On September 4, 1957 Reverend Dunbar Ogden, Jr., newspaper editor and civil rights activist Daisy Bates, and 9 African American students, walked to the front of Central High School in Little Rock to enroll in the racially segregated school. They were surrounded by lynch mobs, and prevented from entering by the Arkansas National Guard. The group was eventually admitted, but not without an intense struggle. Ogden and Bates’ involvement as leaders of the movement cost Ogden his pulpit, and Bates’ newspaper, The Arkansas State Press, was forced to close.
This fall, UC Berkeley students delved into this piece of Civil Rights history in “Theater 24 – Documentary Playmaking: Little Rock Nine,” a Freshman Seminar that Reverend Ogden’s son, TDPS Professor Emeritus Dunbar Ogden III, has taught for the past ten years.
Ogden’s account of his father’s experiences, My Father Said Yes: A White Pastor in Little Rock School Integration, was published in 2008. “I wrote the book very much in relation to this seminar,” says Ogden.
Students read several other texts about Little Rock school integration, including Daisy Bates’ book, The Long Shadow of Little Rock: A Memoir. They then selected a person from the story whom they wished to portray, and composed an original 20-minute, 10-page monologue in that person’s voice.
Liz Chen, a freshman who hopes to major in Interdisciplinary Field Studies, was drawn to the course because of her interest in exploring various social issues. “I initially thought the class was going to focus on role playing, but we actually had a lot of great conversations, “says Chen.
“We talked a great deal about current racial issues,” says Ogden. “Was it common to intermingle or date cross-racially in the student’s own high schools? I learn from them.”
Freshman seminars are designed to foster close interaction between faculty and lower division students. “The small class size of 12 gave us an opportunity to talk and be heard,” says Chen. “Professor Ogden is an incredibly sincere and caring professor.”
Through the lens of researching a deeply important historical moment, students also learned how to create effective theater. “We talked about plays, what makes good monologues, how to craft a strong opening sentence,” says Ogden. With an emphasis on solo performance pieces, students studied work by artists such as Anna Devere Smith, then viewed and analyzed those performances.
On the last day of the course each student chose four minutes of their monologue to perform for their classmates, creating a collage of voices. Chen comments, “ What was really helpful was hearing others perform their monologues, because they were all so different. Some were written in a story form, others were more philosophical, others poetic.”
Chen related particularly to Minnijean Brown, a member of the Little Rock Nine whose voice she chose to write a monologue in. “We are both vocalists and like me, she was a feisty kind of person,” says Chen. She describes an incident when a white student poured soup on Minnjean, who reciprocated by drenching him with soup as well. The student received only 3 days of suspension, while Minnie Jean received 6.
“She was passionate and outspoken, and I could totally put myself in her shoes,” says Chen. “If someone was being that unjust to me, I would snap eventually. I know what it is like to want to fight for something.”
Comments on this entry are closed.