FRANCES JOSEPH GAUDET’S IMPACT ON YOUTH IN THE PAST AND ON SOCIETY TODAY
Introduction
The research question this project will answer: How did Frances Joseph Gaudet’s character allow her to make an impact in the lives of young Black children by augmenting their survival and supporting their success? This project argues that Frances Joseph Gaudet’s legacy continues to thrive based on her charismatic work with young disadvantaged Black boys and girls. The question and subsequent argument will be answered and acknowledged by evaluating various aspects of Gaudet’s life ranging from her childhood to her proactive adult life. As a result, throughout the data visualization, the audience will have a chance to evaluate and/or form their own opinions of Frances Joseph Gaudet’s impact.
Methods
I began my research process in class by exploring and analyzing my pod of primary sources (the 1953 yearbook) with peers in class. This process allowed me to understand more about Frances Joseph Gaudet’s impact through the eyes of a student who attended her legacy school. During this initial research process, I found that the yearbook exhibited both implicit and explicit messages. For instance, the yearbook’s Forward implies that the memories of students will live on just as the legacy of Frances Gaudet lived in them during their time at the school, while more clear displays of the inclusivity of the school and many achievements of students are presented throughout the yearbook. I also found that the yearbook is biased as it favors and glamorizes the impact of Gaudet, while the remaining, more negative or challenging topics are hidden away from the eye of the general public. This needed to be reconciled, so in order to gather more holistic information on Frances Joseph Gaudet’s school, I utilized more primary sources, a set of archives- from the archival collections library. After viewing box 1 of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana Memorial Archives, I found more information to fill in gaps and balance out the biased perspectives centralized in the yearbook. Knowing I needed to acknowledge Gaudet’s life and how she came to start the school influenced another stage in my research. This is when I began to incorporate the various information from secondary sources with that of other primary sources such as Gaudet’s autobiography He Leadeth Me. This supplementary information all provides me with an overview of Frances Joseph Gaudet’s life: her own influences, inspirations, and experiences that allowed her to be moved to bring about change and help the youth in her community.
When designing my data visualization I wanted to create a project that was visually pleasing and also interactive to the audience at hand. The medium I planned to use during the poster proposal phases was Prezi, but after exploring more of the visualization tools on canvas such as Knight Lab and Flourish Studio, I decided to change my medium. I decided to use Flourish Studio as it offers aesthetically pleasing templates and a way for users to maneuver through the visualization at their own pace. My own bias for what is considered “aesthetically pleasing” comes into play with this decision and could most likely differ from what certain members of my audience may find visually appealing. Initially, I struggled to learn how to work the tool, for instance, understanding how to code for images on the site was an obstacle I overcame by watching tutorial videos. Meeting the needs of the audience was at the forefront of my mind as I considered how to disseminate the information whether only through words and/or pictures or with audio narratives as well. I was going to do all three as text information is crucial to fully conveying information, pictures will provide context and display my primary source (yearbook), and the audio narrative will offer the audience an overview of how to move through the visualization both physically and mentally. However, I was unable to incorporate the audio without sacrificing text, and the variety of photos that were essential to the project, and the acknowledgment of my primary source.
My chosen design meets the needs of the community partner as it can be incorporated into a pre-existing website, it incorporates essential information regarding the life and impact of Frances Joseph Gaudet, and it is user-friendly. After meeting with the community partners and hearing their feedback, I listened to what they enjoyed/appreciated in my visualization, such as the various topics I brought up and the method of displaying photos, and I took their advice/integrated their suggestions into the final project. The community partners suggested I consolidate the text information within the slides, so as to make the visualization less word-heavy and possibly overwhelming to the audience.
Historical Context
Frances Joseph Gaudet, born on November 25, 1861, in Pike County, Mississippi grew up in an environment where family and religion were the essentials of life (“Frances Joseph Gaudet” 1992). Gaudet’s maternal grandfather, Squire Yancey was a slave, a preacher of the African Methodist Episcopal Church who helped to start up the first church for Blacks in Summit, Mississippi. The church founded by her grandfather also happened to be the first school for Black children in her community (“France Joseph Gaudet” 1992). He was one of Gaudet’s greatest influences and is one of the reasons she lived a life guided by faith. Frances Gaudet was committed to social work. Whenever she witnessed injustice in her community, especially when it came to the lives of youth, she took immediate action. This was most apparent in her work with the Prison Reform Association as she became unsettled by the plethora of young Black boys being placed in prison cells with adult criminals (London 2016). Having direct contact with a large number of incarcerated youth through her travels to juvenile prisons abroad or with her work at the Orleans Parish Prison, Gaudet often received many letters from the youth in prison, as well as from family members, or other concerned parties of those in jail. The letters would contain messages asking for Gaudet’s help in saving the young boys, so she “registered a vow… to bring about a better condition of affairs to save these helpless children” (Gaudet 1913, 18).
Gaudet recognized the impact she could have on the boys’ lives and set out to provide them with a more nurturing and safe alternative. With this goal in mind, Gaudet contributed to the lives of vulnerable youth in her community who were homeless or in and out of jail as she not only opened her home to them but also founded a boarding school dedicated to supporting the youth. Frances Joseph Gaudet followed in her grandfather’s footsteps and founded a school to prepare the youth in her neighborhood for successful, non-deviant lives in adulthood (London 2016).
Analysis
My research question and argument are answered and proven throughout the data visualization as the audience is guided through Frances Gaudet’s development of character, the implementation of her goals, and her overall impact on the young boys and girls in her community. Today this will be representative of Gaudet’s legacy, serving as a point of reference for young boys and girls, the religious communities, and advocates in my audience. I incorporated details from the 1953 yearbook of the Gaudet Episcopal High School, Gaudet’s autobiography He Leadeth Me, and various letter and journal archives. The autobiography offers general history and information about Gaudet’s influences, her life, and what drove her to become an advocate. The yearbook depicts the effects of her service to her community, while the letter and journal archives provide a more behind-the-scenes look at the Gaudet Gaudet Episcopal High School.
This visualization tells us how Gaudet’s childhood influences, such as her grandfather and her faith, allowed her to become a selfless individual who was always focused on assisting and bringing justice/fairness to those around her. The project provides examples of the work in her adult life in prison reform and the founding of a school. The idea of Frances Gaudet being a representation of feminism and Black feminist thought is explored within the visualization, as are the good and challenging aspects of Gaudet’s school and the legacy that followed. This point relates to the most crucial aspect of the project: the impact on the children. As Gaudet’s legacy school, the Gaudet Episcopal High School/Gaudet Episcopal Home, was up and running, for several decades it provided the children with a safe, stable, and supportive environment that built their character, and prepared them for successful lives after adolescence. Throughout the data visualization, this story unfolds as the audience can view the yearbook photos and read about the various aspects of the students’ lives while at the school. The challenging aspects of Gaudet’s school are also acknowledged as the topic of financial burden within the school is touched on, and it is paired with a lasting effect this had on the youth. The visualization does not give an account of the intercommunity support that Frances Joseph Gaudet might have received during her work and advocation, nor does it fully explore how she was respected by White members of society. This topic is significant to modern-day audiences because it shows the impact one individual can have on their community. It is a representation of how individuals in society can build people up and support one another despite the odds that might be against them and despite their encounters with obstacles/discrimination that might be based on gender or race for instance. As long as one maintains their values, morals, faith, and/or belief system(s) (religious or not), then the inevitable can be achieved: more voices will be heard, experiences will be shared, people will be liberated, and the world will become a better place of unity and understanding.
Conclusion
Understanding the idea that feminist data visualizations should and can not be neutral is essential in examining this digital media project. The visualization is indeed geared towards convincing the audience that Frances Joseph Gaudet was a woman who changed lives in the past and should continue to inspire those in today’s life to do something outside of themselves without fear of failure or resistance from others. As Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein explain in chapter three of Data Feminism, “the third principle of data feminism [is]: embrace emotion and embodiment” (D’Ignazio and Klein 2020, 77). Provenance rhetoric, as described in the book is similar to the rhetorical appeal to ethos where the designer or presenter builds a bridge of trust with their audience (D’Ignazio and Klein 2020, 82). This allows the users/audience of the visualization to obtain a better understanding of the credibility and motives of the designer while attesting to the accuracy of the information regardless of how it is presented (as bias/one-sided, or not). My goal with this project is to have a slight emotional appeal to the audience which not only makes them feel enlightened and inspired by Frances Joseph Gaudet’s story but also motivated to enact change in their own lives. I achieve this by forming a cohesive set of ideas and clearly presenting the argument to augment the visualization and form a more personal connection with my audience rather than being a mystery designer behind the screen. Applying the common theme found in many class readings, videos, and discussions that oppressed groups are often closely surveilled, but rarely in a way that benefits the group is important to consider for this project. While applying the information found in primary sources, such as in the archives, I considered the position and methods used by those gathering the information.
Knowing how to find the most efficient way to measure Gaudet’s impact accurately and to view all primary sources -especially the yearbook- with precision, a critical eye and the understanding that every individual’s experience is unique is important when it comes to interpreting data. In chapter two of Losh and Wernimont’s, Bodies of Information: Intersectional Feminism and Digital Humanities titled, “The Android Goddess Declaration,” Micha Cardenas references Donna Haraway, explaining how “it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what concepts we think to think other concepts with” (Cardenas 2018, 35). This crucial point offers the idea that the sharing of stories, experiences, and new perspectives can and should be a common aspect of all of life. Considering what is being shared, how, and with whom can all be important factors for identifying accuracy and seeking the stories of the oppressed and marginalized. This is what I hope to achieve in my digital media project: my audience can allow Frances Joseph Gaudet’s story to live on in their own lives; allowing us to also be excited about what new stories the past will produce for the future!
References
Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein, “On Rational, Scientific, Objective Viewpoints from Mythical, Imaginary, Impossible Standpoints.” in Data Feminism. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2020).
London, Charles. “The Gaudet School.” Charlie’s Neighborhood News, January 9, 2016. https://katrinafilm.wordpress.com/2016/01/09/the-gaudet-school/.
Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana Memorial Archives (1935-1962): 558 D, Series 5: Gaudet Episcopal School & Home, Box 1, Folder 12: Espicopal Diocese Papers Gaudet Episcopal Home & School General (1951-1952), Tulane University Archives.
Frances J. Gaudet, He Leadeth Me. (New Orleans: Louisiana Printing Company, 1913)
“Frances Joseph Gaudet.” In Notable Black American Women. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1992. Gale In Context: Biography. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1623000156/BIC?u=tulane&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=25a10dd0.
Gaudet Episcopal Home, The Echo, (New Orleans, LA: 1953). 1-34, Tulane University Archives.
Micha Cárdenas, “The Android Goddess Declaration.” in Bodies of Information: Intersectional Feminism and Digital Humanities, ed. Elizabeth M. Losh and Jacqueline Wernimont. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2018).