Connecting with the Living Past

For The Madera Tribune

Albert Wilburn.

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It was a red-letter day for Samuel Colunga’s 8th grade class. The teenage historians left the dry, dusty archives of the Internet to focus on a living source of Madera’s African-American past. They spent one and a half hours interviewing Dr. Albert Wilburn as part of their attempt to gather material for a book they were writing: “Madera’s Journey from Jim Crow to Civil Rights; Stories of Personal Courage”

Standing in front of the class, Wilburn engaged the students, who sat at their desks behind plastic shields and peppered the former Stanford University football star with questions. At the back of the room, several adults (all with masks) joined the discussion.

The students had clearly done their homework; their questions showed it. By the same token, Dr. Wilburn was prepared, and his responses gave the students all they needed to write a biographical sketch of his life that would be placed beside other stories in the book that some have nicknamed, “The Overcomers.”