Lincoln University Research Paper

Entering through the stone and iron gates announcing Lincoln University is a moving experience that prompts reflection on the historic memory of the university—the first degree granting intuition of higher education for African Americans that counts a Supreme Court justice, a Harlem Renaissance poet, and two presidents of African countries among its alumni. The history and famous graduates are often used in the marketing of the school, but how can this historic memory play a role, if any, in pedagogy, specifically in the teaching of writing? Using the legal strategy devised by Thurgood Marshall to connect the Jim Crow theme of a text to Lincoln University or using the Hosanna Church at the edge of the campus with its graveyard of Hinsonville residents who helped found the university as the subject of a descriptive writing exercise may bring these historical memories to life to provide content for a course. But the historic memory of the university can be used to provide a much deeper role in how we approach the teaching of the students of today’s Lincoln University. The school’s history is that of a gateway, creating an opportunity of higher education for African American people when most institutions had their draw bridges raised and gates closed, a symptom of the surrounding contempt and enslavement of African American …show more content…
However, gatekeeping becomes problematic and divisive when it used to limit down rather than foster education, especially for marginalized demographics. The rejection letter from Princeton to Amos is an example of systematic gatekeeping of a marginalized population. While Bond readily admits that Amos did not meet the educational standard, there was little chance outside of a benefactor such as Dickey that Amos could attain the high level of learning to satisfy requirements. Dickey’s response was to open the gate to foster the education that Amos sought by creating the Ashmun