Year 12 student at Xaverian College, Marcie Greenwood, impressed judges from the British Association of American Studies (BAAS) with her submission entitled ‘Did the Lavender Scare Ever Calm?’ and was awarded top spot in the ‘School Essay Award’ category. The competition is open to students from high schools, sixth forms and colleges across the UK to submit essays on a topic related to America.
Marcie is a former pupil of Reddish Vale High School and studying A Levels in Biology, Geography and History at Xaverian. Marcie entered the competition after being told about it by her history teacher and commented: “I thought it would be a good idea to challenge myself and try a competition where I could write an essay that was related to my History A Level, where one of the modules looks at ‘The American Dream’ and the period of America history from 1945 to 1980.
“The American history module of my A Level course is very familiar to me as I studied the Cold War as part of my GCSE in History at high school. The cold war story is something people are familiar with but the way you look at it in depth and from the perspective of the American Dream is something that really interests me, and especially the significant events that happened at the time, such as the Lavender Scare.
“They give you a general topic of ‘America’ so you can do absolutely anything with it and that’s one of the things I found really interesting about the competition. History is surprisingly big even in one country so I decided to look at something that our history teacher mentioned to us in one of our lessons called ‘The Lavender Scare’. The Lavender Scare occurred in the early 1950s and relates to the hysteria around been gay at the time where there were unfounded claims that gay people were more susceptible to communism and were deemed a security risk if they worked for the US government.
“I wrote about how the Lavender Scare evolved into its own thing, alongside the ‘Red Scare’ that was also taking place, when gay rights were being limited by committees who passed anti-LGBTQ laws that still exist today. A large proportion of the very laws that had endangered LGBTQ+ people in the 1950s and prior were repealed fully or partially, such as being gay was defined as a mental illness and being banned from joining the military, but they have been replaced by different laws that still limit the rights of LGBTQ citizens. The defining point for me was President Obama repealing a large number of anti-LGBTQ laws in the signing of one executive order during his presidency.
“I really didn’t expect to win an award for something as academic as essay-writing, but it will definitely help me in writing essays in the future and with writing my personal statement for university. Following Xaverian, I will be studying a Degree in Biology at university and will possibly progress to researching microbiology and plant biology as I am fascinated by obscure plant diseases.”
Xaverian’s most recent winners in the competition were Nadia Bishop-Broadhurst in 2022 with a submission entitled, ‘Were the Golden Years Really Golden?’ and Caitlin Bowler who received an honourable mention for her submission, ‘Has America Always Considered Itself Exceptional?’, in the same year.
Hayley Flanagan, Curriculum Leader of History and Marcie’s History Teacher said: “We always encourage our students to enter competitions and, especially national ones, where they get to compete against some of the most talented students in the country, and to be chosen as the winner is an amazing achievement for Marcie. The essay she wrote showed a deep understanding of the events at the time but with a considered balance and insight with her arguments that deserved to win over the judges. We are all proud of Marcie’s achievement which is truly significant given the high level of entries they received.”