God Chooses Only the Best

“Blood done signed all our names,” my daddy said. My thoughts turn to my sixteen-year old cousin’s 1974 murder in sight of her high school, where, five years earlier, black girls would never have been, of how her death was publicly marked, and of the alchemy of emotions I felt as connected to what was then—and to all that was unsaid.

1. Beverly Marie Ferguson, “God Chooses Only the Best, “ The News Leader, February, 1974 (front page)

2. Timothy Tyson (2005), Blood Done Signed my Name, Crown Publisher. Title take from the African American spiritual, Blood Done Sign my Name. For a listen, as Performedby Tri-Faith, a family Christian singing group, Christmas, 2014.

3. Pate v. Dade County School Board, 315 F. Supp. 1161 (S.D. Fla. 1970); HERBERT PATE, et al., Plaintiffs, versus DADE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD, et al., Defendants. (1969) FINAL JUDGMENT. The Board of Public Instruction of Dade County, Florida, and Edward L. Whigham, as Superintendent of Public Instruction, and his successors in office, are permanently enjoined from operating a dual system of public education segregated by race, and shall henceforth operate a unitary system as described above.2. The transfer of students shall be made effective August 1, 1970 and thereafter. 3. The Court retains jurisdiction of the cause and the parties for the purpose of insuring that the plan here adopted, and the required amendments are carried out and the school system operated consistently with the requirements of the United States Constitution.

Done and ordered at Miami, Florida this 26th day of June 1970. (Signed) C. Clyde Atkins United States District Judge.