When you think about the American Civil Rights movement, a few names likely come to mind: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks probably among them. These are well-known names, and for good reason. But, as Professor of History Pamela Walker notes, large names alone do not make history.
Professor Walker centers her courses on ordinary people participating in history. She says that “it’s so empowering to learn about people outside the Dr. Kings and Malcolm Xs,” who reveal that anybody can play a role, and that countless unknown people contributed greatly to historical periods we associate with so few.
Dr. Walker got started on her current book project when she was pursuing her M.A. at the University of New Orleans. The “Box Project” was a 1960s direct-action campaign in which white women in New England, including many Vermonters, sent packages with material goods to black families in the South experiencing poverty and racism. This was a way for older women, typically married and more physically rooted, to still participate and contribute to the social and economic movements of the Civil Rights era without traveling there like many young people did. In her book, Dr. Walker explores the effect that this aid had on both senders in and receivers, in Mississippi, tracking a unique women-led aid movement from origin to finish. By focusing on this type of everyday history, Walker seeks to engage with people who participated without being “self-proclaimed activists.”
Dr. Walker brings this attention to everyday participants in extraordinary movements throughout her teaching. In a course called “Almost Allies” she explores the story of “interracial activism from slavery to the present,” with discussions of the abolition, women’s suffrage, and Civil Rights movements. Another course Dr. Walker will launch in 25-26 will focus on Black experiences in the outdoors. From gardening, to farming, to leisure and recreation, the course will unpack historical traditions and legacies regarding Black relationships to Nature and land.
From her research to her teaching, Dr. Walker focuses on ordinary people participating in history, exploring everyday lives and activism through cultural and social history.