{"id":31084,"date":"2024-04-05T14:53:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T18:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=31084"},"modified":"2024-04-05T14:55:20","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T18:55:20","slug":"furman-justice-forum-lobbies-for-change-on-capitol-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-justice-forum-lobbies-for-change-on-capitol-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman Justice Forum lobbies for change on Capitol Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine students from the Furman University Justice Forum<\/a> joined hundreds of other young people from across the country in Arlington, Virginia, March 16-19 to lobby United States senators and representatives about the harmful legacy of the Indian Boarding School era as part of Spring Lobby Weekend 2024. The trip was organized by the Friends Committee on National Legislation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The trauma inflicted by the\u00a0Federal Indian Boarding Schools\u00a0of the early 1900s on Indigenous children for practicing their own cultures and languages has been passed down through generations of Native Americans, said Lydia McCarty \u201924, president of the Furman Justice Forum.<\/p>\n

McCarty was joined in in Norther Virginia but Xavier Johnson \u201924, Addison Wood \u201927, Julia Turner \u201924, Georgia Whiteside \u201924, Caroline Brawley \u201924, Abijah Leamon \u201924, Jada Walker \u201924 and Harper Lumpkin \u201927.<\/p>\n

Truth and healing<\/strong><\/p>\n

McCarty was aware of the schools, which sometimes employed cruel methods to \u201ccivilize\u201d or assimilate Native American youth into Anglo-American culture, from a History of Education in America course in Fall 2023. She and her fellow student lobbyists got much more insight during seminars with experts on Indigenous issues and advocacy leaders from the Friends Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some sessions, I was moved to tears just hearing people\u2019s stories,\u201d McCarty said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the children who died or were abused, but the generational trauma that has led to a lot of the outcomes we see in Native communities today.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time the students reached Capitol Hill, they were armed will facts and persuasive skills to lobby for the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act<\/a>, a bipartisan bill that was reintroduced in Congress in February 2024. If passed, the act would establish a commission to investigate, document and acknowledge the true histories of the schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would allow people to examine the role of the federal government and different religious organizations in these boarding schools,\u201d said McCarty, who is also a Furman Fellow<\/a> and a peer mentor in Furman\u2019s Pathways Program<\/a>. \u201cAnd it would give the commission subpoena power to ask, \u2018How many kids died? Where are they buried? What happened?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, the Furman group\u2019s meetings with staffers in the offices of U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott and U.S. Rep. William Timmons were productive, McCarty said. Even though there were no Indian boarding schools in South Carolina, the Furman students pointed to the university\u2019s Land Acknowledgement<\/a> and its Task Force on Slavery and Justice<\/a> as proof that such issues matter in the state.<\/p>\n

One encouraging sign: The mini-fridge in Scott\u2019s office had a Furman magnet, McCarty said. The staffer for Scott promised to bring the act to the senator\u2019s attention, as did Graham\u2019s aide. The staff member in Timmons\u2019 office was not previously aware of the boarding school issue, but also promised to put it before the congressman.<\/p>\n

“The way our democracy functions, you have to make your voice heard,” said David Gandolfo, an associate professor of philosophy at Furman. “Lydia has been exploring ways to do that and, as a student leader, helping others to figure out how to use their voices.”<\/p>\n

The trip to Washington was one of more than a dozen events McCarty and the Furman Justice Forum organized, Gandolfo said. The university assisted on the trip by providing funds so students could attend regardless of their ability to pay. “All voices need to be heard and the Furman Advantage makes sure that all of our students find ways to do that,” he said.<\/p>\n

Not one to let a good opportunity go to waste, McCarty also seized the chance to connect with several D.C.-area Furman alumni she found with the help of the Malone Center for Career Engagement<\/a>. One highlight was meeting Davis Cousar \u201920, the founding president of the Furman Justice Forum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met with a number of people who worked on Capitol Hill and could give me really meaningful support and feedback,\u201d said the senior, who is double majoring in French and politics and international affairs. \u201cThe alums at Furman<\/a> are really, really willing to help, because they know that in D.C., it\u2019s who you know that helps you get a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarty came home from D.C. with interviews lined up in several Congressional offices. Her goal is to find a position where she can positively influence policies that she believes in, whether it be in the government or nonprofit sectors.<\/p>\n

And running for office herself is always an option.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe someday,\u201d she said. \u201cCall me in a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The students joined others from around the country to lobby Congress on issues related to the haunting legacy of American Indian boarding schools. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311,"featured_media":31085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,32,61],"tags":[1144,2507,677],"class_list":["post-31084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-malone-center-for-career-engagement","category-politics-and-international-affairs","category-the-furman-advantage","tag-justice","tag-pathways-program","tag-student-engagement"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}