RE Log Spring 2021

Inspiration and Action Instruments of Change with Ruth Greenfield Ransom Everglades celebrated the Martin Luther King Jr. holi- day with a trio of events that amplified key elements of King’s distinguished life: Aspiration, service and a quest for justice. Students and faculty heard from notable speakers at the middle and upper schools, and some also participated in a “Little Dresses for Haiti” service day on the national holiday. Teen social entrepreneur Taylor Moxey kicked off the weeklong celebra- tion by sharing her story and offering words of inspiration to middle schoolers during a virtual assembly on January 11. On the January 18 holiday, RE students and faculty sewed more than two dozen dresses for girls in Haiti, working from home and gath- ering virtually under the direction of Middle School Dean of Studies Doreen Johnson. At a virtual assembly at the upper school a day later, alumna and March of Dimes executive Cheyenne Range ’14 admonished upper school students to make a commitment to service and justice. “You have an absolute moral responsibility to commit yourself to service,” said Range, grand- daughter of M. Athalie Range, the first African American to serve on Miami’s City Commission. “Service can look like many different things.” Prior to becoming Manager of Executive Initiatives for the March of Dimes, Range served as Special Assistant to Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson in the U.S. House of Representatives. Though she is seven years removed from high school, Range talked to RE students as peers: “I truly believe we are the generation that will make King’s dream a reality.” Moxey, who turned a cupcake business into a Miami-based foundation that supplies libraries to areas in need, told RE’s middle school students to follow their dreams. “If you have a dream, it doesn’t matter how old you are,” she said, “just go out and do it.” Johnson, the middle school dean of studies, rallied students and her peers to participate in the third-annual dressmaking ser- vice event. Participants assembled supplies in advance and tuned in via Zoom for instructions, encouragement and background music to complete their dresses. A determination to counter segregation and anti-Semitism in 1950s Miami inspired Ruth Greenfield – the now 97-year-old matriarch of RE’s Greenfield family – to found the interracial Fine Arts Conservatory in 1951. Her center of music, dance and art defied the segregationist practices of the time, influenced generations of students, and inspired a fresh round of reflection and reminiscence at Ransom Everglades on January 13. Members of the Ransom Everglades community gathered for a virtual conversation with Ruth Greenfield, four of her children and retired Miami-Dade County Judge Wendell Graham ’74 – a conservatory student who later became the first Black student at the Ransom School. Head of School Penny Townsend moderated the first Paul Ransom Digital Podium event of 2021. From the day Ruth Greenfield opened the conservatory, she and her late husband faced contempt and even lawsuits from neighbors and outsid- ers. Graham and the Greenfield children – writer Charles Greenfield ’68 , filmmaker and photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders ’70 , clinical social worker Alice Greenfield ’76 and restaurateur Frank Greenfield – spent their childhood Saturdays at the school, blissfully unaware of any controversy. “As children, I’m not sure we realized this social experiment that was going on,” Graham said. “We were absolutely children and we were having a great time. We were learning.” Years later, they comprehended the legacy of the conservatory, which was captured in the recent documentary Instruments of Change . Greenfield-Sanders, a Grammy winner and Emmy nominee who won the Ransom Everglades Founders’ Alumni Award for Distinguished Service to the Community, tied his time at the conservatory to later artistic works focusing on marginalized groups. Graham, now a member of the school’s Anti-Racism Task Force, explained how his time at the conservatory, and relation- ship with the Greenfield family, put him on a road that led to the Ransom School and helped him launch his legal and judicial career. “The great success of the conservatory,” Greenfield-Sanders said, “is the influence it had on all of us.” Watch the event at https://vimeo.com/500620468 RE marks MLK holiday with speakers and service SPRING 2021 Ransom Everglades LOG 45