- Mostly all of the movements for civil rights in the last 50 years, young people have played an integral part of it, whether it was the lunch counter sit-ins down south or the Freedom Rides, young people were engaged and leading the charge.

The most recent movement for justice is no different.

Young people all across the world are participating, leading, serving and organizing in their schools and communities.

They are taking bold steps to fight for justice and equality for all.

On issues of race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation, these young people are on the front lines making the difference.

Hi, my name's Phil Davis and I'm the host of Courageous Conversations.

We're broadcasting from the PPL Public Media Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Joining me to discuss the work they are doing in their communities and in their schools are some amazing young ladies.

Sydne Clarke, a junior at the Emmaus High School founder and president of the First Black Student Union and co president of SOAR Students Organizing Against Racism.

Maddie Hess a 10th grade student at Emmaus High School.

She's a founding member of the new chapter of SOAR.

Nasheera Brown, 11th grade student at Dieruff High School and a student activist.

She's in the early college program at L Tracy and Howard University.

Kayla Dames, a senior at Allen High School and president of the Black Student Union.

Wow.

Thank you all so much for for agreeing to join me.

I want to jump right in because you all have so much to talk about, so much to share.

Sydne, I've had a chance to hear some of your poetry.

Pretty amazing.

You're a leader in your school.

Why do you think it's necessary to be a voice for justice?

And what moved you to action in this moment, in this specific time?

- Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me.

I would just like to say that, yes, as an African-American woman, I feel as though I don't really have the privilege to be complacent and silent about the social inequalities that are occurring in the world as well as my community.

I try my best to live by the saying, "If you want to see something, be it."

And to that effect, I take that and I look at my community and I say like, "Wow, OK, I don't really see a lot "of people willing to use their voice to affect change.

"So in that regard, I will take it upon myself to use my voice "and be the change."

And I think what really drove me to really fight for the rights of my people and other POC really stemmed from Colin Kaepernick.

I remember being in middle school and, you know, being a part of the take-a-knee movement and seeing how that affected people and how much discourse there was surrounding that.

And, you know, just seeing him be so resilient and unrelenting, despite the fact that his job was on the line, he took it upon himself to stick to the movement because he knew that, you know, the prosperity of POC, especially African-Americans, was more important, and I really admire that.

And I've since then, I always just inspired to be him, be like him because he's just such an inspiration.

So that's what really motivated me to really carry on with this work and still does to this day.

- That's amazing.

When you think about, you know, a lot of times in the moment, right, they take a lot of heat.

The Muhammad Ali's of the world, right, The Jim Browns of the world, when they stood up against oppression, even Martin Luther King, right?

They were named troublemakers and so forth and so on.

But history will look back, right, and really celebrate the work of being courageous in moments of challenge, specifically for the rights of others.

That's amazing.

Thank you for that.

Mattie, now you choose to be a voice for oppressed people.

Where did you get your drive to do what you're doing?

And if you could, talk a little bit about what your understanding is of white privilege.

- Yeah, so first, I'd like to say thank you for having me here.

It's it's really exciting to be here.

For me, it probably started when I was about nine years old, when I moved to Pennsylvania and my family opened a independent bookstore, Let's Play Books.

And from the get-go, my mom's mission as the owner of the store was to bring in books that showed diversity, that showed culture, that showed equality in all respects.

And then hit me that how privileged I had been.

I've been an avid reader my whole life.

I was able to walk into a library and see myself on the cover of a picture book.

I wanted to be an astronaut.

I wanted to be a marine biologist.

There was a book with someone who looked just like me that I could find like that.

And it hit me when we opened the bookstore that kids didn't have that.

That wasn't, that wasn't something that a child of color could walk into the library and see themselves.

They had no one telling them, "Yes, you can do it" like I did.

And that was the first thing that hit me, that showed me my privilege and opened my eyes and said, "I have never questioned whether I had the ability "to do something," I could.

I can.

The books, they show me I can.

My classrooms, they show me I can.

So that was my first understanding of my white privilege.

And I'm still continuing, obviously, to do the work to fight to be a better white ally, because everybody deserves that.

Every single child should be able to walk in to a bookstore or to their school and feel like every single adult in that building is telling them that they can be whatever they want to be.

And right now, our society is not promoting that and it's not OK.

So that that's my real drive for it and where it all started.

- Well, that's amazing.

And thank you for that Maddie.

So from a white female perspective, how are your white counterparts and white friends receiving the message that that you're trying to share?

- It's a mixed reaction, I have to say that.

You know, some of them are very forward in saying, "That's the right thing to do, I'm behind you."

And others are very, like, "It doesn't matter, it doesn't exist."

I mean, I have people that I know in my school district who blatantly say that white privilege is not real.

I have teachers that have said that to my face.

I am definitely not getting hate or backlash for the work I am doing.

Definitely not as much as some of the adults that are working with me and some of the students of color that are working with me are, and I'm blessed for that, which is another reason not to give up.

You know, that I'm able to do what I'm doing and not get backlash from it is incredible.

And I can't stop now.

- Good stuff.

Thank you so much, so much.

Nasheera, tell me a little bit about what you're doing.

You're doing some really amazing stuff.

And I was just blown away to hear about your academic accolades at such a young age.

What is the Black Scholar Society, and tell us about how you ended up attending Ultrasuede and Howard University all at the same time.

It's pretty intense.

- So, the Black Scholar Society is an organization within the school that I thought we should put in, because there's not many programs, there's the multicultural program that they have for the students, but they don't have a program specifically for the Black and Brown students inside the school.

So, I was like, it would be really cool to implement this inside of the school, like they have all these other programs for our students.

Why not have this program that we could really benefit from?

So...

I got a few teachers and parents to try to help and push the program forward, and I even got my allies from the Black Student Union at Allen to help me push it forward, because I had some issues and run-ins when trying to create the programs.

So, yeah, I did that.

We did that.

And...yeah, Covid hit.

So, it wasn't too much that we could really do in the process of getting it up and running.

But we are working on the structure, the students, and the meaning of the program.

- You said you had some run-ins, though.

What kind of run-ins did you have, if you don't mind talking about that?

Were there people that gave you push back against a program such as this?

- Yes, there was a lot.

So, in the beginning, basically how it started was it was Black History Month last, well, 2020.

And I wanted to read poetry on the loudspeaker at the school.

So, I was able to read the poetry.

But when I read my poem, it was a specific poem that I wrote.

And it was ode basically to Black students and to Black people as a whole.

And it was telling them to embrace who they are, embrace your melanin, that your ancestors gave you their power and they fought for you to be able to do that.

And my principal told me that it was too strong, like, it'll affect... - Incredible.

Incredible.

- And I'm just, like, "Well, they need to hear it.

Why not?"

And he told me no.

So, I didn't get to read that poem.

Then I actually entered that poem into a, like, a poetry exhibit and I won.

- Congrats.

- Then we had a meeting.

It was me and Kayla with a bunch of other panelists from the Allen Black Student Union.

And that's when we met up with Mr. Mayfield.

I think that's his name, Principal Mayfield.

And they helped m, they were like, "OK, we're going to get "the superintendent involved.

"We're going to get this person involved."

And from then on, it was just like, OK, then I have like a yes, my principal came.

He gave me the yes.

And we've been working on it ever since.

- Yeah.

Well, congrats to you.

That pretty amazing.

I'm going to come back to you, I want to get Kayla in, too, because it sounds like you all are working in tandem and working together, you're a power group on the screen.

So, Kayla, from an emotional perspective, can you tell me a little bit about how the events of last summer impacted you?

The Ahmaud Arberys, the Breonna Taylors, the George Floyds, and the plethora of other folks that we had to watch, you know, be publicly killed, murdered, however, how did that impact you?

And did you participate in any of the marches?

And how did that affect you as a person, as a young African-American female?

- It was like...it's not new, let's just say that.

This has happened for years.

This is nothing new.

But it was just something about this summer, and I know they could say as well and agree with me that this is what really sparked the movement.

Like, we all knew that police brutality was a thing before.

We were all fighting for it before.

But this summer, it was just something different.

Once Breonna Taylor hit, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, this is when people finally woke up and was like, "Yeah, we need to do something."

And I had already been acting like beforehand, like, all school year.

And once summer hit, it was like...

The work that we were doing, not that it didn't matter, but it was almost like we need to take it up a notch because it's almost as if they're not listening.

So then, when summer hit, it was like the protest, everybody went, we had more panel discussions, everybody was posting.

It was a big uprise for social media that everybody felt like we need to spread the word even more and get this out.

So, it just made me more passionate in the work I was doing.

It made me want to fight more.

It made me want to sit here and go up to politicians myself and, you know, it was just...

It's so sad that we still have to go through this.

But I felt like it was the push that everybody needed at the end of the day, too.

- Yeah, it's almost like it was a perfect storm, right?

Because Covid hit, people had to slow down.

People were at home, watching television, and then, this succession of public, you know, really killings, really begin to get amplified.

And I think people begin to pay attention.

Kayla, so what is the thing...

I know you're president of the Black Student Union, what is the thing you're working hardest to achieve within your school?

Like, what are you really pushing towards?

- Right now, I feel like we're pushing towards, like, the expansion of the curriculum at this point, because I feel like there's just a huge, huge gap in history, especially Black history is not taught at all, I would say, amongst our school district, and even in the Lehigh Valley.

I know Sydne and Maddie, they probably have problems in their history, like, there's constantly gaps and misconceptions, and just, like, lies told in our history classes about our history.

And a lot of the times, it's not brought up at all.

They just talk about slavery for a little bit, and then, automatically skip to the Civil Rights movement as if there's no in-between, that there's no entrepreneurs, no innovators, no nothing that helped bring this country to where it is today.

So, we feel and know that the Black Student Union, the main focus was to educate ourselves and to, like, enlighten ourselves about the stuff that they left out, because it's sad that we had to do that on our own.

But it was so important to us to learn about our history and learn about the stuff that we were missing out on, and being able to share to our peers and even the other adults and the teachers that would have never known about the stuff that we learned about because they weren't taught that in their school.

So, that's what I'm really pushing for.

Yeah.

Hey, listen, you can go back and watch the show we did on the whitewashing of education, right on Courageous Conversations.

Syd, so when you discussed issues of race and justice in school, how was it received by the administration, your nonminority students?

I kind of asked Maddie that question, but coming from an African-American female, you're now with SOAR, right, you have these students organizing against racism, when you're having these discussions, how is it received, and how do you push beyond all of the pushback that you may receive from other people?

- Yes, so regarding administration, I'm lucky enough to know that, you know, they haven't given any negative responses or feedback, thankfully, and I think part of it has to probably do with the events that followed over the summer with the Black Lives Matter movement.

So I am grateful for that.

But, you know, and regarding non-POC students, again, haven't seen that much discourse, thankfully.

But there are some people who are in opposition.

And that, you know, is expected with the work that I'm doing, there's never going to be people on both sides who agree 100%, like, I've seen comments about the work that we do regarding SOAR and, you know, something about the Black Student Union.

But, you know, again, I think being an African-American woman has given me tough skin, and I can push forward and I will continue to push for it, because I know that the goal for everything that I'm doing and everyone on this call is doing is bigger than ourselves.

And I'm not going to let, you know, a few opposing opinions distract me or derail me from what I got to do, because it's more important than anything.

- That's amazing.

Thank you so much for that.

And so, Maddie, I know you're a part of SOAR.

Can you tell us what SOAR does, and how are you impacting the school in which you all are attending?

- Yeah, so we just got it up and running about a month ago now as an official club or organization that other students in the school can join, which we've been really looking forward to.

Previous to calling it SOAR, we were calling ourselves the EPSD Coalition for Equality.

And that was about maybe eight students and a few teachers and adults from outside the school.

And at that point, and we still are, focusing on one change in the curriculum.

We want Black history to be taught in every single subject all days of the year, or all the of the school year.

It does not belong in just a week or a month.

And it belongs in every subject, not just history.

Black joy, Black inspirational pieces, like, we need to see more.

We are also focused on diversifying our staff.

I'm not going to share specific statistics because I'm not knowledgeable enough to say it with 100% certainty.

But I can say that the school district is huge and we do not have almost any representation of people of color in our staff or administration.

And that's not OK.

So we're trying to do that, as well.

And we're also trying to get all of our teachers to get explicitly anti-racist training on how to handle problems, situations, anything that may arise in the school, to handle it well and to not classify racism as a bullying incident.

Because it's not.

- That's amazing.

You all are busy!

You're doing a lot of good work.

Nasheera, so being an African-American young lady, how do issues of race affect you emotionally?

I think a lot of times, what happens is folks on the outside looking in really can't appreciate the lived experience of being an African-American, an African-American female.

So what has been the emotional impact of all that has been going on?

And can you talk a little bit about, for our viewers, just the students, right, that you are engaging with, and where you would kind of discern they are emotionally?

- Being an African-American female right now is tough, because there's a lot of hate, but at the same time, how I look at it, I don't let people try to bring me down with their words, like I'll use people's, their fuel that they have in their words, I'll use that as like a pushing point, like, I'm not going to let you try to bring me down because you think you have something against me.

That's your vendetta, not mine.

But I'll take it and I'll use it and I'll push further and try to move on.

But, as far as the students that I work with and those students around me, I do feel like they're kind of emotionally struggling because there's not many people that listen to them.

There's not any people who are there to, like, pat them on the back and then push them and say, "Here you are.

"You're going down the right direction," pat on the back.

Most people don't have that.

But if they did have it, I'm pretty sure that we would see a large, large change within the district and within many communities in the world.

I also do feel that, if we were provided with more mental support within the schools, we would have less drug addiction, less drinking addiction, our grades, our test scores, everything would go skyrocketing high.

And we wouldn't be the lowest district out of the three states that's right over here.

Like, we wouldn't, and you would see a major change if we had more guidance counselors that, like, really, really cared about the students and the work that they do, then we wouldn't be a statistic.

We wouldn't be on that chart.

- Wow.

Wow, thank you.

Thank you for that.

You know, it's amazing because now we're having discussions and we're using words like white supremacy and white privilege.

You know, in my day, we couldn't even mention that stuff or else we'd be labeled a racist.

So, it really seems that time is changing.

And conversations like this, courageous conversations are happening all across the United States, but not just in the United States, in the world.

And we're having open and honest discussions about historical racism, right, institutional racism, you know, structural racism and the history of Africans in America.

When you think about, Kayla, having the freedom, the capacity to have these discussions, how does it make you feel as an African-American woman, and what are your hopes for your future?

- I feel good because my mom was always big on, "Be heard, don't let anybody shut you up.

"When you have something to say, say it.

Speak up."

And I feel like this is just allowing me to show everybody else that it's not OK to be silent.

When you feel like you need to speak up on something that is heavy on your heart and your passion, speak up on it.

And no matter how uncomfortable people may take it or, like, one thing about society is their reflection of their self.

So however they react to certain things is how they ultimately feel inside.

So, when people have, like, negative reaction to the conversation that we have, it just shows how they feel about it ultimately, at the end of the day.

So, when I'm talking about it and I'm, you know, showing people that, at the end of the day, I'm a strong Black woman and I must speak my truth, I'm allowing all the little girls looking up to me, seeing that I can do that, too, because I know when I was little, I didn't have anybody to look up to and say, "Oh, wow.

"She's just talking so freely," and nothing's going to, you know, no backlash and nothing, just no care in the world.

I didn't have that.

So I want somebody to look at me and say, "Wow, I can do that."

- That's great.

That's amazing.

So, what are your hopes?

And I'm going to give each of you a minute to talk about what your hopes are for your future?

So what is your aspiration?

What do you want to do after you graduate college and move onto your future?

- So, after I graduate, I would like to go to HBCU.

I don't know which one yet, but I've been looking at a couple.

I would like to become a genetic counselor and pursue that as my career.

Oh, I would like to still continue in activism, because this is what I'm passionate about.

I'm passionate about standing up for my people.

And I feel like there's still work that needs to be done.

There's still so much, so many issues in this world.

And I feel like if I'm able to change it in some type of way, then that's all I want in life.

- Awesome.

What about you, Maddie?

What are your plans?

- Future hopes is to become a college history professor.

- Wonderful.

- I love history.

I love political science.

So, that's another thing.

I definitely would not be giving up on activism.

I want to be a history professor so I can bring diversity and culture into the classroom.

It's kind of the dream for the future.

- Excellent.

Excellent.

What about you, Nasheera?

- I really want to pursue getting my associate's degree and moving on, and continuing my bachelor's at Howard.

When pursuing my bachelor's, I would love to get my law degree and then, further that and become a district attorney, because...

It's better to start where the more trouble is, and those higher positions.

So, I really do feel like I belong there.

Thank you so much.

We're so excited to see all of your futures.

Syd, we're going to end with you, Sydney.

We're going to end with you.

So you've got about two, two-and-a-half minutes.

I think you're going to do one of your original pieces.

Are you prepared?

Are you ready to go?

- Yeah, I'm prepared.

Yes.

I thought, I think that this piece that I'm going to be sharing was very befitting for the event and theme around courageous voices.

And I recently wrote it, and it's called "Do You See Me?"

Monkey see, monkey do.

Do you see me?

Your classrooms bore me.

You never tell the truth about the ones who came before me.

Why?

Monkey see, monkey do.

Do you see me?

School is a paradox.

It is seemingly a vessel for molding great minds, yet it is the place where we learn the art of unlearning.

It is the place that tells Black girls and boys that they are merely descendants of misery and despair.

Black icons, Black trailblazers, Black revolutionaries, forgotten in the great vessel of learning.

Our beauty, our journey, our story, our impact.

All forgotten in the great vessel of learning.

In this place, our truth is one that is not held to be self-evident.

If education is the passport to the future, why are you so insistent on forgetting our past?

Monkey see, monkey do.

You don't see me.

If you did, you wouldn't project the notion that my history is anything less than rich.

Contrary to what you teach me, I can be wealthy like Mansa Musa.

I can be innovative like Marie Van Brittan Brown.

I can be successful like Madam C.J.

Walker.

I am intelligent, just like Katherine Johnson.

I am articulate just like Maya Angelou.

I am creative, just like Augusta Savage.

And I can stand my ground just like Claudette Colvin.

It is your duty to mold my great mind.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Now that you see me, what will you do?

Thank you.

- Wow, that was amazing.

You know, they do snaps up for you.

Congratulations.

I want to say thank you to each of you for coming on the show.

You're all amazing.

You all have extremely, extremely bright futures.

And we'll follow your journey and support as we see you doing great things.

There are many people in the Lehigh Valley doing courageous work to engage and enhance the lives of others.

And we would like to put them in the spotlight.

If you would like us to highlight the courageous work of someone in your community, let us know by going to... We would love to hear your suggestions.

Viewers make sure to stick around for Counter Culture with Grover Silcox.

His show is straight ahead.

I'm Pastor Phillip Davis.

On behalf of everyone here at PBS 39. thanks for watching.

Make sure to tune in Tuesday nights at 6:30 PM right here on PBS 39.

We'll see you soon.