Marie Dillard ’24 implicitly trusts Dean of Inclusion and Belonging Dr. Danica Tisdale-Fisher. Yet when she saw that Tisdale-Fisher had planned DEI programming around Rosa Parks, Dillard couldn’t fight the urge to sigh. Rosa Parks, she thought to herself. Figures. The same old narrative about Rosa Parks … again.
 
“But I was so wrong,” says Dillard, practically gleeful about the fact that she arrived at the wrong conclusion. “In really only five minutes of understanding what Dr. Fisher was planning, the entire conversation I had been hearing for so long shifted. ‘Rosa Parks was a sweet old lady who woke up one day and was tired and wouldn’t stand up on a bus.’ No: Rosa Parks spent her life as an activist who galvanized the entire Black community with a purposeful and considered choice.”
 
That was a truth Dillard could get behind.
 
Metaphorically speaking, it makes sense that Dillard and Zach Macalintal ’24 meet me in the Dining Hall for our conversation about Parks, the world outside St. Andrew’s gates, and activism—the two are ravenous for social justice and change. You might as well set out a fork and knife for Heidi Forbes ’23 and Riya Soni ’24, too, as they’re just as hungry: the foursome joined forces to co-found St. Andrew’s Social Justice Club a little over a year ago after the absence of such an entity loomed too large for them to ignore.
 
“Our work is grounded in understanding history,” says Macalintal. “We have to understand the truth. We have to understand how we are the products of a long line of activism, which is true since the founding of America. People like Rosa Parks get lost in someone else’s story, and we want to bring light to truth.”
 
For Dillard and Macalintal, working in tandem with Tisdale-Fisher to bring light to the life of Rosa Parks was a perfect Social Justice Club initiative in a moment when the club is identifying who it is and what it does.
 
“We get such a flat, one-dimensional image of who Rosa Parks was, but she was so much more complex and dynamic,” says Tisdale-Fisher. “And even though she presented as quiet, she was very deep in her work and very committed. She is one of the women we can really lift up and say, ‘They were radical for the work that they did at that time.’”
 
Tisdale-Fisher was particularly taken with The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, renowned scholar Dr. Jeanne Theoharis’ 2014 biography. Not only is Rebellious the first biography devoted explicitly to Parks, it also does what other texts have not: it challenges the narrative that on one happenstance day, Parks launched herself into history as an accidental footnote to the civil rights movement. The book inspired a documentary of the same name, which first aired on Peacock in 2022.
 
“I met with my History Department colleagues Emily Pressman and Matt Edmonds to talk about the idea of gathering to watch the documentary, then bringing Dr. Theoharis to campus virtually for a conversation,” Tisdale-Fisher says. “We all agreed not only was it a great idea, but a great time to really lift Mrs. Parks.”
 
Dillard and Macalintal helped get about 15 students and various faculty members together for a viewing of the documentary in Tisdale-Fisher’s home, which took place January 8.
 
“It was a wonderful documentary,” Dillard says. “I was moved by learning about Rosa Parks in this way. It also opened up a great starting point for a conversation about performative activism, like how we talk about a person like Rosa but not what she actually did. Some cities ‘save a seat’ on buses during Black History Month, but what is that actually doing aside from taking a seat away from someone who needs it?”
 
The second part of the programming included an intimate virtual conversation with Theoharis on January 12.
 
“I was blown away by how thoughtful the members of the Social Justice Club were in the questions they crafted before meeting Dr. Theoharis,” Tisdale-Fisher says. “I think she was very impressed. It was a true conversation, not just her talking at us. Not only did Dr. Theoharis answer our students’ intellectual questions with thoughtful intellectual answers, but the gathering gave us a unique opportunity to connect and talk about civil rights and a hero of the movement.”
 
Dillard walked away marked by the experience. “I’m so grateful we were able to talk to [Theoharis],” she says. “She’s a genius. There was such a nice vibe in the room—people came together by choice to hold space for these types of conversations. Even if they weren’t asking questions, they were able to take something away from the conversation.”
 
“Holding space.” That’s a phrase Dillard and Macalintal refer to often.
 
“Our main goal as a club is to hold space to engage on campus about those unjust things that are happening in the world,” Dillard says. “I don’t like the idea that tragedies are happening out in the world, and the world is talking about it, yet here on campus we have our heads down and we’re not focusing on it. We need a space for people to gather around these conversations.”  
 
One way the Social Justice Club does this is by sending long-form emails to the entire St. Andrew’s community about those events beyond our gates that the founders think should carry weight in our campus spaces. Recent subjects have included mass shooting victims; Tyre Nichols, a Black Memphis man who died after a brutal beating at the hands of Memphis police; and projected legislation in Florida to censor A.P. African American studies and curriculums. In one such email, Macalintal wrote:
 
I believe in a St. Andrew’s that knows its obligation to the national and global community. St. Andrew’s is a place where we forge students to be people and leaders. I believe that we need to be informed in order to demonstrate the traits we have that cannot be taught. We need to channel traits like kindness, humility, and a craving to do justice, to put more good in the world. … The work that needs to be done starts with being informed.
 
“We want adults to see these messages to know that we, as students, really care about these things,” says Dillard, who is quick to shout out Tisdale-Fisher as an integral voice and support system for the culture she and her peers want to build.
 
Of course, the duo admits, it’s a pretty daunting feat to inspire social change from within the four walls of your high school. “The hard part is we’re constantly thinking, ‘We should be doing more. We should be going bigger.’ But we are giving ourselves grace,” says Dillard. “We’re using this, our junior year, as a base year so that our senior year, we can hit the ground running.”
 
Dillard’s action plan for this year is to curate a more-informed community. Judging by the number of students who ask about Social Justice Club, show up for conversations, and have opted in, their mission is hitting.
 
There’s also an important timing element at hand here: every American St. Andrew’s student is, at most, four years away from being able to push a button that has the potential to transform lives and systems. The fear Dillard and Macalintal share is that young people will simply slip behind a curtain and press “VOTE” without being armed with discourse and information.

“We cannot ignore the fact that in a year, members of our class will be voting,” Dillard says. “And when that time comes, it’s not a general. This is our presidency.”
 
Macalintal notes the first conversation the Social Justice Club held, albeit informally, was on the heels of the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. Next, the Club is planning a conversation centered on the death of Tyre Nichols and the lack of legislation and reform in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. “We’re approaching three years since [Floyd] was killed, and conversations about the proposed George Floyd Justice in Policing Act [2021] seem to have just … stopped,” Macalintal says.
 
The duo, along with Forbes and Soni, will take time this year to plan out action items for next year. Ideas so far include collaborating with other clubs to do work on intersectionality issues–for example, joining forces with the Environmental Stewards to find a path to activism on topics like environmental and climate justice. Dillard also hopes there are avenues to explore working with local state agencies on their social justice initiatives.
 
“This school has the potential and the people to bring all of these moments in history into sharp focus, and to pause and think about those things before we try to move on,” Macalintal says. “My biggest fear would be for this not to spread, and the club loses traction when we graduate.”
 
Dillard and Macalintal already have their eyes on a few underformers whom they think are leaders in the making and well-equipped to not only carry the torch but grow the fire. (In fact, Dillard notes slyly, if you’re right now reading this and thinking, ‘I think she means me,’ then you’re likely right.)
 
“We’re not just trying to create something for now, we are looking to create a pillar of St. Andrew’s, a culture shift,” Dillard says. “When you sign that paper that says you’re coming to this school, this is the kind of community you’re signing up for.”