Yakera Barbee is an 8th grade student at Franklin Middle School.

Tiera Campbell is a 9th grade student at Central High School.

Veronica Martin is a 9th grade student at Central High School.

LaPorsha Bailey is
a 6th grade student.

Jamie Brown is a 7th grade student.

Jasmine Brown is a 7th grade student.

Gabrielle Ceaser is a 7th grade student.

Abrecia Cotton is an 8th grade student.

Asia Gross is a 7th grade student.

Brooke Harris is a 7th grade student.

Jacinda Rogers is a 6th grade student.

Danielle Russell is an 8th grade student.

Shanika Taylor is a 6th grade student.

Charnise Whittaker is a 6th grade student.

We are a group of 15 middle school and high school young women who have been chosen by our teachers to participate in a year long radio documentary project. Throughout the year, we have learned about desegregation. We have heard lectures, watched videos, and done research to find out about how our local schools were desegregated. We have learned that even though segregation was not law here, schools were still segregated because kids went to schools in their own neighborhoods. In Champaign, many of our neighborhoods are segregated, so the schools were too.

We have gone to the library and have learned how to search the archives. We have learned basic web design skills (we helped make this website), and we have learned how to work a lot of fancy computer equipment. For instance, we learned how to use digital editing software so that we can edit our interviews. We have also learned how to do interviews. Even though we range in age and have different life experiences, we have many things in common. Each of us is African American. We have had common experiences with racism within our town. We each have family members who tell us stories about the racism they have faced. We are all in school, which makes us similar as we face all the hard things that come with being this age. Also, we all joined this project because we think it is very important to learn about our history. One of the really important things that we are learning is the importance of the media. We are learning that the media has a big influence on how people see African Americans. By learning how to do interviews and make websites and radio documentaries, we are learning how to create our own media. We are learning how to control the image people have of us.

Project Team Members:

Kimberlie Kranich is co-director of The Youth Media Workshop and outreach coordinator at WILL AM-FM-TV, the public broadcasting station of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. She has produced and directed radio and TV documentaries and news programs for children at public broadcasting and commercial stations for 15 years. She has won numerous awards for her productions and two of her television documentaries were nominated for regional Emmys.

Dr. William Patterson is co-director of The Youth Media Workshop. Dr. Patterson has a Ph. D. in educational policy studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Illinois State University in Normal, and a bachelor’s degree in broadcast communications from Columbia College in Chicago. Dr. Patterson is associate director of the African-American Studies and Research Program at the University of Illinois and founder of Innovative Ed Consulting, Inc., a marketing and educational consulting firm that assists at-risk youth in creating their own media.

Dave Dickey is technical support and team teacher. Mr. Dickey has a bachelor’s degree in communications from UIUC. He has almost two decades radio experience as a journalist at WILL-AM. He has won numerous state and national awards for his work, and has been teaching youth technical and interviewing skills to produce hour-long oral history documentaries for seven years.

Shameem Rakha is a national board-certified teacher at Franklin Middle School. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in education from UIUC. She has specific training in teaching children with special needs as well as those that are gifted. She has been teaching in the Champaign-Urbana area for 12 years. In 1999 she won the local Martin Luther King, Jr. Teacher of the Year Award.

Sheri Murphy is a reading specialist at Franklin Middle School. She received her bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University and later earned endorsements in reading from UIUC. She has been teaching since the mid-1970s in both Urbana and Champaign school districts.

Jack Brighton is Director of Internet Development at WILL-AM-FM-TV. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He is a long-time radio producer and web multi-media specialist. His father, Gerald Brighton, was instrumental in enacting fair housing ordinances in the City of Urbana in the late 1960s.