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St. Cloud State University
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Local historian holds signing
By John Behling
Published:
Thursday, April 3, 2003
Former SCSU professor John C. Massmann has quite a bit to say about the city of St. Cloud, but in his new collaboration with John J. Dominik "St. Cloud: The Triplet City, an Illustrated History," a selection of over 250 photos does much of the talking. Tuesday 11a.m. to 1p.m. the SCSU history professor of 30 years was on hand at the Mississippi room in Atwood Memorial Center to discuss history, answer questions and sign copies of his book.
Assuming a familiar SCSU lecturing stance: sitting on a table facing the class, legs dangling underneath, Massmann began his presentation by paraphrasing former speaker of the house Tip O'Neill "All politics is local," Massman said and then added his own perspective "but really all history is local."
Published by American Historical Press, a company that has released similar illustrated histories on cities all over the U.S., "The Triplet City" is the first volume to be published featuring Minnesota. The text covers an entire history of St. Cloud with a focus on changes from the 1980s to the present.
In his presentation, Massmann highlighted some of the difficulties of compiling this text, touching on the topic of racism. One audience member stipulated that the lack of black history in the St. Cloud area might be the result of discrimination. However, Massmann explained that the issue is more complicated. Black history tends to be mostly oral history, according to his findings. Another point he made was that there simply hasn't been a lot of racial diversity in the St. Cloud area until the 1980s. You can't make history out of no history, Massmann said.
Another issue that affects how history is recorded is the finding that most history is based on the written records of the upper class. The elite tend to be recorded, Massmann said commenting on a recent history of women in Stearns County compiled heavily from the diary of Margaret Mitchell, a member of one of St. Cloud's wealthiest families.
Although St. Cloud has had a reputation for being "White Cloud," a more accurate term might be "White Minnesota," Massmann said. Comparing demographics, St. Cloud may be less racially diverse than Minneapolis, but as far as Minnesota goes, St. Cloud is fairly typical, according to his findings. And the racial landscape is changing all the time.
"The profile of the community isn't what it was 50 years ago, (or) 20 years ago," Massmann said. In 1900, three out of four individuals in Minnesota had been born abroad or had parents who were born abroad. In 1940, the two most commonly spoken languages in Minnesota were German and Norwegian. The first minority group to populate St. Cloud in significant numbers was composed of Laotian Vietnam refugees in the 1960s. In the 1990s, a large number of African refugees emigrated to St. Cloud, forming what is now the city's largest minority group.
"Are we still that rural German Catholic community? No we're not," Massmann said in summation. He concluded his talk by reiterating an important theme, "If you don't know your history, you're bound by it." Massmann encouraged others to record their family history in order to preserve them, especially those of a minority group.
"I feel I have a duty to my grandkids or to my country to record my experiences," said history professor and former colleague of Massmann's, Peter Nayenga.
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