Wednesday, May 5, 2010

End of the Semester

The semester has almost come to an end and so has research for now. If you are a curious reader and are interested in this project you can visit NCOW.org and see some of the articles that I worked with and eventually I will submit the entire portfolio. For now if youa re interested in the project comment on the blog and I will get back to you. Best JP

Monday, April 26, 2010

Brief Interpretive Memo

Interpretive Memo

Over the past few weeks, I have gathered and reviewed newspaper articles, journal articles, and interviews that dealt with Ivory Moore. Because of my specific focus there is information that at one point seems irrelevant, but on the other hand the information can be useful in other contexts. The interviews that I was able to watch will be helpful in forming Moore’s early life experiences. As I said in an earlier conceptual memo, “My purpose in watching this particular segment of interview is to gain a better insight in to Moore’s personal life and historical background.” After having read Moore’s “Commerce on the Move articles I can see a connection between his early childhood and his writing. In the first Moore interview, he says that he grew up in Oklahoma and was a raised on a farm. He was part of a large family with seven boys and one girl. It seems that Moore’s ability to relate well in the large family setting translated well into his visits with the many business owners that he would later interview in “Commerce on the Move.” Although this particular video was vague on the aspects of Moore’s education, his personal resume will be a great source in filling in the blanks. One of the best quotes that I was able to get from this video interview was when Moore was talking about his opportunities at Paris Junior College. He says of the time that it “gave me a chance to start writing” From the second video interview, I learned that Moore got to know many of the key players in the Norris Community when he came to Commerce. This interview does give me some biographical info to start my paper with; I will be able to sketch out a rural background where education is important (Moore went to both high school and college). I think I can also draw a parallel to Moore’s upbringing on the farm and the rural conditions of the Norris Community. I would speculate that Moore’s upbringing was crucial to helping him communicate with and understand the struggles of the Norris Community. Moore begins this interview with a clearer articulation of the relationship between the university and the community. Moore makes the comment that the Norris community Center was used for speakers of both academic and political nature. He also says that part of his job with the university was to establish relationships with the community. Again this seems to play out well in the “Commerce on the Move” column. This relationship with the Norris Community seems to have also helped Moore in his political undertakings. In “Black Voters Turnout,” David Fisk makes the connection between Moore and the Norris Community clear. He says, “[Moore] was supported by the Norris Community Club in his campaign and has served in as chairman of various committees in that organization.” The articles that I found in The Commerce Journal provide a nice snapshoot of what the community felt was important in connection to Moore’s life. I think the articles also offer some great quotes showcasing Moore’s opinion and others about his work and himself. I will be using these to both supplement my narrative and as a guide post to the types of events in which Moore was involved. I think these articles can also point to the collective values of the community in which Moore lived and worked. For the most part these articles are complimentary, but there is one or two that seem skewed. An example of this is the article titled “Moore elected as Mayor” written by Iris Robinson. The article reports the opinions of some of Moore’s fellow committee persons and they are less than favorable. These reactions seem to show the dual nature of the community. On one hand we have support in the form of awards and press time for t he first African-American mayor, yet on the other the comments by his fellows is problematic. I would assume that this is typical of the time period in which these articles were written and the specific geographic area in which they were written. The articles that Moore wrote for The Commerce Journal did not provide a lot of information in the form of biographical information, but I think it is a safe assumption to look at the cultural / social context of the articles and deduce some character references for Moore. Although not necessarily my focus, it is interesting to note that in multiple articles, Moore practices literacy sponsorship, having the businesses he is reviewing write their own histories. I think this would be an interesting study for the future. So where does this leave us? Why look at Moore and his life? I think this is best answered by some of literacy theories big names…the work of Brain V. Street focuses on Literacy as a social event, and because of the social nature, literacy or more specifically the analysis of literacy has multiple influences, influences like ideology or cultures. Granted I am not doing a literacy study per se, but I think that Moore is influenced by and influenced his community. In her work with the Oral History Project in Brooklyn, Deborah Mutnick explores the pedagogy of the public sphere, arguing that “individual stories could begin to shape a larger collective one.” One of Mutnick’s conclusions is that the telling of personal stories from our communities can help us to learn three lessons: 1 Everybody’s story has value; 2 we have to tell the stories ourselves in order to know who we are. 3 We have to listen to others’ stories in order to know them. In the spirit of Mutnick’s project it is important for us to look locally to our community members and the stories they tell. In other words looking at an influential person such as Moore is also a way to look at the community itself. Another reason Moore is important is that he plays out the theory that David Gold discusses in his work, service. Moore is an exemplar of service to his community, both through his roles as educator and city official. As I look further into the life and work of Ivory Moore I can begin to see the effect that one person may have on a community. Moore’s work is important not only as a sketch of an educator’s life but also a glimpse into the workings of our community.

Conceptual Memo # 3 Commerce on the Move

Conceptual Memo #3 Commerce on the Move

I just finished taking and typing field notes on the articles that Ivory Moore wrote from Jan-march 1993 in The Commerce Journal. The title of these articles is “Commerce on the Move.” There are a total of twelve articles, 4 in January, 3 in Feb, and 4 in March. Each of the months according to a comment by Moore in the 3-Jan-1993 article will focus on different themes, “Education will be the focus for the month of February, and in March we will focus on togetherness.” For this memo I think it would be best to give each month its own space and an overview of what areas that Moore focuses on in each month.

January begins with an article that discusses the various grant money that will distributed throughout the community. This article ties in well with the article about Moore getting the Norris Award. The Commerce on the Move article helps show why Moore received the award. In the Jan-03-1993 article a vast majority of the money from federal grants is allotted to housing in the Norris Community. The other articles in the January batch highlight various businesses around commerce. Each of the articles has a slightly different type of business to highlight, but all have in common a description of the business’ history, products and clientele. January covers retail business, insurance agencies and both locally owned businesses and franchises.

True to Moore’s description in his first January article, February focuses on education in Commerce. Moore begins the Feb-14-1993 article focusing on East Texas State University (ETSU) and divides the article between the Gee library and statistics of the university itself. In the following weeks Moore visits the Commerce Public Library and the Commerce Independent School district then rounds out the month visiting four childhood learning centers.

The March articles follow the layout of the January articles and focus on businesses in Commerce. I am not sure though that the articles follow the theme of togetherness that Moore articulated in January. Following suit from the format he used in the January articles, Moore travels throughout the city visiting with local merchants and describing their businesses.

Although many of the articles is focused on describing particular businesses, I think that theses articles will be helpful in showing Moore’s dedication to his community. One area that really sticks out to me is the facts that Moore doesn’t discriminate between local business of franchise…CD hut or Barbeque joint…he tries to get them all. There are also some comments by Moore describing his delight in visiting each place that will be helpful in establishing Moore’s character. If I had more time it would be interesting to look at the other articles in the series.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Abstract

Abstract

“’Moore’ Than Meets the Eye:
A Brief Biographical Narrative of the Life of Ivory Moore”

In her work with the Oral History Project in Brooklyn, Deborah Mutnick explores the pedagogy of the public sphere, arguing that “individual stories could begin to shape a larger collective one.” One of Mutnick’s conclusions is that the telling of personal stories from our communities can help us to learn three lessons: 1 Everybody’s story has value; 2 we have to tell the stories ourselves in order to know who we are. 3 We have to listen to others’ stories in order to know them. In the spirit of Mutnick’s project it is important for us to look locally to our community members and the stories they tell.

For more than twenty years Ivory Moore worked as an educator and community official to promote integration, change, and communication between members of East Texas State University (ETSU) and members of the Commerce City community. As Director of Minority Affairs at ETSU Moore worked closely with Members of the Norris Community Club to help students….As the first African-American City Commissioner and Mayor, worked to bring federal Grant money to Commerce and improve the lives of its citizens. During his tenure as Mayor, Moore wrote a weekly column for The Commerce Journal titled “Commerce on the Move” in which Moore promoted local businesses, educational institutions and wrote to help make members of the community aware of the needs and progress of its members.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Conceptual Memo # 2 The Commerce Journal Articles

Conceptual Memo # 2 The Commerce Journal Articles

I should clarify the title of this conceptual memo a little because it is not entirely accurate. There is included in this memo one article from The Greenville Harold Banner and one article from The Handbook of Commerce Texas 1872-1985, however the majority of the articles, seven, are from The Commerce Journal.

The article on Ivory Moore from the Commerce Handbook was written by Dr. James Conrad and is a good overview introduction of Moore’s life. Like the majority of The Commerce Journal articles, Conrad’s article focuses on the awards and accomplishments of Moore throughout his years of service. Conrad’s article will be useful to supplement the newspaper articles that also document the accomplishments of Moore.

As I mentioned earlier, The Commerce Journal articles are mainly articles that focus on Moore’s achievements in his professional career as an educator and as a community official. I do have one article that talks about Moore’s brief career as a Harlem Globetrotter. This article will be helpful in detailing Moore’s life and Career before his days at ETSU and in the city commission. I plan on using Moore’s resume to fill in blanks were the Globetrotter article is lacking. I think the Globetrotter article will be especially effective in showing how well-rounded Moore was simply because the other articles are related to either community awards or educational awards.

There are three articles that refer to Moore’s winning elections…one that focuses on his election to city council, another which deals with his election to Mayor and finally an article that comments on his last election where he was not re-elected. The commissioner article seems more favorable to African-American voters and Moore’s election while the Mayoral article has some questionable comments by other delegates and city officials. Both will be good for setting up a framework on Moore’s career. Again I plan on using Moore’s resume as a means of filling in factual details.

There are a few articles that deal with Moore’s awards…Norris Community Award, Citizen of the Year to name a few as well as articles that relate Moore’s delegation to the National Library conference and other awards and events. The Greenville Harold Banner article is lumped in with this group of articles.
Overall this group of articles provides a nice snapshoot of what the community felt was important in reviewing in Moore’s life. I think the articles also offer some great quotes showcasing Moore’s opinion and others about his work and himself. I will be using these to both supplement my narrative and as a guide post to the types of events in which Moore was involved.

Translation Project Annotated Bib

In a previous post I pasted in the narrative that will hopefully be printed in The Commerce Journal about Mt Moriah Temple Baptist Church. Below is the annotated Bibliography of the project. Note that the formatting is suspect and although the bib doesn't reflect the usage of each article, I used Harry Turner's history about every other line.

“Translation Project” Annotated Bibliography

Kellar, Brad. “Honoring Influential Citizens, 2nd Ivory Moore Awards Scheduled.” The
Commerce Journal June 16 2009. Print.

This article appears in the June 16th 2009 edition of The Commerce Journal and was written by Brad Kellar. This article recounts the honoring of influential citizens with the Community Citizenship Award. In the article, Ivory Moore was honored again with the Community Citizenship Award, now the “Ivory Moore Most Influential Citizenship Awards.” This article can be found in the Commerce Public Library Local History Archives.

A Factual History (with Pictures) of Cypress District Baptist Association. Rev. A.D. Sanders.

This book contains a historical account of the Cypress District Baptist Association and was compiled by Reverend A.D. Sanders. The book has photographs of early district leaders as well as narrative and statistical data about the districts various churches and organizations. This book can be found at Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church.

Turner, Harry Eugene. Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church History, Mt. Moriah Worship
Service, 9 Nov 1997. Print.

This article is a historical narrative presented by Harry Turner during a celebratory sermon at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church. The article gives a detailed history of the organization of Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church. The article is available from Mr. Turner at the Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church.

Turner, Harry. Personal Interview. 13-November-09

This interview was conducted by Dr. James Conrad, Dr. Shannon Carter and JP Sloop. The interview with Mr. Turner gives historical accounts of the Norris Community as told through the eyes of Mr. Turner. This interview also explains historical information about the Mt. Moriah temple Baptist Church. The interview is available in the NCOW.org archives.

Vanderpool, Rick. “Mt. Moriah to Build New Church,” The Commerce Journal 10 March
1999. Print.

This article appears on March 10, 1999 and was written by Rick Vanderpool. This article gives a brief history of Mt. Moriah Temple Baptist Church and reports on the churches plans to renovate its existing building. This article is available at the Commerce Public Library Local History Archives.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

This Week 20-April-2010

Lots of preparation work this week. Below are the articles that I am working with this week. My plan is to read through each and take field notes and then turn those field notes into MetaData / Annotations / Extended Fieldnotes. After this I will compile the citation, annotations, and the article into an easily accessible pdf file. I gave the first set of files to Cheryl Westhafer at the public library and I submitted the files to NCOW this morning. I still need to go back through and make conceptual maps of the first set of articles as well and then make one for this set. Just for fun I am also posting a copy of one of Moore's articles.

Moore, Ivory. “Commerce on the Move.” The Commerce Journal 03 Jan 1993. Print.

---. “Commerce on the Move.” The Commerce Journal 10 Jan 1993. Print.

---. “Commerce on the Move.” The Commerce Journal 17 Jan 1993. Print.

---. “Commerce on the Move.” The Commerce Journal 24 Jan 1993. Print.

---. “Commerce on the Move.” The Commerce Journal 31 Jan 1993. Print.

---. “Commerce on the Move.” The Commerce Journal 14 Feb 1993. Print.

---. “Commerce on the Move.” The Commerce Journal 21 Feb 1993. Print.

---. “Commerce on the Move.” The Commerce Journal 07 March 1993. Print.

---. “Commerce on the Move.” The Commerce Journal 14 March 1993. Print.





Sorry the image quality in Blogger is not that great...the articles turned out better in the pdf files...