Living in stable housing, having food to eat and medical care are basic human rights. Prior to the Medicare and Medicaid program of 1965, these basic needs were not met for black and poor people. Many white people thought it was black and poor peoples’ fault that we couldn’t rise above poverty. It’s not that …
There was a brand new high school that was built to accommodate the children in the area. It was initially built for the white students, but due to white flight, the school was now predominately black. White flight occurred when white people moved out of urban areas that were more racially diverse to suburban areas. …
I was completing my ninth grade year in school and looking forward to moving back to Memphis in the summer. Dad was still gainfully employed at the Navy Base. He rode the city bus to and from Memphis, to Millington, when we moved. MaDear was working in private homes and saving the money earned to …
There is a saying that children learn what they live. I believe this to be true. I was almost fifteen years old when we moved from “The Bottom.” Because of individual and systemic racism, we lived in abject poverty the entire time. Black people were still denied basic civil and human rights and used separate …
In the early 1960’s, Dick Gregory, comedian and political activist was credited with saying these words, “I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night”. Those of us who lived in the South felt the same way. One night can seem like twenty long years. Individual and systemic racism destroyed many …
Throughout my childhood, I saw MaDear and Dad praying but didn’t see with my young natural eyes the results of their prayers. What I didn’t understand at the time was that God was with us all along. We went through many hardships, but we never went through anything that He couldn’t handle. Until now, my …
We had a cast-iron black stove with a pot belly that was located in the center room of our shack. Dad alternated putting wood and coal in its bulging midsection. In the late fall and winter, we loved to sit around the stove and listen to the flames crackle the dry wood. The warm fire …
Even though we were economically poor, I was happy and eager to enter my first year of junior high school. I was blooming! I had friends at school and friends in the neighborhood. My best friend BB invited me to go with her to a girl’s summer camp for vacation Bible school. The camp was …
Black people didn’t have a reprieve from the discrimination and violence going on in the United States. By now, four young girls were killed in a Birmingham church that was bombed by segregationists. Other young people were injured. Dr. Martin Luther King had written his famous letter from the Birmingham jail. Later that year, he …
Our teachers were nurturing and insightful. Most of them lived in Memphis and drove to our school in Arlington. Their children also attended the same school. As the years passed, I learned to spell well. Every night, I practiced my spelling words by the dim light of the coal-oil lamp. Toward the end of the …