Senior Jennifer Sokoler Helps to Bring Conversation About Race from Mississippi to Barnard
 Political Science major Jennifer Sokoler '06 hasn't always known how to talk about racial issues. But her passion to do so led her to a summer internship in Mississippi with a civil rights organization, and this fall she has helped to organize a two-day dialogue about race on campus.
Sokoler received a grant from the Lisa Miller '90 Internship Fund through the Office for Career Development and spent this past summer in Mississippi as an intern at the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Among her many responsibilities, she helped to run a summit on teaching Civil Rights Movement history for teachers from across the state. She also taught rural children about local civil rights leaders and principles, and wrote a grant proposal for the National Endowment for the Humanities to finance the creation of a locally specific Civil Rights Movement curriculum for several towns in Mississippi. But it was the relationships she built with community activists, leaders and participants at the Winter Institute, and members of the Philadelphia Coalition (a multi-racial task force from Philadelphia, Mississippi) that meant the most to her.
"I heard all these great people talking about their own experiences--many of them lived through the Civil Rights Movement--and we became friends," Sokoler says. "The more we talked, the more I realized that their candor and honesty on race was just what we needed to hear at Barnard. It seemed like a logical connection to make and I love the fact I attend a college where if you present an idea, they take you seriously!"
The idea grew into a two-day dialogue on race that Sokoler helped to organize on Barnard's campus. Beginning Sunday, Sept. 18 at 8:00 p.m. in the Sulzberger Parlor (3 rd Floor Barnard Hall), four members--two black, two white--of the Philadelphia Coalition and the Winter Institute will tell their stories and discuss the challenges and promise of interracial organizing.
The morning of Monday, Sept. 19, the Philadelphia team will speak to Professor Randall Balmer's religion class, and they will then participate in a luncheon event co-sponsored by Barnard's Civic Engagement Program called "Living History: The Civil Rights Movement Today in Mississippi." The trip is the first to New York for the four Mississippi activists (which includes Dr. Susan Glisson, executive director of the Winter Institute) , made possible through a generous grant Sokoler proposed to the President's Diversity Fund, the Office of Residential Life and the College Activities Office.
Through the New York City Civic Engagement Program at Barnard, the discussion will culminate Monday night at 7:00 p.m. in the James Room (4 th Floor Barnard Hall) with the inaugural Renee Becker Swartz '55 Lecture as civil rights activist Rita Bender addresses, "The Legacy of the Mississippi Movement--A Call To Action."
Bender is the widow of civil rights activist Michael Schwerner who, with fellow activists James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, was murdered in June 1964 in Neshoba County, Mississippi, while they were working with black Mississippians on voter registration and political empowerment. (Their story inspired the film, "Mississippi Burning.") Bender, the Winter Institute, and the Philadelphia Coalition were instrumental in re-opening the recent trial of the murders in June, where Bender testified.
"We hope the lecture by Rita Bender will highlight three very important issues that all campuses, including Barnard, face: racial diversity, social class diversity, and how to engage with those issues throughout one's life," said Will Simpkins, associate director of the New York City Civic Engagement Program.
Though the September formal dialogue of events might end after Bender's talk, Sokoler hopes this will lead to ongoing discussions about race at Barnard.
"The Civil Rights Movement really started on college campuses and I felt strongly that we needed to bring these activists here to recapture some of that campus vision," says Sokoler. "Part of the 'world-changing' perspective all Barnard women have includes diversity issues and these leaders from Mississippi remind us we can do something about this now. After all, if we don't do it here where we already have common ground, what will it be like when we leave?"
--Jo Kadlecek
Follow-Up: Read about the lectures and discussions here.
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