The power of small choices across decades: The Sgt. John Monk story

“You have to make moves that will not just impact your today but the lives of folks down the road.” —Kaye Monk-Morgan

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Kaye discuss the life of her grandfather John Monk, growing up in Louisiana during Jim Crow, and the extended impacts of sharecropping (13:00); the challenges of assimilating to military life and overcoming racial adversity during World War II (25:00); and how small choices and sacrifices can have an outsized impact on our lives and the lives of others (43:00).

John Monk (1916-2018) was born into a family of sharecroppers in Haynesville, Louisiana. He served in the United States Army through World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. After retiring from the military he moved to Wichita, where he raised his family and worked as a doorman at Park Lane Towers. Kaye Monk-Morgan is an Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs at Wichita State University, where she facilitates leadership and professional development opportunities for low-income and first-generation students, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Notable Links:

• Targeting Black Veterans: Lynching in America (Equal Justice Initiative report)
• Long-ago choice leads to life of dreams fulfilled (newspaper story on John Monk)
• Hometown Heroes: 101-year-old Army veteran’s secret to life (TV story on John Monk)
• Jim Crow laws (local laws enforcing racial segregation)
• Sharecropping (agricultural landowner/tenant arrangement)
• Harlem Hellfighters (World War I infantry regiment)
• Greatest Generation (American demographic cohort)
• Fort Knox (United States Army post in Kentucky)
• Barrage balloon (anti-aircraft kite balloon used in WWI and WWII)
• Quartermaster (senior soldier who supervises barracks)
• Drill Sergeant (non-commissioned officer assigned to train new recruits)
• Dockum Drug Store sit-in (1958 Wichita Civil Rights protest)
• Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967 Sidney Poitier movie)
• Exodusters (African Americans who migrated to Kansas in 1879)
• Barry Sanders (Wichita-born NFL Hall of Fame running back)

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The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.