{"673208":{"#nid":"673208","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Not Forgotten","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor every trailblazer, countless others are excluded, diminished, or told \u201cNo.\u201d As easily as we celebrate progress, it is often even easier to forget the pain of those left behind.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn Georgia Tech\u2019s history, there are many untold stories of people whose lives were shaped before segregation ended. By telling those stories, we uncover a more complex picture \u2014 and discover the power of acknowledging the past.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003E\u2018This Mattered\u2019\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMy grandfather\u2019s history is Tech history,\u201d said Samantha \u201cSam\u201d Bolton. \u201cWalking past the Trailblazers statue pains me, because my family experienced the same struggle \u2014 just too early to get any recognition at all.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBolton is a second-year student in the Scheller College of Business. Her grandfather, Robert Cheeseboro, applied for and was denied admission to Tech as a transfer student from Morehouse College in 1953. \u201cThis was a teenager who just wanted to be seen as a human being and wanted to get a degree. He wanted to innovate; he wanted to create things,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETwo years ago, Bolton read her grandfather\u2019s correspondence with Georgia Tech\u2019s registrar and the Board of Regents in an archival collection her mother had tracked down online at the Library of Congress. \u201cI don\u2019t think I fully understood the gravity of it until we found correspondence with Thurgood Marshall,\u201d she recalled, \u201cand articles about him in newspapers throughout the country. So, I thought, OK, this mattered.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EShe has been sharing her grandfather\u2019s story ever since \u2014 because, she said, \u201cThe worst thing Tech did wasn\u2019t to reject him; the worst thing they did was to forget him.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003EMoving Forward\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBolton wants to change that.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 2022, she founded the Organization for Social Activism (OSA), which aims to spread awareness and education on current events and pursue justice through the principles of community, compassion, and collaboration.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe following year, OSA and the Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization hosted a forum on the overturning of affirmative action by the U.S. Supreme Court and the need for open and transparent communication between students and administrators. And, she argued, it was necessary to be transparent about the past in order to navigate current policy changes and shape the future.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003EHis Story\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECheeseboro was an aspiring mechanical engineer born in Mobile, Alabama, and raised in Columbus, Georgia. In February 1953, the honors student submitted his transcript and a recommendation letter to the Georgia Tech registrar. Months of silence passed, with Cheeseboro repeatedly asking for a response.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFinally, the Board of Regents offered him scholarship aid to study engineering out of state, because engineering was not offered by any Georgia colleges open to Black students.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMeanwhile, in June, four months after his transcript and recommendation letter submission, Georgia Tech\u2019s registrar mailed the forms necessary for Cheeseboro to complete his admission application.\u0026nbsp;They reflected a new policy adopted specifically to keep Cheeseboro, and other potential Black applicants, out: It required applicants to provide attestations of \u201cgood moral character\u201d from two alumni.* In the segregated South, this was virtually impossible for Black students.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESo, he decided to accept the out-of-state scholarship, moving to New York to attend the University of Rochester. After graduating, he settled in Crenshaw, California, where he earned patents \u2014 but little money \u2014 on numerous inventions, including a portable record player. In the face of ongoing racial barriers and with limited financial resources, he and his wife raised three daughters.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Ch4\u003EHistorical Accountability\u003C\/h4\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMany decades later, Bolton achieved what her grandfather was prevented from doing, enrolling as an engineering student at Tech. In her second year, she switched to business, with a concentration in organization and leadership \u2014 and a plan to combine her passion for art and activism through nonprofit work, building art spaces in developing countries and low-income communities.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBolton also wants to keep her grandfather\u2019s story, and stories like his, alive. On Wednesday, Feb. 28, she and the OSA, along with archivists and members of the Student Government Association and the NAACP, will participate in a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/library.gatech.edu\/events\/first-three-reckoning-techs-history-and-realizing-better-future\u0022\u003Econversation\u003C\/a\u003E hosted by the Library about Georgia Tech in the Jim Crow era, how desegregation happened at Tech, and historical accountability.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECheeseboro died in 2022, before Bolton arrived on campus.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cEven if he didn\u2019t know it, he was a trailblazer,\u201d she said. \u201cI would want him to know that he genuinely paved the way for the people who came after him, and that I\u2019m not going to let him be forgotten.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/findingaids.loc.gov\/exist_collections\/ead3pdf\/mss\/2015\/ms015025.pdf\u0022\u003E*NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Records, Box 132, Library of Congress.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"full_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"One student\u2019s family history opens a window into Georgia Tech\u2019s past."}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn Georgia Tech\u2019s history, there are many untold stories of people whose lives were shaped before segregation ended.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"In Georgia Tech\u2019s history, there are many untold stories of people whose lives were shaped before segregation ended."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2024-02-27 03:11:03","changed_gmt":"2024-02-27 14:43:36","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-02-26T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2024-02-26T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"673179":{"id":"673179","type":"image","title":"Sam Bolton and the Three Pioneers","body":"\u003Cp\u003ESam Bolton and the Three Pioneers in Harrison Square at Georgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1708620005","gmt_created":"2024-02-22 16:40:05","changed":"1708620005","gmt_changed":"2024-02-22 16:40:05","alt":"Sam Bolton and the Three Pioneers","file":{"fid":"256538","name":"sam-bolton-three-pioneers.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/02\/22\/sam-bolton-three-pioneers.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/02\/22\/sam-bolton-three-pioneers.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2261918,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/02\/22\/sam-bolton-three-pioneers.jpg?itok=3dlNHqlq"}},"673178":{"id":"673178","type":"image","title":"Sam Bolton","body":"\u003Cp\u003ESam Bolton, undergraduate business administration major\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1708619968","gmt_created":"2024-02-22 16:39:28","changed":"1708619968","gmt_changed":"2024-02-22 16:39:28","alt":"Sam Bolton, undergraduate business administration major","file":{"fid":"256537","name":"sam-bolton.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/02\/22\/sam-bolton.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/02\/22\/sam-bolton.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":663272,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/02\/22\/sam-bolton.jpg?itok=hbqY5sG7"}},"673219":{"id":"673219","type":"image","title":"Robert Cheeseboro","body":"\u003Cp\u003ERobert Cheeseboro\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","created":"1709003613","gmt_created":"2024-02-27 03:13:33","changed":"1709003612","gmt_changed":"2024-02-27 03:13:32","alt":"Robert Cheeseboro","file":{"fid":"256580","name":"Cheese.JPG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/02\/26\/Cheese.JPG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/02\/26\/Cheese.JPG","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":389439,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/02\/26\/Cheese.JPG?itok=jSSi2LTK"}}},"media_ids":["673179","673178","673219"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/library.gatech.edu\/events\/first-three-reckoning-techs-history-and-realizing-better-future","title":"Before the First Three Event Information"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:stacy.braukman@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EStacy Braukman\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}