Students’ 3D-printed sculpture honors Civil Rights generation
Oak Ridge High School student Lauren Gross shows off a sculpture and keychain on which she and other Wildcat Manufacturing students have been working to honor the historic ‘Scarboro 85’ students who were the first African-American students at Oak Ridge Schools. (photo:Ben Pounds )
Wildcat Manufacturing, part of a dual-enrollment class at ORHS, has created various projects to sell to customers. Lauren Gross, Devin Slattery, Imelia Markus-Brock and Kirah Colston promoted one of these products at a recent event that celebrated the 68th anniversary of the first Black students to enter Oak Ridge High School and Robertsville Middle School back in 1955.
Dubbed the Scarboro 85, the group predated the Clinton 12’s desegregation of neighboring Clinton High School by a year. The Scarboro 85 name refers to the Oak Ridge neighborhood from which they came.
To honor the Scarboro 85, Wildcat Manufacturing made a 3D printed sculpture of a Sankofa bird, a symbol of African and African- American culture with “Scarboro 85” on its base.
A smaller keychain follows a similar design. They presented the sculpture during an event at A.K. Bissell Park on Sept. 6.
“It’s something that everyone should know and appreciate,” Gross said in an interview regarding the effects of the Scarboro 85 on Oak Ridge and the country. “I think it’s something that needs to be taught more in our curriculum.”
The sculptures and keychains are not ready for sale yet.
An email from Oak Ridge Schools communications specialist Molly Gallagher Smith said Wildcat Manufacturing is still finalizing design, fabrication and materials decisions and associated costs for the organizers.
Wildcat Manufacturing plans to have the profits — everything above the cost of materials and labor — go toward the building of the future Scarboro 85 monument in A.K. Bissell Park.
However, the Scarboro 85 monument organizers will decide final cost and division of proceeds.