We were proud to honor Talib Coffield, a 10 year-old from South Philadelphia as a TD Bank Young Hero last month in our award ceremony at the National Liberty Museum.

Talib Coffield is an exceptional “friendship builder” who stands alone when it comes to meeting, helping or mediating new or current students.  What makes Talib’s skills so unique is his innate ability to recognize challenging situations among his student body. He is always the first student to help every classmate navigate the halls, classrooms or resolve any conflict between classmates.  

His teacher, Candace Kean, sang his praises when she stated that “when it comes to meeting or helping new students, or even mediating when friends argue, Talib stands alone in this field.” He goes out of his way to become friendly with newly admitted students and students who have been rejected by others, gladly inviting them into his circle. Before Talib, Kean had never seen any student come close to this type of relationship-building behavior in all of her years of teaching.

Talib not only caught our attention, but that of the South Philly Review, a community newspaper from South Philadelphia.

Congratulations to you and your family!

The National Liberty Museum Young Heroes Award recognizes extraordinary, young people from across the area and the U.S. – from every sector of society – who make outstanding and selfless contributions to drive change from their local communities. On August 5, we were proud to recognize thirty-nine amazing youth leaders from the tri-state area.

The award, which is sponsored by TD Bank, is given to young people who make positive changes in their schools and communities through art and creative writing, leadership, volunteer work, political involvement or peer mediation.

Ron Matthew, Greater Philadelphia Market President of TD Bank, says: “These young leaders dedicate their energies to bettering the lives of others; they do not do it for financial award or publicity: they do it to make a difference.”

Receiving the Young Heroes Award empowers young people to improve the society we live in and gives them public recognition for the valuable work they do.  Each year, the event has grown to honor hundreds of outstanding students, under age 18, who are creating change through a variety of uplifting activities.

Our winner this year, Deana Vega, a remarkable 11-year-old cancer survivor who is dedicated to improving the lives of those around her, received a $1000 grand prize and a laptop computer. All winners received recognition at the Young Heroes Awards Ceremony at the National Liberty Museum; a certificate of recognition, medallion and gifts; a plaque featuring their story in the Museum’s Young Heroes Exhibit and a wonderful accomplishment to include on college and job applications.

The 2010 Young Heroes have received some outstanding press including:

Philadelphia Inquirer

Channel 6 ABC in Philadelphia

KYW Newsradio 1060 in Philadelphia

Philadelphia Tribune

Courier-Post Online

NJ.com

Admin: B Blumenthal

The Let Art Freedom Ring Liberty Bell created by students from Beeber Middle School is a beautiful peace that was created to celebrate democracy, liberty and most importantly: happiness.

Let Art Freedom Ring is a cooperative program between Philadelphia Arts in Education Program and the National Liberty Museum.

Sixth grade students from Beeber Middle School have called their Let Freedom Ring Liberty Bell “Life.... And the Pursuit of Happiness.” The students described their project by saying “Our bell depicts our inquiry on the people, places and things that represent liberty.”  Considering their statement, it makes perfect sense that this bell can be seen at the Education Center at the National Liberty Museum in historic Philadelphia at 321 Chestnut Street.

The students collaborated with visiting clay artist Debbie Williams, and their art teachers Sonya Smith and Samuel Reed III to make their vision a reality. They chose a multimedia approach, using various mediums including papier-mâché, clay, paint, and plaster to create and design their bell.

Admin: B.Blumenthal

The Let Art Freedom Ring Liberty Bell created by students from George W. Sharswood Elementary School does not just celebrate democracy and liberty, but the history of communication.

Let Art Freedom Ring is a cooperative program between Philadelphia Arts in Education Program and the National Liberty Museum.

Called BOB, meaning Birth of a Bell, this Let Freedom Ring Liberty Bell shows the role of the Liberty Bell within the evolution of communication. The voyage begins with the earliest ringing of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to commemorate the birth of the nation. The story on the Bell ends in present day, where we use cell phones to keep ourselves constantly connected.

The students and artists working on Birth of a Bell took a multimedia approach, using various mediums to create and design their bell.

This bell can be seen at the National Constitution Center on Independence Mall on 525 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Admin: B. Blumenthal

If you have been to the National Liberty Museum recently, then you probably saw our two newest editions. In our Let Freedom Ring and Education Center galleries, we are proudly displaying two Let Freedom Ring Liberty Bells made by local school students. 

The Let Freedom Ring Liberty Bells were created jointly by students from five Philadelphia middle-schools and local artists as a part of a program called Let Art Freedom Ring.

Let Art Freedom Ring is a program of the National Liberty Museum and the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership. The goal of the project is to provide middle-school aged students with the opportunity to study the concept of democracy, civic responsibility and learn different art techniques by working with professional artists. 

For the duration of the summer, two of the bells can be seen at the National Liberty Museum, and the other three are on display at the National Constitution Center.

Over the next five weeks, we will be featuring these artistic Liberty Bells on our Heroes of Character Blog. We will be learning more about the schools, students and artists involved, as well and trying to understand how they chose to portray their perspectives of liberty and history through art.

For more information go to www.letartfreedomring.org, and remember to check out the bells soon, because in the fall they are traveling to New York to go on display.

Admin: B.Blumenthal

Every year, the National Liberty Museum recognizes students around the country who stand up for others with our Young Heroes Award, sponsored by TD Bank. Every year, we recognize one student who has demonstrated responsibility and excellent  character with our President’s Honor Award. Our winner for 2009 was Van Morn, an amazing Philadelphian whose good works appear to be unstoppable.

Van had just completed his final year at Olney High School in Philadelphia, and now attends Thaddeus Stevens University.  He was nominated by Mrs. Elaine Steinbacher, his advisor for the Pennsylvania Congressional Awards Program.

Olney is a neighborhood in North Philadelphia with a rich history.  Originally rolling hills of farmland settled by German-Americans, Olney has become home to people from all over the world.  Its story is Philadelphia’s story.  The neighborhood, like most of the city, was hit hard by the deindustrialization of the 1960s and 70s. Factories closed down.  Businesses, and the jobs they offered, disappeared.  Crime rates went up.  Many people moved out.  In their place, new populations moved in: Vietnamese, Columbians, Koreans, African-Americans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Laotians, Cambodians.  They saw the opportunity in this neighborhood.  They have worked hard and kept Olney alive, carrying on old traditions and starting new ones.

Van and his family are a part of this renewal.  He, his parents, and his two younger sisters moved from the country of Cambodia to the United States, in search of a promise.  His grandmother, who lost three children to the dictatorship of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, lives in California and took the family in.  She didn’t have enough room in her house.  It was not easy, but that was no deterrent.

Van grew up in a world of poverty, and his family worked hard every day to survive.  They only had enough to eat because his mother planted and cultivated crops when she wasn’t working.  “We are a surviving type of family,” Van says.

This time last year, he had a job, and was a full-time high school student, and faced the additional challenge of becoming a fluent English speaker.   Still, he volunteered your time to the less fortunate.  He gave his time to the Inglis House for Disabled Adults.  He initiated “clean-up-the-streets” programs in your neighborhood.  He even helped with the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program, as their official photographer.

Van is the kind of person who sees the opportunities ahead of him, and reaches for them.  At the same time, he does his best to give other people an opportunity too.  He’s a hard worker, and an exceptional student, but the quality that best defines him is his gratitude.  He is happy to have been given a chance to succeed, and he can’t help but give back to everyone around him.

Van won the President’s Honor because he has proven himself to be a remarkable Young Hero.  We admire his can-do attitude, and for his refusal to give up.  We honored him for his giving nature and his commitment to others. He has already achieved so much, and now has a whole lifetime to build on those accomplishments and to inspire others.  Congratulations, Van!

The National Liberty Museum is home to a brand-new exhibit that features some amazing Heroes of Character.  In Liberty Hall, right near our wall of military decorations, we now have interactive touch-screen computers created by the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.  They tell the stories of the more than 3400 people who have received our country’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. You can look at the name of every single person ever given this medal, and videos of many of the surviving awardees.

One person whose story caught my eye is Duane Dewey. Up above is a picture of him and his wife in 2004. He served in the Marines as a corporal in the Korean War. In April 1952, twenty-year-old Corporal Dewey was in charge of a squad of Marines when an exploding grenade shot pieces of metal into his legs and buttocks. He cried out that he'd been hit, and a Navy medical corpsman rushed over to help. As he was lying there and getting treatment, Corporal Dewey saw another grenade land right next to him.

He grabbed it, thinking fast. He could throw it away, but he wasn't in a good position for that. He couldn't tell whether he'd be able to throw it far enough. If it exploded right by his men, he knew they might be injured or killed. What else could he do?

He did the only thing he could think of to protect everyone around him - he put the grenade underneath his own body. He managed to pull the medic down to the ground and shout, "Hit the dirt!" and then it detonated. The explosion was so strong that it lifted his body off of the ground. Because of his quick thinking and selflessness, no one else was injured, not even the medic right next to him.

He was wounded pretty badly, though. Because of the intense fighting going on around him, he had to wait a long time to be evacuated to a hospital. As he laid waiting, his thoughts turned to his wife and their baby daughter, whom he had never met - she was born after he shipped out. Even then, in pain and worried for his life, he was thinking about others. He remembers thinking, please, let my wife find a good dad for our daughter, and a good husband for herself.

After a long night, he was evacuated to a field hospital and underwent surgery. He got to meet his daughter and to be at home with the wife he loved. Today, he is a grandfather and a great-grandfather. President Eisenhower, when he gave him the Medal of Honor, remarked that he must have "a body made of steel." That's what makes this story so important – Corporal Dewey’s body wasn't indestructible. He could have been hurt, and he could have been killed, but still he opened himself up to great risk to protect other people.

Corporal Duane Dewey is a real Hero of Character!

Who's your Hero of Character? You still have time to send us your entries for our 2010 Caretoons Contest.  Mail your entry to us, or send it via email. For rules and an entry form, click here. Hurry, though - the deadline is April 15!

The Constitution of the United States gives Americans a lot of power.  Free speech means we can use our words to change the world.  Freedom of assembly means we can come together and join our voices and become a powerful group.

Those powers, like all powers, come with responsibility.  Because we live in a free country, that means that the government usually isn't going to tell us where the limits are.  We must set those limits ourselves, and make sure we're using our rights to help people and not to hurt them.

Recently, a group of Americans gathered outside of the U.S. Capitol.  They wanted to stand up for their rights and use their voices to influence the government.  During their protest, though, some of them allowed their anger to get the better of them.  Instead of using their words to make a point, they used them as weapons.  They shouted some really awful things, obscenities and insults, at members of Congress who they disagreed with.

Some of the worst things were shouted at members of the Congressional Black Caucus who walked by.  Rep. James Clyburn said, “I heard people saying things today I've not heard since March 15th, 1960, when I was marching.”

Rep. John Lewis, another veteran of the civil rights movement, agreed.  “It's okay, I've faced this before.  It reminded me of the '60s.  It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean.”

Lewis has faced much worse than this, though.  Just like those protesters, he too once joined up with other citizens to change the world.  After hearing a speech by Dr. King, he joined the local sit-in movement in Nashville, TN.  Soon, he was organizing sit-ins and bus boycotts and became a Freedom Rider. 

The Freedom Riders' goal was to desegregate buses.  During a Freedom Ride in 1961, John Lewis entered a “Whites Only” waiting room at a Greyhound bus station.  A group of white men, led by a young KKK member named Elwin Wilson, attacked him.  Wilson wasn’t always a violent man.  His parents, he says, weren't bigots.  They tried to raise him right.  But growing up in the segregated South, he heard a lot of racist talk.  He began to listen to it and then to repeat it, and pretty soon he was throwing eggs and watermelons at civil rights protesters.  By the time John Lewis came to his town, Elwin Wilson had been turning his anger into violence for some time.

This wasn’t the first time Rep. Lewis had been hurt, and it wasn’t the last time.  Later, he was the leader of a famous march in 1965 in Selma, Alabama called “Bloody Sunday.”  Six hundred people got together to stand up for voting rights.  They had only marched a few blocks when they were attacked.  The Governor of Alabama had told police officers to stop the peaceful march.  The protesters were beaten with clubs and attacked with chemical gases.  The police beat John Lewis so badly that they broke his skull.  He still has the marks on his head today.

Rep. Lewis didn’t want all of this hatred to leave a mark on his heart, though.  He says, “Hate is too heavy a burden to bear.”  That’s why his career has been dedicated to finding peaceful solutions to conflict, and finding ways to turn pain and anger into positive change.

That man who beat him at the Greyhound bus station, Elwin Wilson, recently decided to turn his hate into something good.  He had been hurting people and saying awful things for decades, but one day he took a good look at himself, and he saw that he had the power to make things better.   This happened because a friend of his, a black man who had been his friend since childhood, invited him to church.  The mostly black congregation knew what Mr. Wilson had said and done in the past.  They recognized him, and still they welcomed him into their church.

Elwin Wilson, 72 years old, decided then and there to change his life.  He didn't want to lead a life of hate anymore.  But how could he begin to heal these decades-old wounds?   He returned to the places where he had thrown food or fists.  He started to apologize to people he had done wrong to.  When he found out one of his victims was now a member of Congress, he reached out to news reporters to see if they could help him contact Rep. Lewis.

Last year, they met for the first time since that day at the bus station.  “I’m so sorry about what happened back then,” said Mr. Wilson.  “I never thought I'd see the day when I'd find out who I'd beat up at the bus station.”

John Lewis looked him in the eye, and accepted the apology.  “It’s okay.  I forgive you.”  Rep. Lewis was as surprised as Mr. Lewis.  “I never thought this would happen.  It says something about the power of love, of grace, the power of the people being able to say, 'I'm sorry,' and move on.  And I deeply appreciate it.  It's very meaningful for me.”

Elwin Wilson is the first person to ask Rep. Lewis to forgive him for his hatred, but they both hope he won’t be the last.  Maybe those protesters outside the Capitol will hear the wise words of John Lewis, and use their powers to bring people together instead of driving them apart.

“We should have a capacity and ability to forgive,” he says.  “Love is much stronger than hate.”

Join us at the National Liberty Museum this Wednesday, March 8 for an evening inspired by the Free Library's "One Book, One Philadelphia."

We'll have Pulitzer Prize-Winning cartoonists Tony Auth and Signe Wilkinson on hand to discuss the use of cartoons in political commentary. The centerpiece for this discussion will be the recent circulation of Persepolis 2.0, in which two Iranian ex-patriots used images by graphic artist Marjane Satrapi to illustrate events surrounding the July 2009 Iranian election.

Philadelphia editorial cartoonist Tom Stiglich will moderate the event, which starts at 7:00 pm.

The event will also feature the National Liberty Museum's CareToons exhibit. Light refreshments will be served.

Space is limited!!!

Again, that's this Wednesday, March 10 at 7:00 pm. To RSVP, or for more information, contact Jan Griesemer at 215-925-2800 ext. 124 or jgriesemer@libertymuseum.org. We'll see you then!

We'd like to introduce you to another 2009 winner of our "Teacher as Hero" Awards, sponsored by State Farm®.

Barbara Murray-Dixon is a 2nd grade teacher at the Patton J. Hill School in Trenton, NJ, and has spent the last 30 years nurturing and caring for students in the Trenton Public School District. 

Her dedication knows no bounds.  She literally teaches day and night.  During the day, she meets the needs of some of New Jersey’s most vulnerable children in her classroom.  She is both loving and firm – there is no reason that her students cannot succeed; no reason that they will not meet and exceed district standards.  Outside of the classroom, she travels throughout the district to continue her teaching.  She meets students - some expelled, some suspended, and some gravely ill – directly in their homes.  No student lives too far, or in too rough of a neighborhood, for Barbara.  She coaches cheerleading and basketball, raises funds for schools and educators, and works with the Police Athletic League to prevent teen pregnancy.  She has done all of this while working toward her MBA and while battling a chronic illness.

Like all great educators, she does not waver in the face of challenges, no matter how big.  For 30 years, she has been the foundation upon which hundreds of students have built their futures. Congratulations, Barbara!