An Army of Normal Folks - The First Integrated Classroom in America

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

When Prudence Crandall admitted a black student into her school in 1832, townspeople from Canterbury, CT twice set their building on fire, poisoned their well, and 3 lawsuits were filed to stop her. But Prudence persevered, which is why we're celebrating her on our special series "An Army of Normal Dead Folks". Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

And she came to the school with her parents and said she wanted to enroll. And Prudence had the decency, rather quickly, to say, well, of course, maybe some people won't like it, but I'm going to have Sarah as one of my students. And Sarah became the first black girl enrolled, I should say, in an integrated classroom in America. Amazing. Well, just a single black girl set the town on fire. Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in inner city Memphis. And the last part, it somehow led to an Oscar for the film about our team. It's called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits using big words

that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of normal folks. That's us. Just you and me deciding, hey, you know what? I can help. And that's exactly what Prudence Crandall did. Every child, black or white, rich or poor, deserves to have a world-class education. And Prudence took a stand on this in 1832.

That's an era where this was a very lonely stand to take. And today, along with Larry Reed, the author of Rule Heroes, we pay tribute to her as part of our special series, An Army of Normal Dead Folks. I can't wait for you to meet Prudence Crandall right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out, like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also gonna have some fun, even though these days fun and politics

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I get to talk to a lot of people who form the backbone of our society but who have never been interviewed before. Season two is all about community, organizing, and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened when a couple of people said, this sucks, let's do something about it. I can't have more than $2,000 in my bank account or else I can't get disability benefits. They won't let you succeed. I know we get paid to serve you guys, but, like, be respectful.

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I am the Queen of La Donia. I'm Jackson I, King of Capriberg. I am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Montonia. Be part of a great colonial tradition. Well, why can't I create my own country? My forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong? No forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong?

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We still have the off-road portion to go. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. And we're losing daylight fast. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This one kind of struck me. We're going to talk about Prudence Crandall.

Okay. And I'm ashamed to admit another name that I'd never heard, but the reason I want to talk about her is if you want to be part of the Army of Normal folks and you're going to go into areas of difficulty to employ this passion and discipline and abilities you have to affect some measure of change, you got to expect two things. One is going to be difficulty because if you go into difficult areas and you think just because you show up and you're going to do good work,'s going to be easy. We got another coming. The second is there's going to be people that don't want you to be successful. And Prudence Crandell's steadfastness is what

is what strikes me in the face of so much. So tell us who Prydice Crandall is. Okay, well if any of your listeners are ever driving around New England, the state of Connecticut in particular, they can go to Canterbury, Connecticut and see to this day the building that she turned into a school that she bought with a $500 down payment.

That was a lot of money in the 1830s and a $1,500 mortgage. 25% down. Yeah, exactly. That was pretty costly. That school, former school, is now the Prudence Crandall Museum. Well, she was destined to be a teacher that's what she wanted to do from her earliest days and in her 20s she decided to start her own school and for the first two years that she

taught in Connecticut in Canterbury she was renowned as a wonderful teacher everybody thought she was just fantastic. And everybody in society loved her. That's right. She's a great teacher. Everybody thought she was just fantastic. And everybody in society loved her. That's right. She's a great teacher. Look at what she's doing. She bought this house with her own money. Absolutely.

And she's educating these girls in this fine manner. That's right. So she's a talk about town. She really was. And she would go from the pinnacle of notoriety and appreciation to the depths of disdain and prejudice. And what did that was an incident involving a young black girl. When Prudence started the school, all of her pupils for the first two years were white.

Which is socially acceptable in 18 whatever it was. Yeah, exactly. It was mostly a white community to begin with. And this is Connecticut. That's right. We're talking Mississippi. That's right. It's not the deep south.

We need to check our sensibilities at the door and get historically real here. That's right. This is Connecticut. Yep, yep. And just as slavery was for centuries a common worldwide stain on the human race, so was racism. It was not peculiar to America. It was common all over the world. Well, what changed things for Prudence was a young black girl. She was from a free black family in New England, not from a slave family. Slavery had been dying out in New England,

so there were many black families who were free. Sarah, and I've forgotten her last name for the moment, but her name was Sarah, and she came to the school with her parents and said she wanted to enroll. And Prudence had the decency rather quickly to say, well, of course, maybe some people won't like it, but I'm going to have Sarah as one of my students. And Sarah became the first black girl enrolled, I should say, in an integrated classroom in America. Amazing. Well, just a single black girl set the town on fire. Racist elements in town began to call Prudence Crandall every name in the book. They ultimately would even poison the well.

She had to go get good water. I cannot believe when I read that they poisoned her well. Poisoned her well. And actually when the students would come out, they would be stoned or called every name in the book. But at first she had to deal with this in the hope that maybe the Fuhrer would die down. Sarah Harris. Sarah Harris, thank you. Well, the white parents in town started withdrawing their children from the school because they didn't want their children going to a school

where there was even one black girl. Then the government enters the picture. Pressure from the bad folks in Canterbury led the state legislature to pass a law that said it would be illegal for any free black citizen from any other state to come into Connecticut for the purpose of attending a school, even a private one. I mean, can you imagine that? And so Prudence Crandall had to fight the state government. And well, William Lloyd Garrison, who was very famous

for his newspaper, The Liberator, one of the great abolitionist publications of the day. He came to her rescue and said, look, I have connections with black families, free black families all over New England, and I will get as many of them to send their children to your school. I'll provide financial aid. I'll sponsor them. And you go ahead and do your thing. Well, Prudence then had to, she knew that the white parents were all going to take their daughters out. So she changed the school in the face of all this racism to feature exclusively black girls. It was very hard for her to do because she had to say goodbye to the white girls that

she came to know and to love. But she thought that was the only way out. Their parents were going to take them out sooner or later anyway. So she persisted now with a school. And let's be clear. This is just an average girl who wanted to start a school, who was the belle of the ball for running such a wonderful school. Exactly. And she had the temerity to want to educate a young black girl. Yeah.

And instead of falling, instead of allowing the public perception and the backlash to cripple her, she doubled down with great courage. Oh, absolutely. Just imagine. I mean, she could have avoided all this hassle. Her school would have continued to be successful with white girls only if she had just said no to Sarah. But she thought deep down that was the wrong thing to do. This was a young girl who wanted to be educated and Prudence Crandall wanted to educate her. Well, in the end, the harassment proved

to be her undoing. She endured three trials under the so-called Black Law that the legislature had passed that made it illegal for Black students to enter Connecticut. She was prosecuted. The first trial resulted in a hung jury. The second one, on a technicality, went her way. And then the third one was successful, but by that point, things were just untenable in town. That's when the poisoning of the well happened and threats to the students. Vendors wouldn't sell her food or products. She couldn't even run the school. They ran her out of business because She couldn't even run the school. They ran her out of business because she couldn't even get wares.

Exactly, and there were threats to burn the school down. It was set afire twice. And so finally, she had to think about the safety of her students. And so she had no other choice but to close the school and left Connecticut, ended up settling in Kansas. And the great thing about the story is within the decade of the 1830s, when

she had started the school, before that decade was out, Connecticut saw the light. And the legislature repealed that law, the black law, that prevented black students from coming into Connecticut. So that was a good thing. And it was decades later when she was an old lady living in a two-room cabin in Kansas. And with the help of Mark Twain, no less, the Connecticut legislature issued a formal apology and a pension to prudence

for the remainder of her life. So they made amends, but my gosh, what that woman went through on behalf of a simple, basic human right, I think we should admire her courage, what character. And I think it's so cool that Mark Twain from Missouri, later living in Connecticut, right? Yes, That's right learned of her story researched it found out and

Heralded her calls. Absolutely. He was one of her greatest defenders in his latter days and her latter days There's a lot of lessons in there perseverance courage doing the right thing when it's not popular, not allowing public sentiment, inaccurate public sentiment to make you stop what you know is right. There's also something else in here that just because slavery had largely been abolished in the Northeast does not mean that racism was not still rampant. And I think there's a historical lesson there that half measures are empty measures. And to some, I think Miss Prudence probably exposed that truth as well. I think so. I think so.

She spoke truth to power. She put everything on the line. She's one of those rare people who once they understood what the right thing to do was, they were going to stick to it come hell or high water. And thank you for joining us this special series, An Army of Normal Dead, Alex, I'm still having a hard time saying it. An Army of Normal Dead Folks. You know, if you're listening to us

and you think an Army of Normal Dead Folks is a good title, let us know. Or a bad title. If you think it is a good title, let us know. Or a bad title. If you think it's a bad title, let us know. If you think we should retitle it, let us know. But for now, I can't say without laughing. Thanks for joining us for this special series, an Army of Normal Dead Folks. It made me think, what if people start putting that on their tombstone?

Oh, I'd love to, yeah. Here lies a dead army member, an army of angels. If Prudence Crandall or other episodes have inspired you in general or better yet by taking action, by making your own stand in our time, buying Larry Reed's book, Real Heroes, or if you have story ideas for the series, please let me know. I really do want to hear about it.

You can write me anytime at Bill at NormalFolks.us and I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode share it with friends and on social. Subscribe to the podcast. Rate it and review it. Join the army at NormalFolks.us. Consider becoming a premium member there. Any and all of these things that will help us grow, an Army of Normal Folks.

Thanks to our producer, Iron Light Labs, I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time, do what you can. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the homestretch, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Jen Psaki, Astead Herndon. But we're also gonna have some fun thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee and Charlemagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well.

I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. I'm Maria Fernanda Diaz. When You're Invisible is my love letter to the working class people and immigrants who shaped me. Season two, share stories about community and being underestimated. All the greatest changes have happened

when a couple of people said, this sucks. Let's do something about it. We get paid to serve you, but we're made out of the same things. It's rare to have black male teachers. Sometimes I am the testament. Listen to When You're Invisible on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Had enough of this country? Ever dreamt about starting your own? I planted the flag.

This is mine. I own this. It's surprisingly easy. There are 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Or maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my god. What is that? Bullets. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.