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[Christian Davenport]

Adventures with/in Will H. Moore, Part 2: The Non-Existent Online Lynching Memorial

4/28/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture
Painting by Juliet Seignious to be used for the online memorial
​Series Introduction

​Will H. Moore had a kind of personality that is best described by the phrase: "down for whatever".  For those that don't know, this is defined brilliantly by the "urban dictionary" below:

down for whatever
Ready and willing to participate in most any activity. If said by your homie it implies that he is ready to have a good time in any situation.

That was how Will and I interacted with one another.  Sometimes, Will would set it off and I would be like "Let's do it!".  Sometimes, I would set it off and Will would be like "how do we start?"  Some of these efforts never got off the ground, but they were still fascinating to imagine.  Some were partially successful and incredible to try.  Some failed miserably but were fun to attempt.  Some were more successful than we could have possibly imagined and these were just heavenly or the urban/funkier version of that (Mo' Betta Hevnly).  

In my new series, I am going to explore Will, Willness (or, Mooreing) and my interaction with him.  These adventures are useful to put out there because it is soothing to remember them now and because they not only tell us something about the type of human that he is but also the type of humans, situations and social science that he helped create - these were connected in his mind.  Most of these are not on either of our vitaes - we just did them in an effort to start something, try something, create some resource for ourselves and others.

At its core, the adventures represent some bizarre mashup that is part buddy film, part travel story, part Mindwalk and part bromance set over 25 years.  To help me tell these stories, I will use film, music, literature and perhaps a drawing or painting or two.



The Non-Existent Online Lynching Memorial

One day I got a call from Will: “Yo CD,” he began, “what’s up with this lynching stuff?”
 
All I could think was that someone had been lynched and he wanted to do something about it, which would have been more than acceptable and very much Will/Mooreing.  The year would have been about 1999.  I had just moved to the University of Maryland to run Minorities at Risk (MAR) and co-directing Polity (You have to look real hard at the supporting documentation to see my involvement).  As a result of these activities, Will and I had started chatting a bit more frequently. 
 
The interaction started somewhat by accident.  I was previously at the University of Colorado – Boulder with what Will had described as his “dream job”.  He went to UC-Boulder for grad school and would have loved to return.  No one seems to do that accept a few select Ivys and thus he was not able to do that one.  Maryland was a different matter or, at least, it should have been. Indeed, when I first saw the ad for the job, I did not even apply – imagining that it could only have been for Will.  Ted Gurr was behind the hire and Will was one of his favorite students.  The job seemed to involve direct engagement with MAR and Polity – databases that Will had significant familiarity with.  It seemed like a lock.
 
Well, it was not.  For a variety of reasons, I was told, Will was not going to be pursued for the position (something about desiring someone with both quantitative as well as qualitative skills) and after talking with Will about it, he said that I should go for it, which I did.  I ended up getting the position but it was a mixed bag.  While invited in on two great projects, I was also asked (after I arrived) to generate a decent amount of funds for the project and I was expected to not change very much.  Great!
 
After getting more familiar with the data, I realized that some things needed to change.  For example, I concluded that there were way too many variables being coded for MAR and that we should cut back, which would allow the funds that we had to go much further.  With Scott Bennett, I tried to make the database more user-friendly with a “Eugene-esque” data interface (MARgene). I tried to counter the myth/perception of data problems by bringing on to the board most of the people who were criticizing the project.  Finally, I thought that the government-ethnic group dyads were useful but that we should try to spatially disaggregate the relevant behavior by looking at variation within cases – socalled “Micro-MAR”.  The powers that be did not like my ideas and I decided to leave the project – artistic differences. 
 
Will talked me through most of this and we were basically talking every day for a few weeks when one day he calls me up to say: “what’s up with this lynching stuff?” (the opening of the blog). This was not totally out of the blue but rather it harked back to an earlier conversation that we had where I talked about pitching an installation to the then imagined but not yet realized Smithsonian African American museum.  I came up with the following, which he modified for me:
 
With respect to the overall exhibit, I am imagining a corner of a larger room in the museum with two walls built, say 15 feet* from the corner down each wall, at right angles to the walls.  This would form a box, except that the two walls jutting from the larger walls that form the room are only 10 feet in length: the box has an opening.  The physical three dimensional piece of art draws visitors into the space.  On each of the four walls hangs one (or more) interactive "touch screen table top" computer(s).

* These dimensions are not serious---they are just place holders for now.

*******************
In addition to the interactive computer screen(s) the exhibit will also require a physical three dimensional piece of art to draw visitors toward the wall(s) housing the computer screen(s).  The piece must be one that will draw visitors interest, inviting them into the exhibit space.  Rather than dictate the design or even the parameters of the piece we prefer to open it to the artistic community and propose an open call where artists will submit a proposal.  We envision a first round where proposals are vetted and then a set of finalists are selected to submit fully developed proposals.  Other than the requirement that the piece by a physical, three dimensional piece of art addressing "lynching and the black experience in America"** and capable of being placed within whatever spatial limits are decided for the exhibit.


** This is a placeholder phrase.
 
I had forgotten about this installation idea as the museum had me pitch to them and then never contacted me back (still haven’t heard from them or seen what they came up with).  Will brought me back to the topic with his question about lynching though.  I responded, “what do you mean, what is up with it?  What happened at the museum?  Why does lynching occur?  Who does it?  What?”
 
“Well,” he responded, “I figured that nothing happened with the museum but it was more on the issue of why is there little to no remembrance of these activities?  How come there is no place where we can go to remember what happened?  How come there is no plaque or something at the different locales?”
 
“Brother,” I said, “I have no idea.  Maybe people just don’t know or maybe folks want to forget.”
 
“Could be,” he came back but (without missing a beat) he said: “we should do something about that.  I looked for some information but did not see anything.  You take a shot.”
 

And with that, the conversation ended and I went to try and find out what was there.  I was familiar with some of the literature already – most notably Stewart Tolnay and E.M. Beck’s book “A Festival of Violence”.  Most analyses were reliant upon their data and thus I started there. 
Picture
Another picture created by Juliet Seignious for the memorial
First, I went to journals where they had published their pieces to find replication databases - basically the most prominent venues in sociology.  We needed to have something to play with.  Nothing.  Not one journal had the data.  It was pretty standard within political science to have the data that was used in an article but it turned out that sociology journals did not require it.  I suppose that political scientists were not that trusting and/or that our sense of following in the footsteps of the natural sciences demanded such transparency.  Either way, there was no data to be found.
 
Second, I went to E. M. (Woody) Beck personally to ask him for it. He sent it within a few days of the inquiry which was great.  He sent me a txt file that looked like below:
 
State    State    Month Day     Year     FIPS    Race    Gender            Offense           Race of Vic
AL       41        09        09        1927    001      1          1          1            .
AL       41        07        08        1904    003      1          1          1            .
AL       41        03        09        1883    005      1          1          1            .
AL       41        04        08        1887    005      1          1          1            .
AL       41        07        20        1888    005      1          1          1            .
AL       41        01        03        1902    005      1          1          1            .
AL       41        06        12        1903    005      1          1          1            .
AL       41        06        29        1905    005      1          1          1            .
AL       41        08        23        1929    005      1          1          1            .
AL       41        08        04        1899    007      1          1          1            .
AL       41        04        24        1903    007      1          1          1            .
AL       41        08        13        1910    007      1          1          1            .
 
Damnit, I thought: “I needed a codebook”, which I then bothered him about.  I cannot remember if I ever got one but whatever we had enough to begin.
 
Somewhat odd, across several requests, Woody would not give me the independent variables (i.e., the variables that he used to explain lynchings).  I think he said that he did not “feel comfortable” giving those to me.  I remember at the time wondering why he wouldn't give them over.  I was like: “the data are publicly available and I could put them together”.  Why not just save me some time and let me get to analyzing stuff.  He evidently had no interest in that and I let that go.  Years later, Bogdan Vasi does something similar to me about anti-Patriot Act resolutions and Chris Uggens and Jeff Manza do this to me for a while with their Felon Disenfranchisement data.  I wrote this off as a sociology thing and ran with what I had.  We now had some lynching data. We would try to change the culture in sociology to remind them that sharing was not only caring but it was essential to social science.  Indeed, we concluded that until sociologists made their data available, we would not really consider the work legit but that is a different story.
 
I hit Will back and I’m like: “Yo, man – Woody Beck hooked us up.  We have some data.  What now?”
 
He was like: “Well, I have no idea.  That’s as far as I got.”
 
We laughed.  “Ok then,” I said, “lets go from there.”  “What could be done?”
 
“Hmmmmmm,” he continued, "lets put together some graphs - to get started". 
 
Later, I came up with versions of the following:
Picture
With this, over the next few months, we riffed on he possibilities of what could be done.
 
First Will chimed in:
 
“perhaps we can create some kind of virtual mapping of where lynchings took place.  I imagine a video depicting annual global map of change over time in US military bases.  GIS and mapping.  
 
Have you seen this video map of nuclear explosions? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY 
 
Or this one: 1,000 years of war battles in 5 minutes? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hsDn2kNriI. 
 
Actually, we should create a movie like these for the lynching project.”

 
We stalled though because neither of us knew how to make movies and we were not easily able to find someone with the skill set or the time.
 
​

Later, trying to get us started again, Will hit me with another suggestion:
 
“Yo CD, this map isn't aesthetically very appealing, and at the state level instead of maps he has lists of locations, but it gives some vague sense of what I have in mind.”

http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/content.php?file=sundowntowns-whitemap.html
 
We started to geocode the map but got stalled by some journal revise and resubmits.  Again, progress got delayed.
 
 
Later still (in 2005), after I got some senior volunteers in some class I was teaching who were interested in trying to do something on the topic, Will shot me another idea:
 
“Yo CD, how about this for getting the two volunteers started: we ask them to surf the web and catalog useful web pages (and sites) that we will want to link to and reference in our project.  We can ask them to create a document that lists the title and URL of the page/site, and then have them write a brief (1-4 sentence) description of what can be found there.”

The students began with some excitement (the gift of youth) but they did not work out.  Once the information became a little bit too difficult to identify, they lost focus (sometimes the curse of youth).  We also concluded that we needed to not run with seniors because they were winding down; nor freshman because they were just winding up.  We needed to hit the students right in the “sweet spot” of the middle years – two blissful years in between the others.
 

Even later, we tried again with a pitch to the fabulous undergraduate research opportunity program at our respective institutions.  To recruit, we came up with the following description:
 
Hi, we are looking for ugrads who are interested in the rule of law who would like to help build a website that targets the general public and K-12 students and documents the history of lynching in the US using the Beck & Tolnay database (originally assembled by the Southern Poverty Law Center).  The design of the website is to be determined by the team, but a (the?) centerpiece will be a map of the 48 contiguous US states that permit visitors to click on a state and "drill down" to a state map that has icons which represent each lynching event.  Those icons will be hyperlinks which will lead to a page that documents the case (including links to additional relevant information about the case).  The information on these pages will meet scholarly standards of documentation.  The project will be staffed by students belonging to one or more of the following teams. Beyond the map, design of the site is to be determined.  We will want to, at minimum, include information about the history of lynching, and we will want that developed for different audiences (perhaps even going as far as to think about "School House Rock" type presentations for grades K-2, and so on).  The team could consider creating space where visitors could leave comments, post art they created in response to their visit to the site, and so on.  Lots, and lots, and lots of possibilities here.

* Web design team (web programming experience required)
* Database management team (database experience required)
* Historical research and documentation team (no experience required)
* Site launch and marketing team (no experience required)

We set it up, they do it.  Let's go!

 
With this effort, we got a few takers but no one that stuck with it.  Additionally, neither one of us had the time/energy to put into it because the topic sat at the periphery of our primary research agendas and that primary agenda was about to get something of a shot in the arm with 9/11.

Some efforts did inevitably move in the direction we tried to push forward: here, here and here.  The first link even developed a cool map:
Picture
A different map is found here.

None of these efforts however were exactly what we had in mind but they all raised the topic to a certain level of awareness and that was what we wanted to do.  Truth be told (or rather continued) Will was essential for getting us to move on this topic because he knew that I was somewhat hesitant about exploring the part of my research agenda that concerned black folk.  One of our longer-term discussions concerned how African American topics were dealt with in the discipline. It is my contention that
outside of specific areas anything with African Americans in it is somewhat left isolated/neglected.  Quite frequently, I argue(d) that studying black folks results in work being viewed as less theoretical, less relevant to any other group and not worth citing.  

Agreeing with the general premise but disagreeing with not pursuing the research, Will pushed me to see that I needed to pursue my African American research agenda and that even if the work was not cited or referred to, that it would still contribute to understanding, later citations and, most importantly, some justice for the victims.  With this encouragement, I began looking more comprehensively at all the violence directed against African Americans, from the founding of the nation to the present - something I used to call "Strange Fruit, Stranger Tree".  To this day, I am still putting together data on this topic.  It begins with an analysis of rape and sexual predation during slavery (at the county level), which I am finally getting started on.

Now, some might find it odd that Will (a very white man) would push me (a very black man) to study lynching but he seemed to acknowledge that African Americans were dealt a horrible wrong during the period of lynching and believed that something/anything needed to be done about it.  Will was not only generally right and an occasional pain in the butt but he was also one for pushing for social justice in any way that he could.  With regard to lynching, Will took the lead.  Following 9/11, I would.

​Next up: 9/11, The Puzzle of Abu Ghraib and Studying Torture


For additional reading:

Pfeifer, Michael J. "At the Hands of Parties Unknown? The State of the Field of Lynching Scholarship." Journal of American History 101.3 (2014): 832-846.

Stovel, Katherine. "Local sequential patterns: The structure of lynching in the Deep South, 1882–1930." Social Forces 79.3 (2001): 843-880.

Barnard, Amii Larkin. "Application of critical race feminism to the anti-lynching movement: Black women's fight against race and gender ideology, 1892-1920, the." UCLA Women's LJ 3 (1993): 1.

Delgado, Richard. "The law of the noose: A history of Latino lynching." Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review (CR-CL) 44 (2009).

Beck, E. M., Stewart E. Tolnay, and Amy Kate Bailey. "Contested Terrain: The State versus Threatened Lynch Mob Violence 1." American Journal of Sociology 121.6 (2016): 1856-1884.

Ifill, Sherrilyn A. "Creating a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Lynching." Law & Ineq. 21 (2003): 263.

Franzosi, Roberto, Gianluca De Fazio, and Stefania Vicari. "Ways of Measuring Agency An Application of Quantitative Narrative Analysis to Lynchings in Georgia (1875–1930)." Sociological Methodology 42.1 (2012): 1-42.

Park, Marlene. "Lynching and Antilynching: Art and Politics in the 1930s." Prospects 18 (1993): 311-365.

Petersen, Nick, and Geoff Ward. "The transmission of historical racial violence: Lynching, civil rights–era terror, and contemporary interracial homicide." Race and Justice (2015): 2153368714567577.

Smångs, Mattias. "Doing Violence, Making Race: Southern Lynching and White Racial Group Formation 1." American journal of sociology 121.5 (2016): 1329-1374.

Baker, David Victor. "Female Lynchings in the United States Amending the Historical Record." Race and Justice 2.4 (2012): 356-391.

Hagen, Ryan, Kinga Makovi, and Peter Bearman. "The influence of political dynamics on southern lynch mob formation and lethality." Social forces(2013): sot093.
2 Comments

Adventures with/in Will H. Moore, Part 1: The Beginning

4/25/2017

1 Comment

 
​Will H. Moore had a kind of personality that is best described by the phrase: "down for whatever".  For those that don't know, this is defined brilliantly by the "urban dictionary" below:

down for whatever
Ready and willing to participate in most any activity. If said by your homie it implies that he is ready to have a good time in any situation.

That was how Will and I interacted with one another.  Sometimes, Will would set it off and I would be like "Let's do it!".  Sometimes, I would set it off and Will would be like "how do we start?"  Some of these efforts never got off the ground, but they were still fascinating to imagine.  Some were partially successful and incredible to try.  Some failed miserably but were fun to attempt.  Some were more successful than we could have possibly imagined and these were just heavenly or the urban/funkier version of that (Mo' Betta Hevnly).  

In my new series, I am going to explore Will, Willness (or, Mooreing) and my interaction with him.  These adventures are useful to put out there because it is soothing to remember them now and because they not only tell us something about the type of human that he is but also the type of humans, situations and social science that he helped create - these were connected in his mind.  Most of these are not on either of our vitaes - we just did them in an effort to start something, try something, create some resource for ourselves and others.

At its core, the adventures represent some bizarre mashup that is part buddy film, part travel story, part Mindwalk and part bromance set over 25 years.  To help me tell these stories, I will use film, music, literature and perhaps a drawing or painting or two.  I create with a little help from my friends.  Damn, that's a good song for right now (here you go).



The Beginning

In Apocalypse Now (the Vietnam war film that defined Vietnam war films in addition to other topics), the lead character - Willard (played by Martin Sheen) reflects on his relationship to the other leading character - Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando) and the story that is about to be told saying that
 
It was no accident that I got to be the caretaker of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz's memory, any more that being back in Saigon was an accident.  There was no way to tell his story without telling my own.  And if his story is really a confession, then so is mine.
 
Now, I am no Sheen to Will’s Brando but we have had our moments (probably swapping roles more than a few times) and thinking about this line in Apocalypse Now after Will’s passing proves useful to address how we met and interacted in the beginning.  

Willard - Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission.  And for my sins, they gave me one.  Brought it up to me like room service.
Picture
Will emerged in the discipline from the gates of Ted Gurr-land.  If you think of Gurr as occupying one of the “kingdoms” of domestic/internal/intrastate conflict studies with Charles Tilly, Mayer Zald, Charles Taylor/Bruce Russett occupying the other kingdoms, then you have some idea from where he came.  Homie was academic royalty.  For those who don’t know or who are not really up on the early history of the rigorous political conflict/violence area, Gurr was a powerhouse back then: intellectually ambitious, internationally read, global in interest but well versed in cases, meticulous in conceptualization and thorough with empirical examinations.  Will could not have found a better introduction to the field along with James Scarritt (another heavy weight in the discipline but not quite at the same level of notoriety as Gurr – more as a conflict scholar’s, conflict scholar equivalent to a jazz musician's, jazz musician). 
 
Will dove head first into Gurr’s world but, ever the entrepreneurial scholar, he did this with a careful eye as to what was missing.  His dissertation explored one of the glaring absences within not only Gurr’s work but the larger field that was emerging: he investigated not why internal conflicts began or why they varied but why they ended (his peace-side).  This investigation was significant for it represented a part of the domestic turn in the rigorous study of political conflict/violence. Up to this time, the bulk of work had been conflict between states (i.e., interstate) with some attention to civil war.  Will changed and lowered the threshold of violence (tapping that which was much more commonplace/frequent) and considered its varied manifestation.  This was his mission/calling: shedding light on intrastate conflict behavior to anyone who would listen and even barking at those who would not (part of his Don Quixote vibe).
 
This task was not an easy one.  The Cold War was just winding down when we were coming out of grad school.  Accordingly, most were focusing on interstate conflict behavior and there was very little interest in shifting this focus; indeed, there was a little hostility/hesitation when such an interest was expressed.  This is how we would find one another. 
 
Back then in the second wave of political conflict/violence studies (in the early 1990s), the panels with intrastate interested folks were small in number.  Before we knew enough people to create our own panels, section chairs kept putting us together.  We were also frequently being called upon to evaluate each other’s work.
 


Soldier (to Willard) - Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a navy patrol boat, pick up Colonel Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba, follow it, learn what you can along the way.  When you find the colonel, infiltrate his team by whatever means available, and terminate the colonel's command.                                       
 
Willard (to General) - Terminate...the colonel?
 
Initially, we did what well(ish) trained graduate students and hypercompetitive males would do: we ate each other alive in the review process – skewering everything put forward.  Each article seemed to unleash a litany of explosives that rendered the submission process quite brutal.  Sent one over there, BAMN!!  Sent one over there, BAMN!!
 
The sting of forthrightness was a bit much to take at first but after I was able to breath and realize that my “anonymous reviewer” (Will quite often) was right, I just exhaled and made the suggested changes.  Then one day at one of our national meetings, he walked up to me and said: “that last one was really good.”  This is how it all got started.  We realized that we could help one another get better and have some fun along the way.
​
​Now, this is no grand conspiracy.  We did not agree to take it easy on one another or give each other a pass.  Stuff could get quite real with one of us suggesting that a paper not be continued/scrapped entirely or providing so many marks that the paper looked like a piece of modern art more than an academic work. Rather, we just agreed not to try and kill each other in gladiator-like arena that was/is the discipline.  We concluded that we could be as straightforward and helpful with one another as possible as we tried to figure out creating, writing and publishing - all the while being human(e). We decided that we would be stronger and happier together as opposed to working at cross-purposes.  In short, we decided to become brothers; we decided to embrace the fellowship that we had entered at different places but with similar aspirations.  We decided to find a different way.
Picture
Note: Not our actual hands
And just like that we decided to get in the boat together and find our Kurtz.  Indeed, only now do I realize that we were both Willard and Kurtz at the same time not at different times.  Now, the path ahead was not always an easy one.  We would however traverse it with some good company.
Picture
Next up: A Virtual Lynching Memorial
1 Comment

Zen and the Art of Will H. Moore

4/21/2017

5 Comments

 
Picture
There is this old hip hop song "Tennessee" by Arrested Development

Lord, I've really been real stressed, down and out, losing ground
Although I am black and proud, problems got me pessimistic
Brothers and sisters keep messin' up, why does it have to be so damn tuff?
I don't know where I can go to let these ghosts out of my skull
My grandma past my brother's gone, I never at once felt so alone
I know you're supposed to be my steering wheel, not just my spare tire

(Home!) But Lord, I ask you
(Home!) to be my guiding force and truth
(Home!) For some strange reason it had to be
(Home!) he guided me to Tennessee
Take me to another place, take me to another land
Make me forget all that hurts me, let me understand your plan
Take me to another place, take me to another land
Make me forget all that hurts me, let me understand your plan

Lord it's obvious we got a relationship
Talkin' to each other every night and day
Although you're superior over me
We talk to each other in a friendship way
Then outta nowhere you tell me to break
Outta the country and into more country
Past Dyesburg and Ripley
Where the ghost of childhood haunts me
Walk the roads my forefathers walked
Climb the trees my forefathers hung from
Ask those trees for all their wisdom
They tell me my ears are so young (Home)
Go back, from whence you came (Home)
My family tree, my family name (Home)
For some strange reason it had to be (Home)
He guided me to Tennessee (Home)

(Refrain)

Now I see the importance of history
Why my people be in the mess that they be
Many journeys to freedom made in vain
By brothers on the corner playin' ghetto games
I ask you, Lord why you enlightened me
Without the enlightenment of all my folks
He said, cuz I set myself on a quest for truth
And he was there to quench my thirst
But I am still thirsty

​(Go below for the full effect but stop at the same point.)
So, why am I beginning with some old rap song about some black guy talking to god and referencing Will?  Well aside from the point that Will is complex, it was all to get to the line: "I am still thirsty".  I cannot think of a better way to discuss him.  It cuts to the core of his existence and our relationship with him.  Will wanted to know.  He had to know.  He had to open it up, loosen parts, probe, dis/reassemble, occasionally burn or bend and then put it all back together.  

Meet Will, take a Mindwalk and time/space faded away. You were transformed by the experience.  You saw new things - including yourself and you were grateful for the journey. Will also seemed to value the experience and he seemed to always be ready of them - even seeking them out.

This thirst however is also a curse.  Some things cannot be put back together.  Some things cannot be taken apart.  Some things have no straightforward or satisfactory answer.  But, never really one for staying away from a fight, Will would take these on too: being, meaning, truth (yeah, that one especially) - these were all fair game for him. Catch Will at the right moment and he would take you there.  Catch him at a different one and he would accompany you on your journey.  Seemingly more than willing to occupy space/time in your world for a few, pulling you into his when needed/necessary.

Our mindwalks were epic - every possible topic was covered and in many ways I found myself within them.  We did not start this way though.  We were initially competitors when we first met - divided by a discipline that tried to make it seem that there was not space for all of us. We believed this at first but overtime we realized that this was not the case and that we were much stronger, wiser, effective - together/unified against - well.... that varied: racism, elitism, sexism, ignorance, habit, poorly developed scholarship, superstition or boredom.

He was ever thirsty.  Conversing about how poorly the media covered conflict, we decided to create "Chris and Will Call's em Out" where we met to discuss framing/narrative and political violence.  Conversing about torture following 911 and trying to pull off a study on the topic, Will figured something out and ran with Courtenay Conrad to make something (an NSF and an AJPS).  Conversing about Clark McPhail's conception of variation in behavior within a protest event, we decided to try and implement an effort to document who did what to whom and when not just in a protest event in one place with human coders as McPhail had done but track it in one place with multiple video recordings as well as its subsequent march across space.  Conversing with Patrick Ball at HRDAG about conflict data Will was motivated to converse with Scott Edwards at Amnesty International to try and figure out what we as social scientists could do to help social justice.  They came up with Citizen Media Evidence Project (which was then rolled out to different campuses, including mine).  Conversing about the lack of US acknowledgement about lynching, we decided to try and develop a digital memorial for the victims.  Conversing about what was wrong with conflict and peace studies (generally a lack of systematic exchange and community), we decided to create the Conflict Consortium putting on dinners, conferences, houses and later a virtual workshop where you can see approximately 50 examples of Will H. Mooreing - including what was believed to be the best one which was 3 days ago.
Now, you have not heard of many of these because they did not all work out or catch on but they were attempted and Will drank of those experiences (as did I).  I believe that what was accomplished at the Conflict Consortium was precisely what we discussed doing and Will loved doing it.  It was not a crowning achievement but it was a major step in the right direction.  After the last session, we chatted about how that was a fabulous exchange. All the elements were there: we had diverse ranks, genders and disciplines.  We laughed that we still needed some more people of color which was a longer-term discussion we had that was not at all funny but we knew that that was going to be an issue and he worked on that one hard. The session was useful for the author as well as the broader audience and we had fun (as always).  Actually, Will was not done.  Several days ago, he finished organizing several mini-sessions comprised of the people that we were not able to include in the regular sessions. He wanted everyone to get feedback and to get better.  This is/was his way. 

This is how I see my brother.  This is why I loved him.  Watch those videos.  That is Will doing what he does - taking lemons and making a nice pale ale.  He elevated.  He connected.  He inspired.  He saw.  He made you see.  You might not have liked all that you were shown but you were always clear about how Will saw it.

Indeed, this is the legacy Will deserves.  I remember after our friend Steve Poe passed, Will and I had a conversation about what would be an appropriate award to create for him.  Folks were coming up with a best grad student award and I remember Will railing against that because an award that embodied Steve would have had the winner go to a nearby high school to teach them about what they had learned.  I don't want to see Will memorialized and frozen in such a way.  Rather, he should be turned into a verb.  To "Will H. Moore" should be a signifier for giving a damn, spending the time to see someone/their argument and fostering not only understanding within the recipient but also an infectious desire to improve the world.  For whatever Will is and will be, he made you thirsty as well and I for one will not only pour a little out for my homie but I will pursue an engorgement of knowledge, truth and engagement that would make Will smile but feel a little uncomfortable.  Indeed, thinking about Will's response to this, I am reminded of a different song by Sly and the Family Stone where they tell their friend: "I want to thank you for letting me be myself.... again."  
This is perfect Will.  

Now, I will apologize in advance for writing more about my brother but you don't have to read it.  I do however have to write it.  I could sail by him - not as in past but as in by/because of.  Will was the star in the cloudless sky.  I drift now a little but still have enough Willness to remember the direction set forth.  Seeing the words that others have written about him, it is nice to see that this is seemingly the case for many others.  

Something crucial for me now though is the institutionalization of the sentiment and have people Will H. Mooreing all over the place.  Knowing his students and those he touched, they do this already and hopefully their students will do the same.  It is perhaps too much to hope that they not only live Will H. Mooreing but that they also name it.  Will probably would not care for the latter but love the former.  That's ok though.  What is a Will if he ain't a lil uncomfortable?

Peace my lovely friend
Holding it down on the earth
​Do some Will H. Mooreing folks because love's in need of love today

​a little stevie for your journey brother......

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    Analog - The Anti-Blog

    By "Analog" I am referring to the adjective (i.e., relating to or using signals or information represented by a continuously variable physical quantity such as spatial position or voltage) and not the noun (i.e., a person or thing seen as comparable to another) for I wished to give voice to my thoughts which have come to me in a more or less continuous manner but which do so in a way that is not consistent in content or form. Thus you will see short stories, brief thoughts, haikus, low-kus and even a political cartoon or two. 

    Winner of Best Blog Post for 2014 by International Studies Association

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