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Speaker 1: And she came to the school with her parents and

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Speaker 1: said she wanted to enroll, and Prudence had the decency

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Speaker 1: rather quickly to say, well, of course, maybe some people

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Speaker 1: won't like it, but I'm going to have Sarah as

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Speaker 1: one of my students. Since Sarah became the first black

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Speaker 1: girl enrolled, I should say in an integrated classroom in America, amazing. Well,

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Speaker 1: just a single black girl set the town on fire.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

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Speaker 2: I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur,

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Speaker 2: and I've been a football coach an inner city Memphis.

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Speaker 2: And the last part it somehow led to an oscar

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Speaker 2: for the film about our team. It's called Undefeated. Guys,

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Speaker 2: I believe our country's problems will never be solved by

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Speaker 2: a bunch of fancy people and nice suits using big

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Speaker 2: words that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox, but

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Speaker 2: rather by an army of normal folks. That's us, just

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Speaker 2: you and me deciding, hey, you know what I can help.

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Speaker 2: And that's exactly what Prudence Crandall did. Every child, black

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Speaker 2: or white, rich or poor, deserves to have a world

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Speaker 2: class education. And Prudence took a stand on this in

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Speaker 2: eighteen thirty two. That's an era where this was a

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Speaker 2: very lonely stand to take. And today, along with Larry Reid,

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Speaker 2: the author of Rule Heroes, we pay tribute to her

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Speaker 2: as part of our special series An Army of Normal

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Speaker 2: Dead Folks. I can't wait for you to meet Prudence Crandall.

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Speaker 2: Right after these brief messages from our general sponsors, this

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Speaker 2: one kind of struck me. We're going to talk about

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Speaker 2: Prudence Crandall, and I'm ashamed to admit another name that

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Speaker 2: I'd never heard. But the reason I want to talk

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Speaker 2: about her is if you want to be part of

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Speaker 2: the army and normal folks, and you're going to go

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Speaker 2: into areas of difficulty to employ this passion and discipline

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Speaker 2: and abilities, you have to affect some measure of change,

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Speaker 2: you got to expect two things. One is going to

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Speaker 2: be difficulty, because if you go into difficult areas and

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Speaker 2: you think just because you show up and you're going

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Speaker 2: to do good work, it's going to be easy, well

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Speaker 2: you've got another coming. The second is there's going to

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Speaker 2: be people that don't want you to be successful. And

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Speaker 2: Prudence crandall steadfastness is what strikes me in the face

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Speaker 2: of so much. So tell us who produce Crandall is okay?

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Speaker 1: Well, if any of your listeners are ever driving around

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Speaker 1: New England, the state of Connecticut in particular, they can

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Speaker 1: go to Canterbury, Connecticut and see to this day the

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Speaker 1: building that she turned into a school that she bought

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Speaker 1: with a five hundred dollars down payment. That was a

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Speaker 1: lot of money in the eighteen thirties and a fifteen

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars.

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Speaker 2: Mortgage twenty five percent down.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, that was pretty costly. But that school, former

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Speaker 1: school is now the Prudence Crandall Museum. Well, she was

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Speaker 1: destined to be a teacher, that's what she wanted to

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Speaker 1: do from her earliest days, and in her twenties she

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Speaker 1: decided to start her own school. And for the first

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Speaker 1: two years that she taught in Connecticut, in Canterbury, she

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Speaker 1: was renowned as a wonderful teacher. Everybody thought she was

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Speaker 1: just fantastic.

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Speaker 2: And everybody in societ and he loved her. She's a

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Speaker 2: great teacher. Look at what she's doing. She bought this house,

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Speaker 2: absolutely and she's educating these girls in this fine manner.

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Speaker 2: That's right. So she's a talk about town.

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Speaker 1: She really was, and she would go from, you know,

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Speaker 1: the pinnacle of notoriety and appreciation to the depths of

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Speaker 1: disdain and prejudice. And what did that was an incident

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Speaker 1: involving a young black girl. When Prudence started the school,

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Speaker 1: all of her pupils for the first two years were

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Speaker 1: white and was.

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Speaker 2: Just socially acceptable in eighteen whatever.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, it was mostly a white community to begin with.

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Speaker 2: And this is Connecticut, that's right. We ain't talking Mississippi.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 1: It's not the Deep South.

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Speaker 2: And let's we need to check our sensibilities at the

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Speaker 2: door and get historically real here. That's right. This is Connecticut, yep, yep.

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Speaker 1: And just as slavery was for centuries a common worldwide

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Speaker 1: stain on the human race, so was racism. It was

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Speaker 1: not peculiar to America. It was common all over the world. Well,

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Speaker 1: what changed things for Prudence was a young black girl.

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Speaker 1: She was from a free black family in New England,

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Speaker 1: not from a slave family. A slaver had been dying

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Speaker 1: out in New England, so there were many black families

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Speaker 1: who were free. Sarah and I've forgotten her last name

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Speaker 1: for the moment, but her name was Sarah and she

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Speaker 1: came to the school with her parents and said she

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Speaker 1: wanted to enroll. And Prudence had the decency rather quickly

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Speaker 1: to say, well, of course, maybe some people won't like it,

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Speaker 1: but I'm going to have Sarah as one of my students.

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Speaker 1: And Sarah became the first black girl enrolled, i should say,

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Speaker 1: in an integrated classroom in America.

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Speaker 2: Amazing.

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Speaker 1: Well, just a single black girl set the town on fire.

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Speaker 1: Racist elements in town began to call Prudence crandle every

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Speaker 1: name in the book. They ultimately would even poison the well.

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Speaker 1: She had to go get.

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Speaker 2: A good water when I read that they poisoned well.

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Speaker 1: And actually when the students would come out, they would

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Speaker 1: be stoned or called every name in the book. But

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Speaker 1: at first she had to deal with this and in

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Speaker 1: the hope that maybe the farer would die down.

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Speaker 2: Sarah Harris, Sarah Harris.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, yep. Well, the white parents in town started

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Speaker 1: withdrawing their children from the school because they didn't want

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Speaker 1: their children going to a school where there was even

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Speaker 1: one black girl. Then the government enters the picture. Pressure

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Speaker 1: from the bad folks in Canterbury led the state legislature

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Speaker 1: to pass a law that said it would be illegal

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Speaker 1: for any free black citizen from any other state to

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Speaker 1: come into Connectic for the purpose of attending a school,

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Speaker 1: even a private one. I mean, can you imagine that?

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Speaker 1: And so Prudence Crandall had to fight the state government,

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Speaker 1: and well, William Lloyd Garrison, who was very famous for

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Speaker 1: his newspaper The Liberator, one of the great abolitionist publications

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Speaker 1: of the day, he came to her rescue and said, look,

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Speaker 1: I have connections with black families, free black families all

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Speaker 1: over New England, and I will get as many of

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Speaker 1: them to send their children to your school. I'll provide

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Speaker 1: financial aid, I'll sponsor them, and you go ahead and

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Speaker 1: do your thing. Well, Prudence. Then she knew that the

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Speaker 1: white parents were all going to take their daughters out,

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Speaker 1: so she changed the school in the face of all

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Speaker 1: this racism, to feature exclusively black girls. It was very

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Speaker 1: hard for her to do because she had to say

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Speaker 1: goodbye to the white girls that she came to know

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Speaker 1: and to love, but she thought that was the only

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Speaker 1: way out. Their parents were going to take them out

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Speaker 1: sooner or later anyway, so she persisted. Now with a school.

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Speaker 2: And let's be clear, this is just an average girl

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Speaker 2: who wanted to start a school. Who was the bell

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Speaker 2: of the ball for running such a wonderful school exactly,

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Speaker 2: And she had the temerity to want to educate a

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Speaker 2: young black girl. And instead of falling, instead of allowing

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Speaker 2: the public perception and the backlashed crippler, she doubled down

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Speaker 2: with great courage.

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Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, just imagine. I mean, she could have avoided

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Speaker 1: all this hassle. Her school would have continued to be

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Speaker 1: successful with white girls only if she had just said

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Speaker 1: no to Sarah. But she thought deep down that was

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Speaker 1: the wrong thing to do. This was a young girl

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Speaker 1: who wanted to be educated, and Prudence Crendle wanted to

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Speaker 1: educate her well. In the end, her harassment proved to

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Speaker 1: be her undoing, as she endured three trials under the

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Speaker 1: so called Black Law that the legislature had passed and

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Speaker 1: made it illegal for black students to enter Connecticut. She

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Speaker 1: was prosecuted. The first trial resulted in a hung jury,

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Speaker 1: the second one, on a technicality, went her way, and

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Speaker 1: then the third one it was successful. At that point,

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Speaker 1: By that point things were just untenable in town. That's

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Speaker 1: when the poisoning of the well happened, and threats to

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Speaker 1: the students.

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Speaker 2: Nitors wouldn't sell her food, that's right, product. She couldn't

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Speaker 2: even run the school. They wouldn't. They ran her out

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Speaker 2: of business because she couldn't even get wares.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, and there were threats to burn the school down.

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Speaker 1: It was set afire twice and so finally she had

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Speaker 1: to think about the safety of her students, and so

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Speaker 1: she had no other choice but to close the school

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Speaker 1: and left Connecticut ended up settling in Kansas. And the

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Speaker 1: great thing about the story is within the decade of

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Speaker 1: the eighteen thirties when she had started the school, before

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Speaker 1: that decade was out, Connecticut saw the light and the

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Speaker 1: legislature repealed that law, the Black law that prevented black

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Speaker 1: students from coming into Connecticut. So that was a good thing.

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Speaker 1: And it was decades later when she was an old

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Speaker 1: lady living in a two room cabin in Kansas, and

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Speaker 1: with the help of Mark Twain no less, the Connecticut

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Speaker 1: legislature issued a formal apology and a pension to prudence

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Speaker 1: for the remainder of her life. So they made amends.

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Speaker 1: But my gosh, what that woman went through on behalf

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Speaker 1: of a simple basic human right. I think we should

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Speaker 1: admire her courage what character.

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Speaker 2: And I think it's so cool that Mark Twain from Missouri,

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Speaker 2: yeah later living in Connecticut. Right, Yes, that's right, learned

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Speaker 2: a verse, researched it, found out, and heralded her calls.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, he was one of her greatest defenders in his

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Speaker 1: latter days, in her latter days.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of lessons in there, perseverance, courage, doing

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Speaker 2: the right thing when it's not popular, not allowing public sentiment,

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Speaker 2: in accurate public sentiment.

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Speaker 1: To.

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Speaker 2: Make you stop what you know is right. There's also

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Speaker 2: something else in here that just because slavery had largely

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Speaker 2: been abolished in the Northeast does not mean that racism

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Speaker 2: was not still rampant. And I think there's a historical

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Speaker 2: lesson there that half measures are empty measures. And to

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Speaker 2: some degree, I think Miss Pruden's probably exposed that truth

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Speaker 2: as well.

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Speaker 1: I think so. I think so she spoke truth to power.

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Speaker 1: She put everything on the line. She's one of those

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Speaker 1: rare people who once they understood what the right thing

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Speaker 1: to do was, uh, they were going to stick to it,

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Speaker 1: come hill or high water.

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Speaker 2: And thank you for joining us this special series. An

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Speaker 2: Army of normal Dead, Alex. I'm still having a hard

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Speaker 2: time saying it an Army of normal dead folks. You know,

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Speaker 2: if you're listening to us and you think an Army

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Speaker 2: of Normal Dead Folks is a good title, let us know,

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Speaker 2: or a title. If you think it's a bad title,

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Speaker 2: Let us know. If you think we should retitle it,

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Speaker 2: let us know. But for now I can't say it

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Speaker 2: without laughing. Thanks for joining us for this special series

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Speaker 2: and the Army of Normal dead Folks and made me

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Speaker 2: think if people start putting that on their tombstone and

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Speaker 2: oh I'd love to Yeah, here lies a dead army

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Speaker 2: member an army of angels. If Prudence crandall or other

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Speaker 2: episodes have inspired you in general, or better yet, by

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Speaker 2: taking action by making your own stand in our time,

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Speaker 2: buying Larry Read's book Real Heroes, or if you have

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Speaker 2: story ideas for the series, please let me know. I

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Speaker 2: really do want to hear about it. You can write

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Speaker 2: me anytime at Bill at normal folks dot us and

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Speaker 2: I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, share with

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Speaker 2: friends and on social subscribe to the podcast, rate it

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Speaker 2: and review it. Join the Army at normalfolks dot us.

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Speaker 2: Consider becoming a premium member there, any and all of

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Speaker 2: these things that will help us grow an army of

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Speaker 2: normal folks. Thanks to our producer, Iron Light Labs, I'm

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Speaker 2: Bill Courtney. Until next time, do what you can