A feeling of shock and disbelief envelops the room as a group of students takes a bow. The silent crowd erupts in applause. On Nov 3, during the academy period, juniors Gen Hiller, Juliana Deyoung, Friedie Schickedanz, and sophomore Vivian Burke presented the History of Piedmont to the sophomores and juniors of PHS and MHS. The History of Piedmont Presentation discusses Piedmont’s racist history and the first black homeowner in Piedmont, Sidney Dearing.
The presentation came about at the start of the 2022-2023 school year when a group of ASB students created a service group. It is a committee separate from ASB and titled Community Outreach. The original group was composed of seniors Hailey Marshburn, Jack Cramer, Jane Hempeck, Izzy Grimier, Charlotte Davies and junior Gen Hiller.
Throughout the span of five months the Community Outreach group made it their mission to create a presentation to educate the student body about Piedmont’s past.
“When we began to research Piedmont’s past we were shocked about how no one knows this, and Piedmont’s racist history needs to be actively taught and talked about throughout the district. This is what led us to creating the presentation about the History of Piedmont,” Marshburn said.
This presentation became a passion project for the students involved with the driving question being, “Why do we have this stereotype that Piedmont and Oakland are so separate, and how do we need to address and acknowledge our past to move onto the future of Piedmont,” Marshburn said.
“The purpose of this presentation is to provoke an emotional reaction in students and adults, to get more involved to want and to make change in Piedmont. The importance of this is to make sure we acknowledge our history instead of sweeping it under the rug. Although it is the past, we can’t change anything but without acknowledging our past actions, we can never move forward,” said one of the presenters and junior Mary Schickedanz.
“By being aware of our past, and the fact that our talent was indeed founded on racist ideals is something that we all need to be, you know, aware of, on the adult level, in terms of how they have these conversations with students and also students on the student level and what type of culture they create in our schools,” said Meher Bachs a student involved in the presentation.
Last year, the Community Outreach Group presented at the Alan Harvey Theater to adults. The Community Outreach group was able to partner with the Piedmont Anti-Racism and Diversity Committee (PADC) to publicize the event and spread the news throughout Piedmont. They were able to accumulate over one-hundred and fifty adults to listen to the presentation. And during late April were able to present to last year’s juniors and seniors.
Marshburn said, this year the group had enough members to split into two groups and facilitate a more detailed presentation for the students and adults. The adult presentation included seniors Marshburn, Valentina Prieto Black, Phoenix Nwokedi, and juniors Mary Schickedanz and Dahlia Saffouri. The student presentation included senior Marshburn, and juniors Hiller, Deyoung, Friedie Schickedanz, Mary Schickedanz, Inaya Majid, Jacques Saldanha, and Shakila Zuberi, and sophomores Burke, Bachher, Malia Williams, and Luke McAuliffe. They were able to add more facts about our history and a more detailed background regarding Sidney Dearing and his family.
Marshburn said hopefully the presentation will continue to be shown and our history will continue to be taught to future generations of students. Marshburn hopes that next year, the Community Outreach committee will continue to expand on our present and how our history affects us today. Marshburn hopes students will be able to recognize that by acknowledging and learning from our history it affects more than just Piedmont. “This true meaning of this presentation expands farther than Piedmont and even the Bay Area. How we address our history and acknowledge it will have more than just an impact on our small town, it can lead to a more inclusive Bay Area and even California or country, “ Schickedanz said.
To follow this moving presentation, there was a debrief during lunch and all history teachers facilitated a reflection in class the next week. This debrief will allow students to express any emotions or thoughts they have experienced after the presentation.
