Work to Preserve Documents Provides Unique Teaching Opportunity

Dr. Gregory Samantha Rosenthal, along with his introduction to public history class, spent weeks digitizing newspaper clippings detailing the history of desegregation, racism, and the overall racial history of the city of Salem. It was a unique way to explore such a charged topic. "As their professor, I'm very impressed that they've developed such an understanding of local history and such a compassionate understanding of the diversity of people's experience over time," Rosenthal said. "We could have just as easily read a bunch of books and sat around the class, but I do think this kind of public engagement is what an education should look like."