I am concerned about a number of inaccuracies on my page and would like assistance in making corrections. In particular, zigzig20s cites a 2002 Journal of Blacks in Higher Education as the source of his claim that I was formerly a Jehovah's Witness until 1998, when I had a born again Christian experience. My family has always been Christian. My great grandfather Charles A. Kier was a Methodist pastor who pastored the New Hope Methodist Church in Moneta, Virginia where some members of my family still attend. As part of my spiritual journey, I share the experience of having encountered Jehovah's Witnesses as a teenager during the period they predicted the world would end in 1975. My encounter with them was one factor in my decision to marry at age 16. I stopped associating with Jehovah's Witnesses at age 19, before their predicted date for the world to end. I cite 1975 as the date of a radical life change that included earning my high school equivalency, filing for divorce, experiencing the death of a child and taking a job outside the home. I left organized religion for more than 22 years. My spiritual journey included studies of New Age and Eastern religions before being born again in 1998. My born again experience occurred between the time I accepted the position at Vanderbilt and when I actually showed up for the position. The only proper entry for religion is Christian. Information about Jehovah's Witnesses should be a one-line sentence.
I did not put myself through college working at McDonald's. I worked half a day at fast food restaurant. As I have cited on page xviii of THE NEW WHITE NATIONALISM IN AMERICA: ITS CHALLENGE TO INTERGRATION (Cambridge Press, 2002). "I have worked as an assistant in a nursing home for the aged, as an unskilled worker in a garment factory, as a door-to-door salesperson, and as a library assistant at a community college before becoming a successful university professor."
I would like to add that I worked full-time, 40-hours a week at Virginia Western Community College as a library assistant nights and weekends, and went to school full-time at Roanoke College and graduated magna cum laude. While a student at Roanoke College, I wrote the proposal and worked with fundraising to establish the Constance J. Hamlar Memorial Scholarship, named after a black professor I had at Virginia Western. As of June 30, 2015, the endowed scholarship had an endowment of $510,612.00. It presently funds 10 minority students (blacks, Hispanics, and Asian), per year.
Other changes that need to be made in the page concern the Be the People TV show which actually launched in 2012 and ended summer of 2014. I now maintain a www.bethepeopletv.com blog page.
There are other errors. I would encourage anyone who would like to help make the page accurate to cease deleting the edits of Vermonte1974 and contact me directly about additional inaccuracies. One of the things that need to be added is the fact that the petition supporting my academic freedom quickly garnered over 11, 400 signatures, which dwarfs the signatures on the student petition. If Zigzig20s wanted accuracy, he should cite articles and interviews with my response to the petition. http://citizengo.org/en/sy/31026-protect-academic-freedom-professor-carol-swain
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