Harry Boyte

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By Harry C. Boyte

Today, on Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday, I’ve been thinking about the March on Washington and how much its citizenship message is relevant.

In the summer of 1963, my father, Harry George Boyte, went on staff of King’s organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. At his urging I hitchhiked across the country, arriving in Washington the day before, August 27, 1963, on my way to Duke as a freshman in the fall. I lay in a sleeping bag on the floor of his hotel room. Early in the morning, I heard King’s booming voice in a nearby room, practicing “I Have a Dream.”

It was an electric moment. The message took on added depth and power as the day unfolded. “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred,” King thundered. The march’s program notes, issued in the name of March leaders but most likely written by organizer Bayard Rustin, conveyed a similar message, calling people to rise to a larger citizenship despite whatever justifiable anger many might feel. “In a neighborhood dispute there may be stunts, rough words, and even hot insults. But when a whole people speaks to its government, the dialogue and the action must be on a level reflecting the worth of that people and the responsibility of that government.”

As Charles Euchner describes in Nobody Turn Me Around, subtitled a “people’s history of the 1963 March on Washington,” the March’s citizenship message channeled a movement culture which had incubated for years in local “schools of citizenship” on college campuses and in beauty parlors, church basements and nonviolent training workshops. There, people developed the sobriety of citizens, the ability to put aside immediate impulses for the larger work, to “keep our eyes on the prize” in the words of the freedom song. I saw this process again and again as I worked in the Citizenship Education Program of SCLC over the next two years. All this added up to a vast process of citizenship education, which helped to wake up the nation after the somnolent, consumerist, privatized 1950s.

Today, we need a similar re-awakening. Private pursuits have taken the place of public ones. What one owns is too often the measure of one’s value. Our citizenship declines while we are entertained as spectators, pacified as clients, and pandered to as customers. We need again to call forth America’s democratic genius of a self-reliant, productive, future-oriented citizenry. And once again we need citizenship schools, for the new century.

Harry C. Boyte, Director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College, is coordination of the American Commonwealth Partnership, which supports “democracy colleges for the 21st century” as schools for citizenship.

– Learn about the vision and mission of the American Commonwealth project through its

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The ACP is rooted in the recognition that higher education should be—must be—delivered for the common good rather than be allowed to become an individual benefit only for those who an financially afford it. In addition, the project aligns with Augsburg’s mission to educate students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders.

Today’s kickoff includes a series of public forums will be live-streamed by the White House from Washington, D.C. To tune in, go to .

Augsburg is in the early stages of developing specifically what this project means in practical terms to the College, identifying initiatives and projects that will build civic identity, foster co- creation of learning, develop student leaders, promote the framework for the College to serve as an anchor institution, and create a campus culture closely in tune with the current landscape to ensure that what we do every day creates and supports civic engagement.

You can learn more about this important project in a number of ways:

–Tune in to the live-stream today at 2 p.m.

–Download a Discussion Guide, and consider hosting a conversation in class, over coffee, or in your residence hall.

–Learn more by checking out the DemocracyU blog

–“Like” DemocracyU on Facebook at

–Sign up for DemocracyU email alerts at

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With a grant from the Minnesota Historical Society’s Legacy Campaign, the students carried out an intergenerational project to produce a permanent piece of art at the Baker Community Center, home of the Jane Addams School. The students teamed up with youth from the Youth Farm and Market Project and hosted monthly community dinners showcasing traditional foods from cultural groups. The teens cooked the foods with elders from the Hmong, East African, and Latino communities. At these dinners, where roughly 150 community members enjoyed a meal together, the Jane Addams School teens conducted their interviews. The students asked how the elders had made St. Paul their home and what traditions they had kept alive from their home countries.

The teens had expected each culture to be very different from the others, but they were surprised to discover how much each group had in common especially with regard to values. The students learned that no matter where they were born, the elders valued family, tradition, community, hard work, honesty, and cooking and sharing food.

The community members’ similarities became the focal point of the students’ work. The students wanted the neighborhood to see that by getting to know one another, people would find out that they had more in common with each other than they thought, and they wanted this to be conveyed in the art piece.

The students commissioned Chaka Mkali and Andres Guzman to create a 40-foot mural on a wall that faces Baker’s playground. The mural, shown here, can be seen from blocks away and had been a hot spot for graffiti in the past. The mural was completed in two months and is now a beautiful addition to the growing Baker Center.

The teens proudly represented the West Side and their project at this year’s PeaceJam in Minneapolis where they presented their project to Costa Rican president and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Oscar Arias Sanchez.

The mural is a “Sharing Community Stories’ partnership between the Jane Addams School for Democracy, the Youth Farm and Market Project, and the Minnesota Historical Society.

The Baker Community Center is a vibrant cultural learning center on St. Paul’s West Side neighborhood. Augsburg students Mallory Carstens and Lexi Stadstad have worked at Baker and the Jane Addams School through the Bonner Leaders program.

Adapted from a story by Caritza Mariani

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The report, “A Tale of Two Cities,” is a joint project of the National Council on Citizenship (NCOC), the Florida Joint Center on Citizenship, and the CDC. It compares Minneapolis-St. Paul with Miami, which is shown to be the country’s least civically engaged city. While the two metro areas differ in many factors, the report indicates that these differences—including demographic measures of education and income—do not explain the disparities in their civic engagement.

The report research identifies several areas that contribute to the higher levels of Twin Cities’ civic engagement:

• Schools in Minnesota collaborate more effectively with community organizations, teach students civic knowledge, and help build a civic atmosphere of trust.
• Twin Cities residents seem to enjoy stronger social networks—more often families eat together, connect via the internet, and talk to neighbors.
• Citizens in Minneapolis-St. Paul have higher rates of satisfaction and trust of their government, and their public institutions foster greater collaboration among diverse populations.
• Twin Cities residents are more than twice as likely to volunteer as Miami residents.

In a commentary for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and a blog posting for the American Democracy Project, CDC director Harry Boyte draws parallels to the Civil Rights movement, recalling when the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was formed to spread a “culture of civic empowerment” and promote nonviolence and a desire to change.

Just as “the Montgomery Way” helped spread democratic change in the South, Boyte believes in a Minnesota Way, which “teaches the skills of collaborative work across differences, connects institutions to the life of the communities, and generates a spirit of optimism that people can share their future together.”

He points out that the “civic treasures” in Minnesota—including educational institutions like Augsburg that work across differences to foster a culture of civic empowerment—are critical factors in preparing students to discover how they can become agents of change to spread democratic hope and reform.

Read Harry Boyte’s St. Paul Pioneer Press commentary at .

Read his blog post at American Democracy Project at .

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Harry C. Boyte is the co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on organizing theory and practice at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and is in demand as a keynote speaker with faculty, students, and professionals.

Americans this election season are in an angry, anxious mood that defies easy labels. As Joel Klein describes in a Time cover story based on conversations across the country, “People told personal stories and made complicated arguments that didn’t fit neatly into their assigned political categories.” 

While people worried that the country may be moving toward a “European style of Big Government,” they also felt strongly that the unfettered market is no solution. “The disgraceful behavior of the financial community…was the issue that raised the most passion.” The financial crisis has led “more than a few people to question their own values and those of their neighbors.” Frank Rich echoed this insight on October 24 in the New York Times. “So many know that the loftiest perpetrators of this national devastation got get-out-of fail free cards [and] that the too-big-to-fail banks have grown bigger.”

It is worth recalling that in 2008, we elected a president whose message was “Yes we can,” based on the idea that large changes require a process of civic action far beyond what government alone can accomplish. He had learned a philosophy of civic agency—that we all must become agents of change—from his days as a community organizer. “I’m asking you not only to believe in my ability to make change; I’m asking you to believe in yours,” read the campaign website. Civic agency infused the campaign. As Tim Dickinson put it in Rolling Stone, “The goal is not to put supporters to work but to enable them to put themselves to work without having to depend on the campaign for constant guidance.”

This message resembles the Preamble to the Constitution: “We the People” establish government as the instrument of our work, “to form a more perfect Union, establish justice…promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty…” Citizens sensed then—and perhaps we all know even better now—that it will require a Preamble movement if we are to revitalize a strong sense of citizenship and ourselves as citizens, not complainers or customers of government. Only citizens can recall that government is “us,” not an alien “other,” the resource and meeting ground for our common work.

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Augsburg’s “CDC” is the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, a former affiliate of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. The Center moved to Augsburg last July when the partnership was approved the Board of Regents.

The Center for Democracy and Citizenship has two locations: one in the Baker Community Center on St. Paul’s West Side, and the other in the ADC Business Center on the corner of Riverside and 20th Avenues. The Center will host an open house on Thursday, Oct. 29 from 2-5 p.m. at their Riverside offices.

The Center for Democracy and Citizenship focuses its work on building and sustaining democracy through community-based civic engagement initiatives including:

– Public Achievement is a youth civic organizing model that engages young people in public problem solving.

– The Jane Addams School for Democracy brings immigrant families, college students, and other community members together to do public work and learning on St. Paul’s West Side.

– The Warrior to Citizen Campaign challenges Minnesotans at the community level to support returning veterans and find ways to tap the new skills and experience they have to offer as citizens.

Harry Boyte, co-director of the Center, says they were impressed by Augsburg’s inclusive, welcoming approach to students from different backgrounds. “Augsburg deeply values the democratic values of diversity and community engagement,” Boyte says. “The dominant trends in higher education are in the other direction, but diversity in education and public life will help us produce the best citizen leaders.”

The Center’s current focus is on education and reform of the educational system. “We want to help expand the definition of student success so that it’s not based on standardized tests and grades alone,” Tveit says. Several of the Center’s staff are also working on a Bush Foundation committee on teacher education with Gretchen Irvine, assistant professor of education at Augsburg.

Next week the Center for Democracy and Citizenship will be involved in two important events in which the Augsburg community is invited to participate. With the Citizens League, Minnesota Campus Compact, and the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration, the Center will sponsor a discussion on civic engagement and the Minnesota Civic Health Index. “The Next Minnesota Miracle: Building a Living Democracy for the 21st Century” will be held Monday, November 2 at 4 p.m. at Markim Hall on the Macalester College campus.

On Tuesday, Nov. 3, Boyte is moderating a webinar on how civic agency can be an organizing theme for the future of higher education. “Agents and Architects of Democracy: The Struggle for the Future of Higher Education” will take place from 2-3 p.m.

Find more information about both of these events on the Center for Democracy and Citizenship website.

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The Executive Committee of the Augsburg College Board of Regents approved the move this morning. Led by co-directors Harry Boyte and Nan Skelton, the Center for Democracy and Citizenship has been part of the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.

The Center for Democracy and Citizenship’s work is grounded in the belief that a healthy democracy requires everyone’s participation, and that each of us has something to contribute. This work builds on a long tradition of people of all ages working together for the common good.

For both sides, the move is about partnering with another organization that shares similar values.

“Their network of relationships and the work they try to do in strengthening neighborhoods and broadening the work of citizenship is very much in line with our mission as an institution,” Augsburg College President Paul C. Pribbenow said. “It is very much in line with our vision that we are called to serve our neighbor.

Said Boyte, “What we like about Augsburg is the ground-level connection to neighborhoods and diverse cultures. Augsburg is rare in that it has a strong connection to place, in this case an urban setting and Cedar-Riverside. We’re absolutely convinced this is the wave of the future and Augsburg is going to be a pioneer.”

The Center for Democracy and Citizenship will relocate from the U of M’s West Bank to a spot in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood near the Augsburg campus. Details continue to be finalized.

The Center for Democracy and Citizenship is currently working on a number of initiatives including:

–    Public Achievement is a youth civic organizing model that was developed by the Center for Democracy and Citizenship in 1990. It is used in schools and communities in several states and around the world in Turkey, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Israel and Gaza, and the West Bank.

–    The Jane Addams School for Democracy brings immigrant families, college students, and other community members together to do public work and learning on St. Paul’s West Side. It is a community-based initiative inspired by the vision of democracy, productive citizenship, and popular education held by settlement house pioneers like Jane Addams, who created Hull House in Chicago in 1889.

–    The Warrior to Citizen Campaign challenges Minnesotans at the community level to support returning veterans and find ways to tap the new skills and experience they have to offer as citizens.

“Public Achievement is now in 22 countries,” Boyte said. “There is a lot of potential for connections with Augsburg and the people who are interested in global education.”

Augsburg is clearly a leader both locally and nationally in areas of civic engagement and service learning.

Recently the College was selected by the Carnegie Foundation to receive the classification for Community Engagement. Augsburg was recognized for its curricular engagement and its outreach and partnerships. Augsburg is also one of about 80 colleges and universities nationally that sponsors the Bonner Scholar and Bonner Leader programs.

From the moment students arrive at Augsburg, they experience student engagement in many ways. Some of it is through the curriculum. Some of it is through the Center for Service, Work, and Learning. And some of it is through the College’s partnerships in Cedar-Riverside, Seward, and Phillips neighborhoods. Many of these partnerships provide opportunities for students to engage in hands-on service learning, internships, and work study.

“I think it fits well mission-wise,” Boyte said. “And it comes at a time when our work is full of growth and energy and new possibilities. We’re quite pleased.”

Over the next year, the Center for Democracy and Citizenship will work with the dean of the College to formulate a strategy to integrate their work into the Augsburg curriculum. Boyte will continue to serve as a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute.

Augsburg will hire current staff members of The Center for Democracy and Citizenship. Nearly all of the group’s operating budget, however, will come from outside funding sources. The College will provide staff resources to The Center for Democracy and Citizenship.

“Our hope is that in working along side of them, they will bring their expertise in the Augsburg community and help our students, faculty, and staff in their projects,” Pribbenow said. “It’s going to be amazing. I’m particularly excited that they share our commitment to Cedar-Riverside and that they want to bring some of the good work that they’re doing on the West Side of St. Paul to Cedar-Riverside.”

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