Macon Magazine

64 maconmagazine.com | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2024 "We all need a greater understanding of our shared history to appreciate the past and better face the future," said Matt Harper, associate professor of history and Africana studies at Mercer University and committee member of Mercer's community-wide Building the Beloved Community Symposium, which launched in 2005. "The problem is, people can look at the same things, the same streets, the same buildings and neighborhoods, but not see the same thing," he said. "We all have different backgrounds of understanding and misunderstanding and are hindered by not having a wider, shared understanding of the history we've inherited." Free online access to historical education is becoming increasingly crucial. In recent years across the nation, several controversial state laws that limit how racial history and social studies can be taught to students passed into law, including Georgia's House Bill 1084. "Refounding Macon" A N E W V I D E O S E R I E S N O U R I S H E S O U R K N O W L E D G E O F T H E PA ST STORY BY MICHAEL W. PANNELL PHOTO BY ZAINA MAHMOUD/AND SO WE GO PRODUCTIONS T o help Macon become a "win-win" community for all its citizens, Mercer University's Beloved Community Initiative, in partnership with And So We Go Productions, has produced a five- part video series "designed to spark meaningful conversations in Sunday schools, civic groups, classrooms, neighbor get-togethers, and anywhere Maconites gather to seek racial justice," the Initiative shared. Four episodes of the series, called "Refounding Macon," are available now on YouTube, each running 15 to 20 minutes. Soon, all five episodes will be available on a free website with discussion resources. In the series, local historians and community activists discuss Macon's pre-Civil War founding, the Reconstruction era, segregation, and desegregation. The fifth episode will explore future steps. Materials such as "Refounding Macon" preserve accurate histories. "The public doesn't know most of its history, and it's getting lost," said Muriel Jackson, head of the Genealogical and Historical Room at Washington Library. "It's being lost on a generation that should know it. There are older people, too, who you think should know, but [they] don't." Jackson's voice was one of many citizens whose expertise made up the series. George Fadil Muhammad was another. He urged all to view the series, saying, "Everyone is to some degree ignorant of our past, but it should be known so leaders can better serve their constituents, businesspeople better serve their customers, teachers better teach, and so on. Young people who are languishing in poverty and violence need to know who they are and where they came from to take pride and realize they can pursue a different course." Thomas Duval served on the Macon200 Bicentennial Commission and is currently serving on the Mayor's Literacy Alliance. He said, "We have an obligation to know our community's history ourselves and pass it on. We can't live purposeful lives without knowing. And for children, if you don't know your history, you don't know who your heroes should be." Harper said he was proud of the many experts involved and viewpoints expressed. "It's something we need to know to continue to grow and move forward," he said. "It's not at all about pointing fingers or creating guilt. It's about understanding one another and knowing what we can do now, today." Find the series on YouTube at bit.ly/refounding-macon.

• Cover