up in the Grand Rapids area. Her grandparents were among the first Mexican settlers in the area. She graduated from Grand Rapids Public Schools and started working as a secretary for the community college when she was just 17. Twenty-eight years later, she is honored to receive recognition for her work.
“Often, you don’t realize how appreciated you are or how much the work you do impacts people,” Arnold says, adding that she works along with many others from the college and the community.
“It’s all about respect...It’s about respecting each other and each other’s beliefs.”
Head of Michigan’s Children advocacy group receives McMahon award
Sharon Claytor Peters: ‘The strongest potential for addressing the inequalities that plague us as a society lies with our children.’
From the office where Sharon Claytor
Peters has worked in downtown
Lansing for the past decade, she’s watched
countless students pass by on their way to
school.
The students aren’t her own, but that hasn’t kept her from pouring her heart into her work as president and chief executive officer of Michigan’s Children, a child advocacy group, so that the children walking by—and thousands of others— might benefit.
“We all have a stake in every child,” says Peters, who received the prestigious David McMahon Award from MEA in April. The award honors individuals or groups outside of the MEA that distinguish themselves by courageously accepting the challenge for moral and ethical leadership in the field of human and civil rights.
Peters has a deep sense of responsibility for all children. In her current role, she works with policymakers, organizations and agencies to promote policies and private/public partnerships that improve conditions for children and youth across the state.
Her work is grounded in an innate sense that all children—regardless of race, ethnicity, family income, or any other factor— deserve a nurturing environment that will help them grow into productive adults.
“Our children are the totality of our future,” Peters says, adding that troubling disparities persist between children of color and white children. She believes that society must address these gaps—and work hard to eliminate them.
“When we talk about issues of equality or civil rights and human justice, in all measures of child well-being, there are disparities along racial and ethnic lines,” Peters says. “The strongest potential for addressing the inequalities that plague us as a society lies with our children.”
So, Peters and her colleagues at Michigan’s Children lobby lawmakers for funding or other measures to help. One legislative goal for this year is to expand public funding for evidence-based programs to reduce infant mortality rates for African Americans. Early childhood programs, including parenting education classes, are a top priority, as are building programs that help at-risk youth successfully transition to adulthood.
Peters was honored to be awarded the David McMahon Award, named for a former teacher-leader, MEA Board member and MEA president, who helped MEA commit to protecting and enhancing the human and civil rights of all MEA members. Through McMahon’s leadership in the 1970s, MEA actively sought to include all persons into the mainstream of association activities.
“It’s deeply touching to be suggested for this award, let alone to receive it,” Peters said. “My work has truly been a lifelong mission. I have always felt that I wasn’t placed here to operate in a little box…but to be a part of a wider community.”
Peters is a former member of the Lansing Schools’ Board of Education, and has served in many other leadership posts. She previously served as assistant secretary of state for Michigan, worked for the Michigan House of Representatives, and served as advocacy director for the Michigan Consumers Council. She also worked as a lobbyist for AAA Michigan.
Peters is married to Dr. Melvin T. Peters, a college professor, and is the mother of three children, Troy, Shani and Haile.