I am of Her

My mother was not afraid of anything, and by that, I mean she did not fear the powerful. In the wake of the killing of four little girls like me, she pushed the color line with me in tow. I was to be on the frontlines of a movement, and so were all the other Negro children of my generation in the South who were called to do something that had not yet been done, something the nation still was not yet quite ready to do.

1. Hurricane Andrew was a destructive Category 5 storm, highest sustained winds 175 mph, that struck South Florida in August 1992, the eyewall moved across Homestead and Florida City which sustained substantial damage. Hurricane Andrew Fact Sheet
| III. (2017). Property damage $27. 3billion (192, US), and 65 deaths.

  2. Fort Valley State College A public and historically black university in Fort Valley, Georgia. Founded in 1895.

3. Jim Crow referred to de facto social customs and de jure state and local laws in the southern United States that codified racial discrimination against African Americans and other non-whites, this included education, transportation, housing, employment and recreation enacted in the 19th century (after Reconstruction) and early 20th century. Prior to this, Jim Crow was a popular character in 19th century ministry, where white men donned blackface and enacted the character in entertainment shows.  See A. Costly (2019). A Brief History of Jim Crow - Constitutional Rights Foundation; and Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Ferris State University.

4. The Birmingham Protests and the Children’s Crusade was organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Alabama Coalition for Human rights Southern Christian. The protests were held in April and May 1963, The Children’s Crusade began May 1963 a series of nonviolent protest marches, with youth, 6 to 18 years old, were hosed, physically attacked by police dogs, and jailed. American Freedom Stories, Children's Crusade of 1963. See also C. Levinson. We've got a job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March. United States: Peachtree Publishing Company (2018).

5. The Sixteenth Street Baptist St. Church, Birmingham, AL. was a large and prominent church in the African American community. Youth participating in The Children Crusade met here and left from this church for their march (May 1963). In September 1963, the church was bombed by white supremacist terrorist group killing four girls, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and 11-year-old Cynthia Wesley. See George, D., McKinstry, C., McKinstry, C. M. (2011). While the world watched: A Birmingham bombing survivor comes of age During the Civil Rights Movement: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., and Four Little Girls, Spike Lee, Director.

May Day Queen

I was queen of the festivities and, like so many things in the colored world in which I was raised it was celebrated with great pomp and circumstance. As a kindergartener, I did not racially mark this moment because whiteness was immaterial to me, but this would not be so for long as more history was to be made.

1. The bunny hop is a popular novelty dance of the 1950s and 1960s, with a song.

2. May Day: Spring festival recognized as a public holiday celebrated on May 1st commonly celebrated at Negro schools. See May Day: America’s traditional radical, and complicated holiday, Part I. National Museum of American History.

3. Can can is a creolin and tulle slip worn to create bellowing skirt, most often worn under fancy dresses for girls.

4. Afro-American Life-Insurance Company founded in 1901 by Abraham Lincoln Lewis and his associates. A.L. Lewis, b. 1865 – 1947, would be Florida’s first black millionaire. In 1935, he purchased 200 -acre tract along the Atlantic Ocean, which he named American Beach, It was a thriving vacation spot for African Americans, from the 1930s to the 1950s. American Beach including homes, beach rentals, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses.

5. Ariel is a character in Danish fairy tale, The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen first published in 1837. The character was popularized in the 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid. In the original tale, to walk and to dance on her new legs caused excruciating pain, as if daggers.

The Boots Were Made for Walking

I first laid claim to social protest on a walk from the “white” elementary school, as we still called it. I encountered two white boys with BB rifles aimed at my head; they fired, and I refused to run. All these years later, I wonder what it will take to walk the last mile of the way.

1. Nancy Sinatra These Boots Were Made for Walking, 1966.