The term, role model, was coined by Robert K. Merton[1], one of the major American sociologists of the twentieth century. Pamela Laird has since studied how social capital including the presence of role models has been a historical predictor and explanation for a person’s success[2]. She traces how a person’s choice of role model impacts their opportunities and choices. She demonstrates that the absence of a role model who shares the person’s background helps to perpetuate barriers to success. People compare themselves to their chosen role models because they aspire to similar careers, roles or achievements. Marilyn Price-Mitchell identifies five qualities in a role model that matter for teens. She defines a child’s role model as anyone who “can aspire a child to achieve their potential in life”[3]. The five qualities she cites are:
- An effective role model demonstrates a passion for their work and can communicate that passion to other
- An effective role model has a “clear set of values”[4] and lives them in public
- An effective role model focuses on others, not on themselves
- An effective role model serves with a selflessness and an acceptance of people who are different
- An effective role model has proven their ability to overcome obstacles.
Price-Mitchell says that “positive role models are linked
to… [our] ability to believe in ourselves”[5].
Albery Allson Whitman is a famous Kentucky Christian whose
life and work fit all the criteria that Price-Mitchell associates with being an
effective role model for youth. Whitman overcame impossible obstacles. He was
born enslaved near Mundfordville, Kentucky in 1851. He was orphaned before
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation made him a free man on January 1, 1863. To
date, he had received no education but he worked on the railroad and in a plow
shop until he was able to attend Wilberforce University. He became a church-planting
pastor with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Whitman also wrote and published six volumes of classical
poetry that embody his passion for African Americans and Native Americans to
receive justice and honor for their accomplishments. Beyond making his poems
available in print, he was recognized as a “poet laureate of the Negro race”
and invited to read “The Freedman’s Triumphant Song”[6]
at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. This poem shows Whitman’s focus on others as
well as his values when it lists the American battles in which African
Americans have fought and bled, making a case for them to receive the honor due
for these sacrifices.
“…Our
blood at Bunker Hill did flow
And
redden Valley Forge’s snow.
And
where from all our storm-vexed coasts,
The
battle-hurled and scattered hosts
Of
royal George were driven to sea,
The
Negro shared the victory!
He
wore the scars, then what is due-
The
honor – let him wear it too.
In
simple justice, greet him then,
A
man and peer among all men…”[7]
Whitman knew that his life and the poems he wrote would
serve as inspiration to other African Americans. In the preface to his 1877
volume, Not A Man, and Yet A Man, he wrote:
“I
was born in Green River Country, Hart County, Kentucky, May 30, 1851. I was a
slave until the Emancipation. My parents left me and went to the Good Land when
I was yet a boy. My chances for an education have not been good. In that
matter, however, I have done what I could. I have worked with my hands, taught
school and preached a RISEN, present Savior – not a bad lot after all.”[8]
The last poem in that book is a life-lesson for anyone who
needs a role model:
“A
Hint
Who
seeks to show another’s fault will find
In
self a greater shown,
But
he that is to faults of others blind,
But
covers thus his own”[9]
Whitman was a famous Kentucky Christian. His life and verse indicate
that his values, passion, selflessness, attentiveness to others and ability to
overcome obstacles qualify him as a true role model for anyone.
[1]
Michael T. Kaufman. “Robert K. Merton, Versatile Sociologist and Father of the
Focus Group, Dies at 92”. New York Times. 2003. ONLINE at https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/24/nyregion/robert-k-merton-versatile-sociologist-and-father-of-the-focus-group-dies-at-92.html
ACCESSED 12/2/2020.
[2] Pamela
Laird. Pull: Networking and Success Since Benjamin Franklin.
Harvard University Press. 2007
[3]
Marilyn Mitchell-Price. “What is a Role Model? Five Qualities that Matter to
Youth”. 2011, 2017. ONLINE at http://rootsofaction.com.
ACCESSED 12/2/2020.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6]
Albery Allson Whitman. “The Freedman’s Triumphant Song”. ONLINE at http://poemhunter.com/poem/the-freedman-s-triumphant-song.
ACCESSED 12/2/2020
[7] Ibid.
[8]
Albery Allson Whitman. Not A Man and Yet A Man. 1877.
[9] Ibid.
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