On Thursday evening, Ralph Moore, Director of the St. Francis Academy Community Center, commenced the People Live Here discussion series organized by the Center for Social Concern.
Moore, who graduated from Hopkins in 1974, discussed his life experiences, the history of student activism and current problems facing the country.
Moore grew up in West Baltimore and attended Catholic school there.
"I was at Catholic School [in Baltimore] for nine years. Then, I went to a Catholic high school in Towson, run by the Jesuits," he said.
"I took three busses to get to get to school every day. In those days the bus driver had a little money changer - nickels, dimes and quarters. The fare was 35?. So, if you had a dollar bill, he could give you change. And, I recall every morning my mother would give me a buck and I'd beg her, 'please, Ma, give me exact change,' because [every morning]... I'd ask [the bus driver] 'can I have change please?'- and he'd act like I wasn't there."
"I'd stand there as other customers got on - white customers. He'd talk nicely to them and give them change, and I'd stand there holding my hand out. So, I got almost to North Avenue and Charles Street, my destination, and he'd throw some change in my direction," Moore said.
Moore discussed his community work as well. He has worked at the St. Francis Academy Community-Center for nearly eight years.
"We run an after school program for the kids. We've done voter registration. We've had GED classes. We try to help people find work," Moore said.
Moore also discussed the history of student activism. "Students have played a very important part in making change happen in this country," he said.
"When four students sat down at that lunch counter in Greensboro, NC in 1960, those guys had no idea what they were doing, what would happen. But, they were breaking the law because the law was wrong."
Moore does not think this spirit of change has ended. "The last big thing that students worked on was the election of the first African-American president of the United States," he said.
He also talked about the history of activism at Hopkins, including the occupation of Garland Hall in 2000 by students protesting poor working conditions for staff.
Moore spoke about current issues facing communities in Baltimore. The Community Center is hosting a trick or treat on Halloween, because the neighborhoods where the kids come from are unsafe.
He pointed out that in the 1950s, the population of Baltimore was 950,000. "They said it was moving toward a million," Moore said.
This never happened, and today the population is 636,000. "I think what began to turn back the tide of the city was the Supreme Court decision of 1954, Brown Vs. Board of Education," Moore said.
He believes people left to avoid integration.Today, he feels "You've got two Baltimores, separate and unequal."
He said the best way to achieve something in the community is to create partnerships. "I think that's a great word, partnership. Going into it with the attitude that you give something to get something is the appropriate attitude. I think we get more from listening to people and understanding what their nervousness and fears are, rather than pooh-poohing them," Moore said.
"Students have played a very important part in making change happen in this country," he added.
"The students who did it are no different than you are."
Moore also discussed issues facing Obama's presidency including health care reform.
"Premiums get higher and higher and [employers] can't give a raise because they have to cover more health insurance. It's hurting people who have health insurance," he said.
"It looks big and overwhelming - these problems, just like four students saying, 'This is a legal segregation situation; how do we change that?' But you just dive in. How do we get into this? We need to think about what we can do to dive in and effect some change. I think these people need to make some noise. I think their voices need to become louder than the nay-sayers."
Student reactions were mixed.
"He raised a lot of interesting points. He went off on a lot of tangents. I think we could have spent more time talking about issues in Baltimore, versus other things," Sudeshna Trivedi, a junior Public Health major, said.
Jennifer Yogi, the AmeriCorps*VISTA-Community-based Learning Coordinator in the Center for Social Concern, who is co-organizing the discussion series described the center as "an organization that helps connect student groups to the needs of the community."
Yogi intends for the discussion series, "to pull people from the community and students together to talk more about the Hopkins-community partnership."
"I really thought that he had a good grasp on the kinds of challenges students face. I thought his personal life stories were really interesting and really good for students to hear . . . it was a positive speech that he gave, and I am really glad he agreed to come speak with us," she said.
Michael Rogers, a junior Anthropology major co-organized the series with Yogi.
"I rather enjoyed [the speech]. It was interesting to hear from someone who has worked so long in Baltimore, and is also an alumnus of Johns Hopkins, tell students about work he has done here, about experiences he has had getting to know people and with the history of this city," Rogers said.
"It's getting people like Mr. Moore that a lot of students and members of the university need in order to pursue partnerships with Baltimore."
