Most people don’t know about Guilford’s connection to the Underground Railroad. I sure didn’t. But there is a legacy here that needs to be kept alive. Don’t worry, James Shields, Director of Community Learning, is on the job.Guilford’s history of involvement with the Underground Railroad was one of the reasons this class of 2000 alum first became interested in the school. As a staff member, Shields is now presented with the challenge of an Underground Railroad project that “seems to draw more interest from the outside than from the inside,” said Shields.
Shields plans to broaden the community awareness of the Underground Railroad legacy through guided tours and simulations by next spring. “Once you know about what went on here, you look at the campus in a whole different way,” said Shields.
Shields, 42, grew up in the Baptist church in Durham. He attended Hillside High School where he ran track, as he did during his two years at Appalachian State. After Appalachian, Shields lived in Blowing Rock for a decade during which time he began to work in the music industry in marketing. He later moved to Tennessee for his job with the Record Bar.
Shields’ involvement in music continues to this day. He has been performing music for over 20 years; his reggae band performed at Guilford three weekends ago. After starting performing in a gospel trio in the early eighties, Shields became increasingly “drawn by the spirituality of reggae.”
His interest in reggae and gangster-rap coincided; Shields played hip-hop during a time where the scene in the south was dominated by party records. “I was a DJ at the very beginning of the hip-hop era,” said Shields.
Shields said that a lot of the reggae he began to listen to “rang a lot truer than a lot of the gospel I’d sung before.”
Shields began to perform with the Boone-based group Crucial Balance, playing at Guilford and UNCG during the late eighties.
“Performing reggae for me,” said Shields, “it’s almost therapeutic.”
Shields is leery of modern music, criticizing the cynicism he sees in the music industry. He dislikes pop music, a category he defines from N’Sync to Nelly; Shields includes performers who don’t represent the realities of the modern world despite their proclamations that hip-hop represents the real world.
While he loves the beats in today’s hip-hop, he is disappointed in the lyrics, especially the social consciousness and their affects on children. I asked him to list some mainstream artists he likes; he mentioned Angie Stone, India Arie, Erica Badu, Alicia Keys, Outkast, and Victor Wooten.
Shields eventually decided to go back to school, moving to Greensboro where he worked at Deep Roots and attended Guilford Tech before coming to Guilford College, where he earned a History and African-American studies degree.
“James is just a gift to Guilford College students,” said Judy Harvey.
And here’s what I really think about James Shields: he’s a uniquely charismatic, enthusiastically mellow, and spiritually charged man, a man who’s all about good vibes and righteous intent; a man who should be celebrated and cherished as an irreplaceable part of the Guilford community.
Sophomore Joe Horvath went to Montana with Shields last spring on a Bonner trip. Of Shields, Horvath said, “I never felt like he was being a staff member; he was being my friend.”
If you are interested in the Underground Railroad project, contact Emmaleigh Petz-Ritter at x3922.