JP McCaskey High School teacher Todd Mealy joins Aaron and Jeff to discuss the Witness Stones Project, a three-year program where students dig through 18th century tax records, wills, and runaway ads to uncover the names of people who were enslaved and erased from history. They turn their research into biographical projects and lay granite memorial stones throughout Lancaster City meant to disrupt and challenge.
JP McCaskey High School teacher Todd Mealy joins Aaron and Jeff to discuss the Witness Stones Project, a three-year program where students dig through 18th century tax records, wills, and runaway ads to uncover the names of people who were enslaved and erased from history. They turn their research into biographical projects and lay granite memorial stones throughout Lancaster City meant to disrupt and challenge.
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Voiceover (00:02):
Welcome to Duty Free Lunch, the official podcast of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Join us as we unpack the issues that matter most to you.
Aaron Chapin (00:23):
Hello, and welcome to Duty Free Lunch. I'm PSEA president, Aaron Chapin. I'm sitting here today with PSEA Vice President Jeff Ney. Good afternoon, Jeff.
Jeff Ney (00:33):
Good afternoon, Aaron. How are you doing today?
Aaron Chapin (00:36):
It has been a. Well, we're recording this in June. Yep,
Jeff Ney (00:39):
We are. And it's
Aaron Chapin (00:39):
Been an extremely busy month here at the state capitol.
Jeff Ney (00:42):
Oh, it has been very busy.
Aaron Chapin (00:44):
We've had members in and out of the building. Currently today, we've got board members and region treasurers. Doing some financial training. So getting it all done before really, we really get into July.
Jeff Ney (00:57):
Oh,
Aaron Chapin (00:58):
You know
Jeff Ney (00:58):
What that means?
Aaron Chapin (00:59):
Yeah, summer's almost over.
Jeff Ney (01:00):
No, that's not what that means.
Aaron Chapin (01:01):
Yes, it does. Oh, wait, let's get to today's guest. Listen, everyone, most of us have learned history through a textbook. I know. It's the old way of doing things. Pretty boring. Yeah, extremely. But we've got a great guest today. Todd Mealy's students, in fact, at JP McCaskey High School, they don't just study history though. They really go through excavating.
Jeff Ney (01:26):
Yeah.
Aaron Chapin (01:26):
Yeah, yeah. They dig through wills, tax records, runaway advertisements to recover the names of people who were deliberately left out of the story. And then they take those names and they engrave them into granite stones, place them into the pavement of Lancaster City so that anyone walking past has to stop, look down and reckon with what's there. It's called the Witness Stones Project, and it's the first program of its kind in Pennsylvania. And this spring, PSEA recognized Todd with a Celebrating Excellence Human and Civil Rights Award at our May House of Delegates, gave a riveting talk on the project, and that's why he is here today, because we were so inspired by what he was saying. So we now had the pleasure of seeing him here on duty free lunch today. Todd, welcome to the podcast.
Todd Mealy (02:15):
Aaron, Jeff, thanks for having me.
Aaron Chapin (02:17):
And thanks for everything you do. We are really excited to let more of our members know about what you're doing there. So let's just get right to it. So for our listeners who are not familiar with it, give us the elevator pitch. What is the Witness Stones Project and what does a student actually do when they're part of it?
Todd Mealy (02:35):
Okay. So I work with 10th, 11th, and 12th graders at JP McCaskey High School in Lancaster. We have some stakeholder groups that we work with as well, Historic Rockford, the Lancaster chapter, the NAACP. But what we do is we research 18th century enslaved people, find as many primary documents as we can that helps us put together the pieces of their lives. We develop biographical projects with the materials that we're able to uncover, and then we honor those individuals by the laying of witness stones into the ground of the pavement throughout Lancaster City. It's a three-year project. We just finished year two, and by the time that we're done, we hope to have recognized and honored the lives of more than 70 enslaved people during the Revolutionary War era.
Jeff Ney (03:33):
Wow. So at our House of Delegates and at the Celebrating Excellence, I was listening and you said that the project runs on four different pillars, archival research, close read analysis, biographical projects, and public ceremony. So pretty much walk us through what that looks like across a school year, maybe even week to week, what your kids are doing?
Todd Mealy (03:55):
Well, I work closely with individuals at Historic Rockford during the fall semester of the school year, Pam Stoner, Debbie Smith, Christina McSherry, and we kind of collaborate together to find the names of enslaved people through really, Aaron, what you mentioned in your introduction, tax records, inventory lists, runaway ads, letters written by enslavers to spouses or children. So the fall semester is us, the adults doing that kind of heavy duty primary research. And then I take everything we uncover, find some secondary sources and develop a curriculum that when we return from the winter break of the new year in the spring semester, I spend January into February working with the students on conducting close readings of the documents we've uncovered. That takes some time because it's a deep dive into what we do when we're looking at those documents. It takes us about two weeks to get through all the documents because the classroom discussions are riveting.
(05:12)
By the time we spend about two weeks or so discussing the primary documents, then we bring in the secondary sources and start to develop those biographical projects. It is a buildup throughout the fall semester. We do a lot of the research for the students. Then my job is to, when we return from the break in the spring, is to have a curriculum developed like a syllabus, like a college professor would do. I turn this into a course and work with the students every day in class in discussions. When we're done, I facilitate their. Supervise them in the production of the projects.
Jeff Ney (05:50):
So you were talking about that close read documents that you're looking at the text, you're looking at the context, the subtext, and you apply all of that into what you have called the themes of enslavement to every document now that the students encounter. Why is it so important to give the students that analytical framework when approaching this topic?
Todd Mealy (06:12):
Okay, so there's two things that you said there. One is how we do the close reading. We do the close reading in the field of history. We're looking at the text itself, what words, phrases, passages, punctuations jump out at us and what's the meaning behind an author using those specific words, phrases or punctuations. So we look at the text specifically, then we try to find out what the strategy is of the author. That's a subtext. So what's the hidden meaning, what's not being said into documents that the author is actually saying? And then the context, which is the connecting to the larger environment. So that's one component of close reading analysis that we do. But then the other piece that you mentioned is the themes of enslavement. And so when we started the Witness Stones project two years ago, we had five themes, dehumanization, treatment, economics, paternalism and agency.
(07:08)
This year in week two or year two, I added a sixth theme, which was geography because we are putting micro memorials into the ground and geography in my class is more the landscapes, cities and states and whatnot. We're looking at the way humans interact, so human geography in that sense. And so the purpose of the themes is really to do multiple things for the students. One is to get these high school kids, these teenagers to see that one story is not an act alone. It's not its own thing.
(07:43)
When you're able to find the theme of treatment or economics across documents, then the students are able to tie those two different stories together. The notion is you do that with. I do that with any class that I teach because the students put up walls, they move from one class to another classroom, one subject to another subject and they see no connections. The thematic approach allows us to make those connections across documents, across events in time, and it makes it more meaningful. But the themes also help those students with their articulation when they have to present on the topics and also when they have to write. So one of the approaches I do with the thematic approach now, these six themes is, let's say we have 15 documents we're working through. What's the overarching theme? That's going to become the thesis of your presentation of your project.
(08:40)
And then if you can tie sub themes within it, you now have topics or topic sentences of the body of your essay or of your presentation. So it gives them a presentation formula and a writing formula for which to better articulate themselves, whether verbally or in written form. Great
Aaron Chapin (08:56):
Skills. So they also have to do biographical projects, right? That's right. And so they could be documentary films, wood carvings, clay sculpture, portraits. So I assume you give them a lot of latitude over what their project can be, how they present it. Anything that they produce really surprise you?
Todd Mealy (09:14):
Well, so the students have a lot of choice. We give them the option of working alone or forming small groups. I give them the option of choosing the mode at which they're going to produce this biographical project because they may not walk into my classroom and history be their favorite subject. Their favorite subject may be art or may be literature, it may be music. I give them the option of the choice at which to create their own project as long as they're addressing the themes of enslavement and at least one of the case studies that we take a look at. The students are very impressive with what they produce. I mean, we've had two different documentary films made in two years. One was about a half hour long and the other was about 12 minutes and the students went out on their own to get video documentation in addition to what we were able to provide for them.
(10:10)
They worked with the local historical society and different groups like Historic Rockford to get materials that they can work into their films and then they go to work on something like WeVideo or Canva and they produce the film. We've had a group of girls make a documentary film about an enslaved man named Frank who was enslaved by Edward Hand,
(10:32)
And they utilized their social network that they were able to develop by taking a couple of my classes over the course of several years and they brought the late Linwood Sloan in, an artist and a performer in many ways to do the narration of the film and he had the perfect voice for it. But we've had other students that made original music in addition to poetry and then you got your history minded, I just want to write a paper and give a presentation. So sometimes that's what they choose to produce. But yeah, it is impressive what they do. And then we turn everything over so what the students produce, it's not like we want to place it on a shelf and no one sees it again. We want to give that to langsterhistory.org or the NAACP or Historic Rockford.
Aaron Chapin (11:16):
Great
Jeff Ney (11:17):
Idea. So we've heard from your students and they think this is the most meaningful class they have. Is that why they think it's meaningful because there's so many different directions that they can go in and whatever the topic is, they could find a way, whether it is the art side of it or whether it is the production side of it. Is that what is grabbing them? I
Todd Mealy (11:34):
Think that's a big piece of it is the choice they have in choosing how they're going to be assessed. They get to specialize in what they do best instead of take a multiple choice test or write an on-demand essay in class. So they get to choose what they produce. But the other part of that to your prompt there is it is personal. These students walk these streets and they're studying people that contributed to their community while being enslaved. I think it's also a big reason perhaps is the fact that the work that they're doing is on the community that they live in and they're seeing how it has been built over time by the harrowing story of people able to survive while being enslaved and making major contributions to our city.
Jeff Ney (12:28):
Talk about bringing it to life.
Aaron Chapin (12:29):
Exactly. And that's what we're supposed to be doing as history teachers. When we had the PSEA award ceremony, you talked about the concept of spatial justice and I know the room was really moved. I talked to a lot of our colleagues afterwards and they were very impressed. That idea that no public landscape is ever politically neutral and that your stones function as what you call the micro memorials, that they don't elevate, they disrupt. So can you unpack that a little bit for us? What do you want a stranger walking past one of those stones to feel, to think?
Todd Mealy (13:05):
Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you for the recognition and I accept that on behalf of my students. One of the things I said also at the end of my remarks was that when you talk about justice, you're looking at changing policy of some institution, some system. And what we're doing is the work of putting memorials into the ground. And so a lot of people may criticize that's not really justice work, but spatial justice, when you think of it, Aaron, most people think of what access do people living in a community of space have to say metro lines, busing lines, dockless bikes, do they have a place to park those dockless bikes without being penalized? That's what a lot of people, access to green spaces. But public memory is a significant part of spatial justice because any monument that goes in, particularly if you go back to when putting down statues and memorials became a thing in the last quarter of the 19th century, tail end of reconstruction after the Civil War,
(14:16)
You are forcing a narrative upon a group of people. When you choose to put a memorial into the ground on a pedestal, that is now pervasive in a community. The people that live in that area, they walk by it every day, they see it every day and that narrative may not match with their lived experience. We have to ask ourselves what story is not being told here and what do we do about that? Maybe to build out this a little bit more if you let me, Aaron, the idea when this nation was founded, I'm kind of caught up in the moment of the 250th coming up here in a month.This is a post-Civil War. The means of producing monuments became cheaper in the late 1800s.
(15:10)
And so when this nation was founded, a statue was taboo. Two reasons why, kind of the Puritan ethos was that this was false idolatry if you put up some statue of a person. So you had the religious component against statues and monuments. And then the other is, well, we just broke away from Great Britain and monarchs and kings put up statues of themselves to put fear into their communities and we just split from that. So we're not going to put statues up to even our founding fathers. And that changed when the industrial revolution just made stone and copper and everything cheaper to put up statues. And once that happens, Aaron, any group, organization, any social movement, all they have to do is say, "We want to put a statue up for someone. Let's raise the money and then let's choose a spot in our community to put that statue." And that's where the conflict, the contested space comes in because that organization that's responsible for the monument, they have a motive and their motive may not match with the people of that area or things change over time.
(16:23)
And so now there's talk of a new narrative to have a counter story. And so what we're doing, what our students are doing in McAskey is taking. We don't engage in eraser. We're not advocating for removing statues. We can come back to that if there's time, but we're not advocating for that. We're putting up countermemorials to it because the first counter monument that scholars seem to reference is the Vietnam War Memorial, mainland in Washington DC, where people approach it and it's kind of ambiguous. It's open-ended. They have to come to their own conclusion of the meaning of that memorial as opposed to a man on a horse in a pedestal. That's reverence and we revere that. That's a fixed message.
(17:11)
They're telling us what to think about that. But with our witness stones and any other counter memorial, it is intentionally open-ended to stop people in their tracks. So that's where the disruption comes in. And for them to try to make sense based on how they have experienced their own lived experience was and how they've learned about history and what they know about history, they come to their own conclusion. I guess my closing point here is it's kind of like the movement from traditional temples to forums and our witness stones is the forum component. It's open-ended, you draw an interpretation, but we want to make sure that beauty, that romanticism of the 18th century that you see when you look at this founding father and this revolutionary era that is being presented to you by these original monuments, well, that was created in large part because of stolen labor and we wanted to make sure that those people and their lives are recognized.
Jeff Ney (18:06):
You are giving credit to your students, which all the educators that we run into across the state, that's why we do the job that we do because you want to make sure that you're elevating those students. The demographics of McKaskey is majority students of color, 65% Hispanic, 20% African American. How does that shape the way students engage with this material and what does it mean to them to be the ones that are physically putting the names into the ground?
Todd Mealy (18:35):
Well, so I am cognizant of the demographic at the school. And so when we start the Witness Stones Project, part of the curriculum is to have conversations not just about those themes we discussed, but also language, vocabulary, terminology and how that has changed over time. And so when they're writing something or they're producing a film or they're giving a presentation, they know that in 2025, 2026 now, next year 2027, what is really the socially accepted forms to talk about a topic like the Institution of Slavery. I talk to guidance counselors that I make sure that if any student needs to step away and maybe talk to somebody, they can certainly do that. And I bring people in. I've mentioned Len Wood has been a part of this program before he passed a couple months ago, and there's some other individuals that I've often brought into my classroom to be voices and also people that our students can trust if they don't want to come to me and talk about anything related to this project.
Jeff Ney (19:39):
Again, thank you for highlighting your students, but we, Aaron and I want to highlight you because you are a prolific author. You just completed a visiting professorship at Oxford and you have a book on Muhammad Ali coming out this fall from Penn State University Press. So how does the scholarship you do outside of the classroom feed what you do inside?
Todd Mealy (20:05):
Yeah. Well, I'm fortunate that my boss, Dr. Justin Reese, has given me classes to teach that align with what I do outside the classroom. I teach a research class, so I get to teach students how to conduct original mixed methods, research projects with the methodology and experiments that have to be done or studies that have to be conducted. That's stuff that I do. So I get to share with them firsthand experiences that I had in trying to conduct the same kind of work that I'm trying to teach them to do. All of the courses I teach have a significant writing component to it, and so I'm able to carry over the scholarship I've done either for something like Penn State University Press or I write for Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, which are much shorter publications. I get to share that. I've been part of designing websites and I often make students interns in some of the projects that I do.
(21:01)
I think I'm fortunate that I found a group of school board members and administrators that are supportive of what I do outside of school and they know that benefits the students I work with.
Aaron Chapin (21:11):
That's a great partnership. You're very fortunate, which obviously is great for your students. We're running out of time, but we've got teachers and support staff from across the Commonwealth that'll be listening to this. So if they want to bring something like the Witness Stones Project to their community, where do they start? What should they know before they're getting into it? So in about a minute, can you give them some advice?
Todd Mealy (21:34):
Anyone can reach out to me. I'm easy to find online. Okay, so you can find my email address online.
Aaron Chapin (21:43):
Or they could email us at podcast@psea.org.
Todd Mealy (21:46):
Yes, and forward it to me. Go ahead. That is easy because I can answer all the questions, but any community, any school, any historic society, local group that has this history in their community, they can do the Witness Stones Project. They would have to find primary documents for evidence of those who were enslaved, have money that would pay for the manufacturing of the stones, and then would have to go to their city council town hall to their local governance to get permission on putting those stones into the earth. I mean, those are really the steps. You have the grassroots movement, then you institutionalize it through the memory economy of getting permission and funding and whatnot and the land, and then you have your ceremony. And you can do this with the curricular piece or you can do it without, you can just do the stones.
Aaron Chapin (22:47):
Fantastic. Look, if you're in the area, Lancaster City, right?
Todd Mealy (22:51):
Lancaster City.
Aaron Chapin (22:52):
Got to go check it out. Pretty easy to find.
Todd Mealy (22:55):
Yeah, I'm in McCaskey High School. My students love talking about it. We have Witness Stone. We have three stones right now in Penn Square right by the market, the farmer's market there, and then we have stones peppering the city, going out, radiating out from the city. All right.
Aaron Chapin (23:10):
Obviously, some of our listeners are traveling when this comes out sometime during the summer. They're, "Hey, let's go to Lancaster City. Check it out. See the Witness Stones." That is a wrap on today's episode. Our guest today has been Todd Mealy. He's an educator behind Lancaster's Witness Stones Project. Todd, an absolute pleasure having you in here and telling this great experience that you provide for our students in Pennsylvania. It is amazing. I know
Todd Mealy (23:33):
You love it. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Aaron Chapin (23:35):
It's what makes our public schools great.
Todd Mealy (23:37):
Unbelievable.
Aaron Chapin (23:38):
I know.
Todd Mealy (23:38):
Unbelievable.
Aaron Chapin (23:39):
Thanks to our listeners today. Thanks for joining us again. Got some feedback, maybe some ideas for future episodes. Maybe you're looking for some of that information from Todd. You could email us at podcast@psea.org. Email us. I'm Aaron Chapin.
Jeff Ney (23:53):
And I'm Jeff Ney.
Aaron Chapin (23:54):
And you have been listening to Duty Free Lunch. Bye for now.
Voiceover (24:03):
You've been listening to Duty Free Lunch with the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Visit psea.org/podcast to learn more, and don't forget to subscribe and share. Paid for by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.