On a gray December day in 2010,

Transcription

1 Everyone Turns Human Teaching with the Prejean Papers by Susanne Dumbleton, Professor, DePaul University School for New Learning, Chicago, Illinois On a gray December day in 2010, Kathryn DeGraff, DePaul s lead archivist, stood watching as the truck from New Orleans backed into the Richardson Library loading dock. It was cold outside; unlike the steamy days on which she had first seen the arriving materials: letters, manuscripts, trial transcripts, photographs, audio and video files, awards, travel schedules, and memorabilia of the work of Helen Prejean, CSJ, and the Ministry Against the Death Penalty. Prejean is one of the country s leading Catholic social activists, best known as author of Dead Man Walking and Death of Innocents, but recognized nationally for her fierce advocacy for fair representation of the poor before the law, her passionate opposition to the death penalty, and her calls to reduce violence in American culture. Letter from Pat Sonnier to Sr. Helen Prejean, December 30, Sr. Helen Prejean Papers, Box 1, Folder 9. Upstairs, in Special Collections, archivists Helen Fedchak and Kelly Gosa guided student workers in placing the fifty-three cartons on shelves they had reserved. During her summer visit to New Orleans, DeGraff had worked with Sr. Helen s assistant, Sr. Margaret Maggio, to create overall order, but it would take another year to document and scaffold the thirty-five years of collected papers to enable researchers to burrow meaningfully into the ideas. Catholic Library World ~ 17 ~ September 2013

2 Letter from Sr. Helen Prejean to Dear Friends, April 9, Sr. Helen Prejean Papers, Box 1, Folder 10. For the prior three years, I had been studying Sr. Helen s work as a leader for social justice and societal change. I was interested in what she did to alleviate suffering of individuals in her care and her leap to tackle the systemic dysfunction she found at the root of the pain, most of it the result of power inequalities rooted in race and class. As a professor at DePaul University s adult college (the School for New Learning), I began to conceptualize a course that would address the social justice requirement (Can analyze power relations among racial, social, cultural, or economic groups in the United States 1 ), using the archive. I designed the course, which I named Dead Man Walking: An American Story, to let students consider Prejean s ideas as she expressed them in her writings; study her actions, especially her support of individual Death Row inmates and her public advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty; and assess her impact, especially in pressing for reform of the way the poor and marginalized are treated in the criminal justice system. I wanted students to complete close analyses of the primary texts and derivative materials (film, opera, play), and study national context through the research of human rights groups, victims associations, and regional and national associations, especially those with which Sr. Helen had worked. As a person whose doctoral work was in medieval studies, I was confident that direct contact with the archive would enrich the student experience and deepen what they learned. I scheduled the launch of my course to coincide with the formal public opening of the Prejean Papers. In her workstation within Special Collections, Helen Fedchak was busy selecting pieces for display that she thought represented the full collection, as well as personal favorites, and digitizing them. Meanwhile, using the emerging finding aid for my own excavation, I looked for items students could use to develop a deeper sense of the person, the ideas, and the ministry. The Prejean Papers include correspondence with the meek and the mighty, the admiring and the curt. They hold multiple drafts of manuscripts; trial transcripts with Prejean s marginal jottings; photographs of activities and persons about whom she is writing; evidence of organizations she founded and networks she joined; and personal memorabilia that give insight into her spiritual evolution, prayer life, and place within her religious community. I chose among those, and the archivists digitized these images as well. Volume 84 No. 1 ~ 18 ~ Catholic Library World

3 As the term approached, I used d2l, the course management system DePaul currently uses, to create a rich course site. I uploaded dozens of images into this site, inserting them across the ten weeks of the term so I could teach from them during class sessions and allow students to return to them on their own. Caralyn Sheehan, a skilled instructional designer, advised me on how to stage the materials, provide enough detail for students to understand what they were seeing, and document them appropriately. From the outset, students learned that their final assignment would require that they use an item from the archive as evidence to support an argument they wanted to make. Kathryn DeGraff came to class to speak about the collection and advise students how they could best search for what they might need. She described the process the librarians used to access the material, including photos of herself and Sr. Margaret working in the closets in New Orleans and of gloved archivists in Chicago, sorting and compiling. Perhaps most important, she made students feel welcome in what might seem an otherwise remote part of campus. In class each week, I displayed images relevant to the week s texts and suggested that students revisit the materials on their own, either in person or on the course d2l site. While students were reading Dead Man Walking, for example, I led them to two letters from Patrick Sonnier, the first man Sr. Helen accompanied to execution and one of the men whose story she tells in Dead Man Walking. Onto one letter, in which he expresses gratitude to Sr. Helen and chats about daily life, Sonnier has sketched a pair of hands in prayer and a quite elaborate flower (see page 17). Helen Fedchak advised me that coming upon this letter early in her work forced her to confront her assumptions about persons convicted of murder. Neither the sentiment nor the illustration was what she expected of a person who had raped and murdered. Students had the same response. When I first put the letter on the screen, I heard students gasp and watched as they turned to one another with expressions of disbelief. The second Patrick Sonnier letter I chose similarly had a powerful effect. It is a thankyou note Sonnier wrote and mailed the day he was executed. Whether Sr. Helen s receiving Letter from Pat Sonnier to Sr. Helen Prejean, April 4, Sr. Helen Prejean Papers, Box 1, Folder 10. Catholic Library World ~ 19 ~ September 2013

4 Letter to Dobie Gillis Williams from Sr. Helen Prejean, November 22, Sr. Helen Prejean Papers, Box 6, Folder 2. it after he had died was intentional (he had worried that seeing him executed would scar her) or coincidental (perhaps the guards were supposed to give it to her later that day) is not known. It is clear that he wanted to console her, thank her, and ensure that she understood how much her support had meant to him. I chose this, thinking it would help students see the impact of Sr. Helen s personal commitment to the condemned man, as well as the personal difficulty of this promise, and the rewards it brought. As another way to help students understand the impact of the work on Sr. Helen as caregiver, I directed their attention to a letter she wrote to friends in the painful days after she witnessed Sonnier s electrocution. Here she provides information, expresses gratitude, and asks for help. The recipients ( Dear Friends ) were all persons who had shared the ministry in some way. Some had written to Patrick as part of a team of support she built; some had fought to overturn his sentence; and some had tended to her. Knowing they had a vested interest, she describes what the final days and hours felt like, shares the pain and the gratification of having loved Patrick, and asks them to continue to support him by attending to his brother. She offers her personal consolation, thanks them for their care of her, and assures them that she is attending to her needs. In the final paragraphs, she lays the seeds for her future work: I am not broken by any means. I experience a combination of peace and anger peace because I know I loved Pat well and anger because the death penalty is wrong and must be changed. Pat s love has been a great gift in my life and he gives me courage to fight for justice. In the course, students move from Dead Man Walking to Death of Innocents, the analysis of death penalty errors and mechanistic procedures. Death of Innocents opens with the story of Dobie Gillis Williams, a man Sr. Helen accompanied for eight years, and a man whose guilt she always questioned. To enable students to deepen their appreciation for the work she described as accompaniment, I guided students next to particularly valuable items in the archives: cards, notes, and letters Sr. Helen had written to Dobie; one each week for eight years. These are noteworthy because, while Sr. Helen saved everything she received from prisoners, most of what she Volume 84 No. 1 ~ 20 ~ Catholic Library World

5 sent to prisoners has disappeared, discarded by prisoners or absorbed by family members. Dobie Williams kept everything, and when prison authorities sent his mother the material in his cell after he was killed, she forwarded the letters Dobie had received over the years scores of ebullient, chatty, caring notes designed to lift his spirits and connect him to the external world. I believed these materials would allow students to see the vitality and humanity of accompanying a person and also the unremittingness of the work. The note a Thanksgiving greeting for 1995, conveys the warmth that characterized the relationship from the convivial greeting ( To one of my favorite turkeys ) to the chummy closing ( Lady Waggs [her dog] says to tell you Ruff! Ruff! ); to the promise of a few dollars into the canteen. Later in the course, when students began to consider Sr. Helen s years of advocacy work to change legislation state by state, they could view and even handle letters she wrote to leaders, including Governor Edwin Edwards of Louisiana and Pope John Paul II. At right is the opening page of the three-page letter to the Pope. I chose it to illustrate the advocacy work and to allow students interested in writing style to note that even in formal discourse to eminent persons, Sr. Helen uses the confident, optimistic, personal voice that characterizes her nonfiction prose. Of course, since opposition is inherent in any fight for justice, the archive includes hate mail, a collection Sr. Helen had filed as input from ardent foes. One example is shown on page 22, signed Guess Who. It was also important for students to see Prejean working as a writer/editor, a role that was central to her success. Because the collection includes multiple versions of the manuscripts of her books, students can analyze technique and follow the evolution of ideas. The pages I placed before them included one from the emerging script for the film Dead Man Walking that Tim Robbins created based on his reading of the book (see page 23). There, in the marginal notes that Sister Helen offers Robbins, students can see where she accepted modifications he was making (merging two prisoners into one, for example) and where she resisted (maintaining autonomy of contemporary women religious, for example). A student discovered by studying the film with care, that Robbins accepted all suggestions shown here. Letter from Sr. Helen Prejean to Pope John Paul II, January 1, Sr. Helen Prejean Papers, Box 11, Folder 3. Catholic Library World ~ 21 ~ September 2013

6 Letter from Guess Who to Sr. Helen Prejean, August 10, Sr. Helen Prejean Papers, Box 80, Folder 10. The archives include material tracing the evolution of Dead Man Walking not only into the film, but also into the opera. Students interested in the ways others interpreted Sr. Helen s elemental experience could read communications with and between Jake Heggie (score) and Terrence McNally (libretto). Because Sr. Helen had less time to spend on the adaptation to an opera, she had to place more trust in the artists, but the evidence shows that she was firm that the central focus be redemption. Those interested in more glamorous aspects of the work could see transcripts of encounters with celebrities (Oprah Winfrey and Charlie Rose, for example) and some photographs, though fewer than one might expect. I include one that reveals Sr. Helen s sense of humor. Because she considers herself anything but glamorous, she is amused that she has been portrayed on stage by two of the world s most dazzling women: actress Susan Sarandon, who won the Academy Award for her portrayal in the film, and mezzo soprano Susan Graham, who won raves for her performance in the opera s premier. Students see the photograph of Sr. Helen with the two Susans on opening night in San Francisco (see page 24). The first time the course was offered it filled with students (all adult undergraduates) whose own experience, curiosity, and commitment energized the conversation. That Sr. Helen was able to spend four days on campus, including hours walking through the archives with anyone interested in talking with her about items, brought the materials alive in even more ways. For the final assignment, the one in which students were required to link an item from the archive into the social justice thesis they were building, the choices ranged across the collection. One student returned to the archive to read every letter Sr. Helen had sent to Dobie Williams, as evidence of the need for persistence in seeking social change. Another used court transcripts on which Sr. Helen had Volume 84 No. 1 ~ 22 ~ Catholic Library World

7 Page from Dead Man Walking screenplay by Tim Robbins with comments by Sr. Helen Prejean, October Sr. Helen Prejean Papers, Box 41, Folder 10. Catholic Library World ~ 23 ~ September 2013

8 Photograph of (from left) Susan Sarandon, Helen Prejean, CSJ, and Susan Graham, courtesy of Janna Wolfinger, Art and Clarity. Sr. Helen Prejean Papers, Box 86. made notes as she prepared for Pardon Board hearings, as evidence of the diligence required to advocate for human rights. A third focused on the hate mail as evidence of the confidence and commitment advocates for social justice must develop to survive conflicts inherent in the battle. I was surprised at the amount of time students, busy with other responsibilities, spent with the archival material. One student told me she opened the course site every day to look at items, wanting to make sense of them on her own. In course evaluations, students said the archives changed the way they understood what they read. In studying social justice, it is easy to intellectualize the problem and objectivize those whose rights are being denied. The archive contributed in a critical way to deepening understanding. It allowed all of us to see the prisoner as a person, not a monster, and Sr. Helen as a person, not a saint. As a faculty member, I am deeply grateful. I can think of no better testimony to the power of primary resources, and archivists as their custodians and advocates, to extend knowledge and bring content alive. PostScript: These particular papers could be used in multiple ways. Students of writing, for example, could compare versions of an emerging manuscript, analyzing the writer s process as she developed ideas over time and watching her respond to critiques (also part of the collection). Students of rhetoric could examine speeches and letters to consider how the author attends to audience to customize her argument. Law students could examine her notes as she prepared to present to a Pardon Board and assess her commentaries on Supreme Court decisions. Social work students could examine correspondence with families of victims and prisoners to learn about different roles contained within the advisor labels. Catholic Studies and Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies students could see ways to engage to bring about change. When she was on campus, thirteen departments invited Sr. Helen to meet with students. When considering such possibilities, faculty members would value the archivists expert guidance to probe, select, and present. n Susanne Dumbleton is a Professor at DePaul University s adult division, the School for New Learning. She is completing a book-length study of leadership for social justice, looking particularly at the work of Sr. Helen Prejean, Wangari Maathai, and Aung San Suu Kyi. She was instrumental in bringing Sr. Helen Prejean s papers to DePaul s special collections. 1 The full requirements include the following specifications: 1) Describes the unequal power relations between at least two racial, social, cultural or economic groups in the US; 2) Discusses the historical, sociological, or economic dynamics under which these groups came into conflict. To the extent possible, we hope students will relate this to their experiences as well as their responsibilities as citizens. In many ways, this competence is about democracy in action. For example, how groups have negotiated and attained power and voice in a complex and diverse society. Since, however, inequalities persist in this country, it is important to understand the ways in which some groups have been systematically denied economic, social, and political justice. Note: All images are drawn from Sr. Helen Prejean Papers, Special Collections and Archives Department, DePaul University, Chicago. Photo of Susan Sarandon, Sr. Helen Prejean, and Susan Graham by Janna Waldinger of Art and Clarity ( Volume 84 No. 1 ~ 24 ~ Catholic Library World