You may recall that the theme of last year's Archives Crawl was "Preserving the Struggle: Archives and Activism." Aptly enough, it was through 2019 iteration of the event - and as reported in the Sacramento Bee - that Rocklin student Diego Liebman learned about the acrid racism and exploitation experienced by Chinese workers at the hands of by none other than the namesake of his current high school, Joel Parker Whitney High School. Liebman didn't just learn about Whitney's dark past, he decided to do something about it.
It was Whitney, a white landowner and one of the wealthiest men in Placer County, who maintained a massive 18,000 acre farming complex that was built, cultivated and maintained through the exploitation of hundreds of Chinese laborers. To right the narrative, Liebman seeks to change school district curriculum to include the contribution of the Chinese and see a school building named after an impactful Chinese American. He will propose his ideas as a Rocklin School Board meeting on August 5, which you can watch live at 6:30 pm by clicking here.
And it all started with the 2019 Sacramento Archives Crawl.
Don't miss your chance to change history as we head toward this year's Archives Crawl, to be held virtually all throughout October of 2020.
Joel Parker Whitney
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