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Panel Events
Description
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From Freedom Summer to Ferguson,
Mississippi to Minnesota, we face
challenging times. On Tuesday,
February 17, a panel will share
recollections of Freedom Summer and
insights on progress that awaits.
“Stories from Civil Rights History,
Then and Now” will take place at the
Rosemount Community Center Auditorium
from 6:00 to 8:30 pm.
This free program is made possible
through the support of the Rosemount
Area Arts Council, Dakota County
Library, City of Rosemount, and
District 196 Community Education, with
funding from Minnesota’s Arts and
Cultural Heritage Fund.
Registration
is strongly recommended, in
anticipation of a capacity crowd.
1964 Freedom Summer veteran Gail Falk,
Twin Cities educator and activist
Jason Sole, and author Susan Follett
will speak from both their own
experience and that of the primary
characters of
The
FOG MACHINE.
This historical novel by Rosemount
author Susan Follett was published
June 2014 in commemoration of the 50th
anniversary of Freedom Summer, a voter
registration and education movement.
Meridian, where much of
The
FOG MACHINE is set, became a focal point
of Freedom Summer when civil rights
workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman,
and Michael Schwerner disappeared from
there just days after the program
began.
Ms. Falk and Ms. Follett navigated
life under Jim Crow in 1964
Mississippi, the epicenter of the
Civil Rights Movement. Ms. Falk, who
taught at the 1964 Meridian Freedom
School, will represent the perspective
of the character Zach Bernstein. Ms.
Follett, who grew up in Meridian, will
represent the perspective of the
character Joan Barnes, the child of
middle-class white northerners,
growing up Catholic in predominantly
Baptist Mississippi.
Years later, Jason Sole navigated gang
life and poverty in Chicago. In
addition to representing the
perspective of the character C.J.
Evans, a young black Baptist woman who
leaves Mississippi for Chicago, Mr.
Sole will help bridge 1964 to today.
This is an
evening that will appeal to students of
history, teachers, and parents—anyone
interested in learning from the past to
improve the future. Join us. Experience
the power of stories to provide a shared
language for difficult conversations,
thereby helping to bridge divides. Engage
with panelists and audience around the
vitally important and relevant theme of
The
FOG MACHINE—recognizing and
working against the prejudice within us
all.
Books will be available for purchase and
signing.
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School
Visits
In addition to this event for adults and
teens, the panel will visit two area
schools during the week. They will
interact with students at Patrick Henry
High in Minneapolis on Tuesday afternoon,
February 17 and at Eagan High on Wednesday
morning,
February 18.
Gail
Falk
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Gail Falk, civil rights movement veteran,
heard the call to join the Mississippi
Freedom Project as a junior at Radcliffe
College in Cambridge, MA. She arrived in
Meridian, Mississippi in late June 1964
and was assigned as a Freedom School
teacher at the old Baptist Seminary on
31st Street and 16th Avenue. During the
summer, the school had as many as 300
students taking classes, learning about
black literature and history, biology,
French, and many other subjects, as well
as music and dance. When public school
opened in August and students returned to
their regular classes, she continued
teaching at the Freedom School as an
after-school and weekend program. Besides
teaching Freedom School, Ms. Falk answered
phones and typed letters, played and read
with the young children at the COFO office
on Fifth Street, taught adult literacy,
planned a campaign to test area
restaurants for compliance with the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, encouraged citizens to
participate in the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party, and did a myriad of
mundane tasks related to keeping the
school and office going.
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Ms. Falk
returned to college in January 1965, but
returned to the South for a two-year stint
as a reporter for the Southern Courier
newspaper. Then, inspired by the work of
civil rights attorneys in Mississippi and
Alabama, Ms. Falk attended Yale Law
School, graduating in 1971. While there
she was active in the women's movement,
co-authoring an article on the Equal
Rights Amendment, and served as a member
of the legal defense team for a group of
Black Panther party members on trial in
New Haven.
Ms. Falk began
practicing law in rural West Virginia,
where her representation of disabled coal
miners led to a position with the United
Mine Workers as their black lung disease
legal expert. Later, when her first son
John Nicholas was born with a genetic
disease, she became involved with
disability rights advocacy, serving as
staff attorney for the West Virginia
Developmental Disability Law Project. When
she and her family moved to Vermont in the
late 1980's, she became Director of Public
Guardianship for the State of Vermont,
retiring from this position in 2010.
Jason Sole
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Jason Sole is a former drug dealer, member
of a notorious street gang, and a
three-time convicted felon. The middle of
three children, Jason was raised on the
mean streets of Chicago by a father who
was addicted to drugs and an overburdened
mother left to pick up the pieces. He
joined a gang and turned to a life of
crime to gain a lucrative position of
authority and financially improve his
life.
As a result of his criminal activity, Mr.
Sole has been incarcerated in numerous
correctional facilities. Yet despite the
height of the odds stacked against him, he
turned his life around by earning both his
Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science
degrees in Criminal Justice. He is
currently putting the finishing touches on
his dissertation to complete his doctorate
in Public Safety with a specialization in
Criminal Justice. He chronicles this
journey in his book From Prison to PhD:
A Memoir of Hope, Resilience, and Second
Chances. |
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Mr. Sole is an assistant professor at
Metropolitan State University. He is a
national keynote speaker and gang trainer,
including serving as a national trainer
for One Circle Foundation. Through his
firm, Jason Sole Consulting LLC, he offers
juvenile and criminal justice agencies the
tools they need to influence people
affected by delinquency, incarceration,
poverty, and other social ills. As a 2013
Bush Fellow, he focuses on reducing
recidivism among juveniles throughout
Minnesota.
Winning the
right to vote for everyone, at the heart
of 1964 Freedom Summer, is very personal
for Mr. Sole who is currently
disenfranchised. His advocacy work for a
variety of social issues includes
restoring the vote. As an additional
connection to Freedom Summer, after first
teaching at a Children’s Defense Fund
Freedom School in 2005, he went on to
become a national trainer.
Mr. Sole lives in Eagan with his wife and
two children. |
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Freedom
Songs
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The Soulful Sounds Gospel Choir will
perform these freedom songs:
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“Turn Me Around,” lyrics by Mavis
Staples
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“We Shall Not Be Moved”
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“This Little Light of Mine”
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“Wade in the Water”
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“I’ll Be Rested,” lyrics by Mavis
Staples
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“We Shall Overcome”
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Registration
Seating for
this free event is limited.
Registration
is recommended.
Read an excerpt
from each of the point-of-view characters
in
The
FOG MACHINE
whose experience
will be shared at this event.
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