Before Starbucks There Was Dori Maynard

Dori Maynard ¹

Robert C. Maynard & Nancy Hicks Maynard ²

Ronald L. Ellis

While the Starbucks incident in Philadelphia exposed the ongoing prevalence of racial bias in the United States, such discriminatory behavior is not a phenomenon of 2018. Eight years ago in Washington, D.C., the late journalist Dori Maynard sat in the lobby of the Hampton Inn, where she waited for her colleague--a guest of the hotel. ³ Soon after her arrival, Maynard was asked to leave by the hotel’s general manager. She remembers: “He just kept repeating, ‘Ma’am, you’ll have to leave the lobby. Ma’am, you’ll have to leave the hotel.’ …At that point it’s clear I’m meeting somebody, so why is he doing this to me? And he said, ‘Ma’am, we have to protect our other guests,’ so I have to leave the hotel.” [Dori Maynard, THMDA 1.6.3] .” ⁴ Maynard's father, Robert C. Maynard, and stepmother, Nancy Hicks Maynard, co-founded the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, which became a training beacon for minority journalists nationwide. Maynard later served as the organization's president and chief executive.

White Americans routinely demonstrate bias against African Americans “not only with respect to the extremist behaviors of an unrepresentative few,” like the former Starbucks employee in Philadelphia, “but also in terms of subtle discrimination by a substantial portion of mainstream white American society.” ⁵ The implications of racial bias were addressed in publications like Science , where scholars wrote of the impact of “negative nonverbal behavior modeled by white individuals in popular media,” and how these cues influenced “white viewers’ orientations toward black individuals.” ⁶ The influence of popular culture resonates this week, especially in light of the racist remark made by prime-time television figure Roseanne.

Efforts to address racial bias in both public accommodations and American workplaces are overdue; as emphasized by sociology professor William T. Bielby, the minimization of racial bias “need not be a utopian project.” ⁷ Magistrate judge Ronald L. Ellis also described the importance of mitigating interactions that are driven by prejudice: “The interest in how race continues to play a part in what happens in our institutions--it’s important to have people to make that not a monolithic problem. It’s not a black problem; it’s an issue that needs to be addressed by our country from all individuals.” ⁸ [The Honorable Ronald L. Ellis, THMDA 2.6.6] .

During the past two weeks, the interview and administrative teams of The HistoryMakers were in Anchorage, Alaska. There, we interviewed 11 HistoryMakers, in whose honor we hosted a reception at Anchorage's Hotel Captain Cook--with over 85 civic and community leaders in attendance.

Those interviewed included former Commissioner for the Alaska Administration Eleanor Andrews ; defense attorney Rex Butler ; retired Superior Court Judge Lawrence Card ; former Alaska Senator Bettye Davis ; owner of Mayfield’s Quality Cleaners and E&S Diversified Services Mayfield Evans ; Shiloh Community Development Director Celeste H. Growden ; retired public administrator Jewel Jones ; owner of Midnight Sun & Van Car Rentals Sylvester Joubert ; Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus Reverend Alonzo Patterson ; National Committee Man for the Alaska Democratic Party Ed Wesley ; and performing historian Cal Williams .

In addition, on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, The HistoryMakers Founder & President Julieanna Richardson, as well as Travel & Producing Coordinator Courtney Shareef were interviewed by Lori Townsend, the news director for the Alaska Public Radio Network and host of Alaska News Nightly . Townsend and Richardson discussed the origins of The HistoryMakers and Richardson’s motivations for starting the project, as well as the importance of preserving and documenting history like this--especially in a state like Alaska.

Please share with us your stories of how you incorporate The HistoryMakers Digital Archive into your curriculum and research. We'd love to hear from you!

Contact: digitalarchive@thehistorymakers.org

NOTES:

1. BANNER PHOTO: Photograph of Dori J. Maynard taken by Jane Tyska of the Bay Area News Group. Accessed June 1, 2018. https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/02/26/business/26maynard-obit/26maynard-obit-jumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale .

2. IMAGE: Photograph of Robert C. Maynard and Nancy Hicks Maynard. Accessed June 1, 2018. https://ak-cache.legacy.net/legacy/images/cobrands/tributes/photos/385154_o.jpg.

3. Dori J. Maynard, “Hours Before Rally to Restore Sanity: Moment Less Than Sane,” HuffPost, November 11, 2010. Accessed June 1, 2018. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dori-j-maynard/hours-before-rally-to-res_b_782105.html .

4. Dori Maynard (The HistoryMakers A2011.011), interviewed by Larry Crowe, March 9, 2011, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 6, story 3, Dori Maynard discusses her experience with racial bias, pt. 1.

5. John F. Dovidio, “Racial Bias, Unspoken but Heard,” Science 326, no. 5960 (December 18, 2009): 1641-1642.

6. Max Wesibuch, Kristin Puaker and Nalini Ambady, “The Subtle Transmission of Race Bias via Televised Nonverbal Behavior,” Science 326, no. 5960 (December 18, 2009): 1711-1714.

7. William T. Bielby, “Minimizing Workplace Gender and Racial Bias,” Contemporary Sociology 29, no. 1 (January 2000): 120-129.

8. The Honorable Ronald L. Ellis (The HistoryMakers A2016.056), interviewed by Harriette Cole, November 11, 2016, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 6, story 6, The Honorable Ronald L. Ellis describes his approach to teaching about race and law, pt. 1.