Buses Are A Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider by Charles Person

Look around. What injustice do you see? What change needs to happen? Get on the bus. Make it happen. There will be a cost.~from Buses are a Comin' by Charles Person

"We intended to be the change," Charles Person writes in the prologue of his memoir Buses are a Comin'. 

Sixty years ago, Person walked away from a college education, walked away from the safety of his family's love, and boarded a bus headed for the deep south. He and his companions, black and white, old and young, male and female, were determined to challenge the illegal practice of segregation on the buses.

Person wanted the dignity, respect, and the privileges that whites took for granted. He could have chosen safety. But he heard the call to "do something" and answered it. The Supreme Court had ruled against segregation on the buses, but Jim Crow ruled the south. 

He was eighteen when he donned his Sunday suit and joined the Freedom Riders. Over the summer of 1961, four hundred Americans participated in sixty-three Freedom Rides.  Four hundred Americans put themselves into harm's way because they believed that "all men are created equal."  

Person mentions the well-remembered leaders of the Civil Rights movement, but they are not the only heroes. This is the story of the people who did the hard work, whose names are not on city street signs. The students, ministers, homemakers, writers, social workers, people from across the country who believed in E pluribus unum.

One of the heroes in the book is Jim Peck, a wealthy, white man who was severely beaten by white supremacists and still got back on the bus. It baffled Person how a man with everything would give so much for the rights of another.

Person's voice and personality come through the memoir. It is the story of a young man finding his purpose, committing himself to nonviolence, knowing he would face jail and beatings and death. 

I have seen the documentaries and I have read the history. But a memoir brings something new to the story. Person's first hand account is moving, his words have  rhythm and lyricism, his story takes us into hell, and finally, into hope. 

If they could stand up to power, we can, too. Every generation has its purpose.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Buses Are a Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider
by Charles Person; Richard Rooker
St. Martin's Press
Pub Date: April 27, 2021 
ISBN: 9781250274199
hard cover $26.99 (USD)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Person is one of two living Freedom Riders who remained with the original Ride from its start in Washington, DC to New Orleans. This historic event helped defeat Jim Crow laws in the US. A sought-after public speaker, Person maintains active contact with schools, museums and the activist community. He lives in Atlanta.

Richard Rooker is an English and history educator, writing coach, and longtime personal friend of Person. He is an active board member of the Indiana Historical Society.

from the publisher

A firsthand exploration of the cost of boarding the bus of change to move America forward—written by one of the Civil Rights Movement's pioneers.

At 18, Charles Person was the youngest of the original Freedom Riders, key figures in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement who left Washington, D.C. by bus in 1961, headed for New Orleans. This purposeful mix of black and white, male and female activists—including future Congressman John Lewis, Congress of Racial Equality Director James Farmer, Reverend Benjamin Elton Cox, journalist and pacifist James Peck, and CORE field secretary Genevieve Hughes—set out to discover whether America would abide by a Supreme Court decision that ruled segregation unconstitutional in bus depots, waiting areas, restaurants, and restrooms nationwide.

The Freedom Riders found their answer. No. Southern states would continue to disregard federal law and use violence to enforce racial segregation. One bus was burned to a shell; the second, which Charles rode, was set upon by a mob that beat the Riders nearly to death.

Buses Are a Comin’ provides a front-row view of the struggle to belong in America, as Charles leads his colleagues off the bus, into the station, into the mob, and into history to help defeat segregation’s violent grip on African American lives. It is also a challenge from a teenager of a previous era to the young people of today: become agents of transformation. Stand firm. Create a more just and moral country where students have a voice, youth can make a difference, and everyone belongs.

A Shot in the Moonlight: How a Freed Slave and a Confederate Soldier Fought tor Justice in the Jim Crow South by Ben Montgomery

"With these facts I made my way home, thoroughly convinced that a Negro's life is a very cheap thing."`~from A Shot in the Moonlight

 

Several years ago I went to a local church to hear a Metro Detroit fiber artist talk about her quilt. The quilt was huge, a stark black with thousands of names embroidered on it. 

April Anue, the artist, told us how God hounded her to make this quilt, and what it cost her, the anguish and tears that accompanied every name she embroidered. She talked about the horror of making the nooses that ornament the quilt.

The 5,ooo names on the quilt are those of African Americans who had been lynched in America between 1865 and 1965. The title of the quilt is Strange Fruit.

Strange Fruit by April Anue

Five thousand human beings, beaten, tortured, and murdered. Anue researched every name, now memorialized for all to read.

In the Jim Crow South there were black Americans who were harassed, beaten, their homes and livelihoods taken from them, their families traumatized; they were denied protection under the law by the authorities and the courts. How many tens of thousands have been forgotten, their names lost?

Ben Montgomery has brought one man back to life. A freed slave whose white neighbors gathered on moonlit night to demand he leave his hard-earned, modest home and farm. Twenty-five men who claimed to be 'friends.' A man who disguised his voice and wore a handkerchief to hide his identity called to him to come out of his home. When this black man had the audacity not to comply, shots bombarded his home, wounding him. And to protect his home and family, this man shot out his window into the crowd, killing a white man.

His name was George Dinning. He fled into the fields to hide as the white men took their fallen comrade away. The next morning, Dinning's house and barn were burned to the ground. George turned himself into the authorities when he heard that he had killed a man.

The story of that night, Dinning's trial, and what happened afterwards is devastating and moving. And, it is perplexing, for the story of Dinning protecting the sanctity of his home brought a surge of support, including that of a prominent veteran of the Confederate Army who built memorials to Confederate heroes while supporting organizations to benefit freed slaves. He was "foremost in work of charity among our race," one black minister said. 

A Shot in the Moonlight  incorporates historic documents in a vivid recreation of the events of that night, the trial, and the unexpected twists of fortune afterward. Dinning stood up to power in the courtroom, asking for reparation for his loss. Everything was stacked against him, and when he was denied justice, a deluge of editorials were printed in his defense.

In his book What Unites Us, Dan Rather talks about building consensus on the shared values we all hold dear. The sanctity of home and a man's right to protect his home and family raised sympathy of for Dinning, for every American could sympathize with protecting one's home and family.   

This is an amazing story of a brave man, a horrendous tale of hate and racism, and a revelation of race relations in America that brought chills and tears. 

I received a free book from Little, Brown Spark. My review is fair and unbiased.

I previous read Montgomery's book The Man Who Walked Backwards: An American Dreamer's Search for Meaning in the Great Depression, which I reviewed here.

A Shot in the Moonlight: How a Freed Slave and a Confederate Soldier Fought for Justice in the Jim Crow South
by Ben Montgomery

Publication January 26, 2021
ISBN-13: 9780316535540 hardcover USD: $28/CAD: $35
ISBN-13: 9780316535564 ebook USD: $14.99 /CAD: $19.99

from the publisher

The sensational true story of George Dinning, a freed slave, who in 1899 joined forces with a Confederate war hero in search of justice in the Jim Crow south. “Taut and tense. Inspiring and terrifying in its timelessness.”(Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad )

Named a most anticipated book of 2021 by O, The Oprah Magazine

Named a "must-read" by the Chicago Review of Books

One of CNN's most anticipated books of 2021 

After moonrise on the cold night of January 21, 1897, a mob of twenty-five white men gathered in a patch of woods near Big Road in southwestern Simpson County, Kentucky. Half carried rifles and shotguns, and a few tucked pistols in their pants. Their target was George Dinning, a freed slave who'd farmed peacefully in the area for 14 years, and who had been wrongfully accused of stealing livestock from a neighboring farm. When the mob began firing through the doors and windows of Dinning's home, he fired back in self-defense, shooting and killing the son of a wealthy Kentucky family.

So began one of the strangest legal episodes in American history — one that ended with Dinning becoming the first Black man in America to win damages after a wrongful murder conviction.

Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Ben Montgomery resurrects this dramatic but largely forgotten story, and the unusual convergence of characters — among them a Confederate war hero-turned-lawyer named Bennett H. Young, Kentucky governor William O'Connell Bradley, and George Dinning himself — that allowed this unlikely story of justice to unfold in a time and place where justice was all too rare.

About the author

Ben Montgomery is author of the New York Times-bestselling 'Grandma Gatewood's Walk,' winner of a 2014 Outdoor Book Award, 'The Leper Spy,' and 'The Man Who Walked Backward,' coming fall 2018 from Little, Brown & Co. He spent most of his 20 year newspaper career as an enterprise reporter for the Tampa Bay Times. He founded the narrative journalism website Gangrey.com and helped launch the Auburn Chautauqua, a Southern writers collective.

In 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting and won the Dart Award and Casey Medal for a series called "For Their Own Good," about abuse at Florida's oldest reform school. In 2018, he won a National Headliner award for journalistic innovation for a project exploring police shootings in Florida. He was among the first fellows for Images and Voices of Hope in 2015 and was selected to be the fall 2018 T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professor at the University of Montana in Missoula.

Montgomery grew up in Oklahoma and studied journalism at Arkansas Tech University, where he played defensive back for the football team, the Wonder Boys. He worked for the Courier in Russellville, Ark., the Standard-Times in San Angelo, Texas, the Times Herald-Record in New York's Hudson River Valley and the Tampa Tribune before joining the Times in 2006. He lives in Tampa. 

History Mini-Reviews: You Never Forget Your First and Caste

These two books on American history seem to have little in common. 

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson is a history of American society based on a caste system that dehumanizes and devalues African Americans. 

You Never Forget Your First demythologizes George Washington. Both offer new ways of interpreting America, past and present.

Alexis Coe's entertaining biography of George Washington, You Never Forget Your First encompasses a wide consideration of the man. One of the most sobering considerations looked at the enslaved people he owned, including a reading of the slave schedule. The reader is fanatic. A good first biography due to its entertaining nature, sure to appeal to younger people and those who don't usually delve into biographies. I borrowed an audiobook through the local library.

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington
by Alexis Coe

Brittany Pressley (Narrator)
ISBN: 139781984842527

from the publisher

As the first woman historian to solely write an adult biography on Washington in more than a hundred years, Alexis Coe combines rigorous research and lively storytelling that will have readers--including those who thought presidential biographies were just for dads--inhaling each page.

In You Never Forget Your First, Washington's wild ambition is encouraged by his single mother and solidified by Martha Washington, the young, wealthy widow he marries. After the Revolutionary War, Washington is unanimously elected to the presidency, twice, and readers finally understand why his more educated, wealthy, and outwardly hungry Founding Fathers knew he was the only man for a seemingly impossible job. Washington loved to dance, offered unsolicited romantic advice, lost more battles than he won, and was almost felled by a life-threatening disease and a backstabbing cabinet. But he emerged successful, establishing values that ensured the survival of the United States of America to this day. Yet presidential biographers have always presented him in the same, stale way.

In a genre overdue for a shake-up, Coe highlights juicy details and skillfully differentiates between the legend and the man--and confirms she's a historian to be reckoned with

*****

Wilkerson argues that American racism has all the hallmarks of Hindi caste. She lays out her argument logically and illustrated with a multitude of examples from history, American slavery and Nazi Germany and the Hindi caste system. 

It’s heart-wrenching stuff. I am sick and disgusted by our history and current conduct as a society and as a political system. I have had to put this away for a bit. Brilliant, horrifying.

I purchased an ebook.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
by Isabel Wilkerson

Random House 
Published August 4, 2020  
ISBN: 0593230256 (ISBN13: 9780593230251)

from the publisher

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.”

In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.

Mini-Reviews: Disturbing Reads

It is amazing what Kearse knew from family stories about her family history and even more startling what she learned from her research. A terrific alternate history and memoir.

I borrowed the book from my public library.

The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family
by Bettye Kearse
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published March 24th 2020  
ISBN132860439X (ISBN13: 9781328604392)

from the publisher

For thousands of years, West African griots (men) and griottes (women) have recited the stories of their people. Without this tradition Bettye Kearse would not have known that she is a descendant of President James Madison and his slave, and half-sister, Coreen. In 1990, Bettye became the eighth-generation griotte for her family. Their credo—“Always remember—you’re a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president”—was intended to be a source of pride, but for her, it echoed with abuses of slavery, including rape and incest. 

Confronting those abuses, Bettye embarked on a journey of discovery—of her ancestors, the nation, and herself. She learned that wherever African slaves walked, recorded history silenced their voices and buried their footsteps: beside a slave-holding fortress in Ghana; below a federal building in New York City; and under a brick walkway at James Madison’s Virginia plantation. When Bettye tried to confirm the information her ancestors had passed down, she encountered obstacles at every turn. 

Part personal quest, part testimony, part historical correction, The Other Madisons is the saga of an extraordinary American family told by a griotte in search of the whole story.

I had read Things We Lost in the Fire and quickly requested this new book. I was unsettled by the early stories, then became squeamish and finally had to walk away. The horror was too much for me. That being said, I will admit that the writing is amazing.

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories
by Mariana Enriquez
Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Hogarth
Pub Date 12 Jan 2021 
ISBN 9780593134078
PRICE $27.00 (USD)

from the publisher

Following the "propulsive and mesmerizing" (New York Times Book Review) Things We Lost in the Fire comes a new collection of singularly unsettling stories, by an Argentine author who has earned comparisons to Shirley Jackson and Jorge Luis Borges.

Mariana Enriquez has been critically lauded for her unconventional and sociopolitical stories of the macabre. Populated by unruly teenagers, crooked witches, homeless ghosts, and hungry women, they walk the uneasy line between urban realism and horror. The stories in her new collection are as terrifying as they are socially conscious, and press into being the unspoken—fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history—with bracing urgency. A woman is sexually obsessed with the human heart; a lost, rotting baby crawls out of a backyard and into a bedroom; a pair of teenage girls can’t let go of their idol; an entire neighborhood is cursed to death when it fails to respond correctly to a moral dilemma.

Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with a resounding tenderness toward those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is Mariana Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.

The Story of Harriet Tubman: A Biography Book for New Readers by Christine Platt

The Story of Harriet Tubman by Christine Platt
Shown with Harriet Tubman detail on my quilt
I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet

"Stories about Dreamers JUST LIKE YOU," the back cover promises. And Harriet Tubman had big dreams and with fearless courage changed her life and the lives of over 300 other enslaved persons over ten years. And she never lost a passenger on the Underground Railroad.

During the Civil War, Tubman became a spy. Concerned for the indigent and homeless former slaves, she created a home. And she worked to secure voting rights for women.

Who would have imagined that an enslaved, illiterate field hand could make such a dramatic impact?

The Story of Harriet Tubman by Christine Platt relates Tubman's dramatic and inspirational story with learning aids including a glossary, quiz questions, timelines, and discussion questions.

Platt does not sugar-coat the horror of Harriet's life as a slave. Readers read that she was beaten and nearly died and experienced 'sleeping spells' and visions after she recovered.

"How will her courageous spirit inspire you?" the back cover asks. And that is the purpose of the biography. One may be on the lowest rung of the social ladder, seemingly without power or control over one's one life, but with vision and commitment, sometimes one does the impossible.

Colorful illustrations by Lois Lora bring the text to life.

I received a free book through Callisto Publisher's Club in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

from the publisher:

Discover the life of Harriet Tubman―a story about courage, bravery, and freedom.

Harriet Tubman became a celebrated leader in the fight to free people from slavery. Before that, she was a determined young girl who believed that everyone deserved to be free. Harriet Tubman bravely used the Underground Railroad―a network of secret routes and safe houses―to free herself and many other enslaved people. Explore how Harriet Tubman went from being a slave on a plantation in Maryland to one of the most important figures in American history. 

How will her courageous spirit inspire you? 

This Harriet Tubman biography includes:

• Path to freedom―Explore a visual timeline of Harriet’s life so you can see her progress over time.
• Helpful definitions―Discover a glossary with easy-to-understand definitions for the more advanced words and ideas in the book.
• Test your knowledge―Take a quiz to make sure you understand the who, what, where, when, why, and how of Harriet’s life.

If you’ve been searching for Harriet Tubman biographies for kids, look no further―this one has it all.

About the author:

Christine Platt is a literacy advocate and passionate activist for social justice and policy reform. A believer in the power of storytelling as a tool for social change, Christine’s literature centers on teaching race, equity, diversity and inclusion to people of all ages.

The Story of Harriet Tubman
by Christine Platt
Rockridge Press
Publication April 7, 2020
$6.99 paperback
ISBN: 978-1646111091

The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers

I don't gamble. I don't buy raffle tickets or lottery tickets or visit the casinos. To me, it's throwing money away. I harbor no dreams of "hitting it big." I don't find it intriguing and it doesn't sound like fun. Then, I'm not motivated by money, although I never had much either.

That made me standoffish about Bridgett M. Davis' memoir about her mother who for 34 years was a numbers runner working out of her Detroit home. But...it's Detroit...and I had to at least take a look at this book.

The book is a paen to Fannie Davis who used her wits and charisma--and a lot of hard work--to ensure that her children had a comfortable home and a good life.

The Davis family had moved to Detroit for the same reason as my family did: the dream of a job in the auto industry. Davis loved her father, but with frail health no regular work, he was unable to support his family.

Fannie didn't want her kids growing up in a vermin-ridden slum house. So, Davis's mom had a choice: work in the home of a white person, for little pay, and away from her own family all day, or get creative.

She got creative. And built a business.

This memoir offers a good understanding of Detroit in the 1950s and 1960s, filled with specifics and local color. One learns the history of numbers in the African American community, it's economic importance, and how it works.

Davis talks about the secretiveness about her mom's work, how the legal lottery impacted the numbers, and her desire to get away from Detroit for college and work.

Above all, Fannie Davis shines as her daughter paints a larger-than-life image of her mom.

I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers
by Bridgett M. Davis
Little, Brown and Company
Pub Date 29 Jan 2019
ISBN 9780316558730
PRICE $28.00 (USD)

The House of Rougeaux by Jenny Jaeckel

The House of Rougeaux by Jenny Jaeckel is the story of a family from it's enslaved African ancestor to mid-century America, touching on the African-American experience over time, including slavery, cannon fodder in wartime, the victim of hate crimes, but also traces the inherent skills, intelligence, and resilience that crosses generations.

The story skips through time and place (Martinique, Montreal, New York City) in a non-linear presentation, with some generational stories more compelling than others, but overall an interesting read and a thoughtful look at oppression racism throughout North American history.

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy as a LibraryThing win from Raincloud Press.

Hardcover $26.95
ISBN 978-1-941203-24-8

from the publisher:

Following echoes between generations which defy normal time and space, a multilayered narrative celebrates the ROUGEAUX family triumphs while exposing the injustices of their trials. It begins with Iya, born in Africa in the 1700s, and brought to the Caribbean island of Martinique as a slave, and her two children, Adunbi and Abeje, who grow up on a sugar estate. The siblings endure because of the kindness of fellow bondsmen and their uncommon abilities. A grandchild becomes emancipated in Quebec City, great-grandchildren find their way in Montreal, a great-great-grandchild runs off to Philadelphia, and another risks everything in New York City. As each new member of the family takes the spotlight, a fresh piece of the puzzle is illuminated until at last, a homecoming uplifts them all.

Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement

Fifty years ago the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed into law.

Most know the name, legacy, and speeches of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.

And most have heard of his wife Coretta Scott King and activist Rosa Parks. But what about the countless other women involved with the Civil Rights Movement? Those who did the grunt work, who put their lives on the line, who strove to achieve what the culture said they could not do?



Getting Personal

When I made my quilt I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet I was inspired by the Abolitionists and Civil Rights who I encountered in reading Freedom's Daughters by Lynne Olson. My embroidered quilt includes an image and quote from women who made a difference but are not well known. The quilt appeared in several American Quilt Society juried shows.

I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet at the Grand Rapids AQS show

When I saw Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women and the Civil Rights Movement by Janet Dewart Bell on NetGalley I quickly requested it. I was interested in meeting more of these courageous, but lesser-known women.

Going Deeper

The author interviewed and collected oral histories of nine women for this book:

• Leah Chase, whose restaurant was a meeting place for organizers, was a collector of African American art and was commemorated by Pope Benedict XVI for her service.
• Dr. June Jackson Christmas broke race barriers to gain admittance to Vassar, spoke out against the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, was the only black female student in her medical school class, and fought housing discrimination to change New York City Law. 
• Aileen Hernandez became an activist at Howard University in the 1940s, was the first female and black to serve on the EEOC in 1964, and was the first African American president of NOW.
• Diane Nash chaired the Nashville Sit-In Movement and coordinated important Freedom Rides. 
• Judy Richardson joined the Students for a Democratic Society at Swarthmore College before leaving to join SNCC. She founded a bookstore and press for publishing and promoting black literature and was an associate producer for the acclaimed PBS series Eyes on the Prize.
• Kathleen Cleaver was active in SNCC, the Black Power Movement, the Black Panthers, and the Revolutionary People's Communication Network.
• Gay McDougall was the first to integrate Agnes Scott College; she worked for international human rights and was recognized with a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
• Gloria Richardson was an older adult during the movement, with a militant edge; Ebony magazine called her the Lady General of Civil Rights.
• Myrlie Evers's husband Medgar was the first NAACP field secretary in Mississippi. She was officially a secretary, but she 'did everything' and later championed gender equality.

Diane Nash. "Problems lie not as much in our action as in our inaction."

I was familiar with Diane Nash, who appears on my quilt. I only knew Myrlie Evers-Williams by association to her martyred husband Medgar.

For me, Evers' statement was most moving, revealing more about her emotional life and feelings. Her husband Medgar, a war veteran, was the first African American to apply to Ole Miss when he was recruited to work for the NAACP.

Myrlie organized events, researched for speeches, and even wrote some speeches while raising their family and welcoming visitors such as Thurgood Marshall to her home for dinner. It was a lot for a young woman. She is quoted as saying,
"It was an exciting but frightening time, because you stared at death every day...But there was always hope, and there were always people who surrounded you to give you a sense of purpose."

Medgar knew he was a target and encouraged her to believe in her strength.

After her husband was murdered in front of their own home, the NAACP would call on her to rally support and raise money, with no compensation. Meanwhile, she felt anger and outrage at what had happened. Medgar had dreamt about relocating to California some day, so Myrlie and her children moved.

Thinking back on the movement, Myrlie recognizes the struggle women had to be recognized for their work. And she bristles at being pigeonholed as Medgar's widow instead of being recognized for her accomplishments. It is wonderful that Myrlie was asked to deliver the prayer before President Obama's inaugural address.

Faith and trust and believe she ends, possibilities await. Be open. Be adventurous. Have a little fun.

That is good advice to us all. But coming from a woman whose husband made the ultimate sacrifice, it is an affirmation of great importance.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement
by Janet Dewart Bell
The New Press
Pub Date 08 May 2018
ISBN 9781620973356
PRICE $33.99 (CAD)

Pauli Murray: Poet, Protester, Priest

I first read about Pauli Murray while researching women abolitionists and Civil Rights leaders for my quilt I Will Lift My Voice Like A Trumpet. I was pleased to be granted access to the e-galley of Pauli's memoir, first published in 1987, now available in a new edition. The forward is by Patricia Bell-Scott, author of The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Justice.

Pauli was born in 1910 and was raised by her school teacher aunt. Pauli was a gifted student who attended Hunter College in New York City. During the Depression, she found employment with the WPA as a teacher and began to publish her poetry and a novel. She found a mentor in Stephen Vincent Benet.

During the war years and early 1950s Pauli became involved with Civil Rights, challenging segregation, and formed a relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1941 she began her law studies at Howard University and helped to form CORE and the development of passive resistance.

Harvard law school would not accept Pauli based on her sex. She attended the University of California Boalt School of Law. Her thesis was on equal opportunity in employment. With her color and sex against her, Pauli had trouble making a living practicing law.

In 1956 she published a book on her family history, Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family. She taught law in Ghana for several years. Back in the US she resumed work in Civil Rights and became active as a feminist and was an organizer for NOW.

In her later life, Pauli worked for equal opportunity for women as church leaders. She became the first African American woman ordained to the Episcopal priesthood.

Pauli saw huge changes in her lifetime. At her birth, she was labeled colored but chose to use the designation Negro. During the rise of black power movements, she resisted the term black, resenting its lowercase nomenclature. She was a pacifist and anti-segregationist who had trouble with the rise of Black Power movements and the younger generation's demands for separate campus organizations. Early she was attracted to Socialism and spent her last years as in the priesthood.

The memoir is filled with details about the work for Civil Rights prior to the more known stories of Rosa Park and Martin Luther King, Jr. There are vivid descriptions of traveling in the Jim Crow south, the closed doors to her race and her sex, the poverty she and her educated family endured.

Pauli's voice is direct and open. She admits to her ignorance and mistakes, her learning curves and limitations. Her accomplishments speak for her determination and courage.

It was wonderful to hear, in her own voice, Pauli's amazing life.

I received a free galley from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Pauli Murray on my quilt I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet

I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet by Nancy A. Bekofske

From the publisher:

Poet, memoirist, labor organizer, and Episcopal priest, Pauli Murray helped transform the law of the land. Arrested in 1940 for sitting in the whites-only section of a Virginia bus, Murray propelled that life-defining event into a Howard law degree and a fight against “Jane Crow” sexism. Her legal brilliance was pivotal to the overturning of Plessy v. Ferguson, the success of Brown v. Board of Education, and the Supreme Court’s recognition that the equal protection clause applies to women; it also connected her with such progressive leaders as Eleanor Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshall, Betty Friedan, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Now Murray is finally getting long-deserved recognition: the first African American woman to receive a doctorate of law at Yale, her name graces one of the university’s new colleges. Handsomely republished with a new introduction, Murray’s remarkable memoir takes its rightful place among the great civil rights autobiographies of the twentieth century.

Learn more about Murray at The Pauli Murray Project at the Duke Human Rights Center.

Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage
Pauli Murray, Patricia Bell-Scott (Introduction by)
Liveright/W. W. Norton
On Sale Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 9781631494581, 1631494589
Paperback $22.95

"What's important is the past": Absalom's Daughters by Suzanne Feldman

In the Jim Crow South of the 1950s two girls find their reflection in each other's faces. Although one is black and one white they share the same father-- 'skirt-chasing, adulteratin' white trash'--who has abandoned both families. A rumor comes to town that their father is to inherit a legacy, and being 'progeny' the girls are encouraged to find their father and demand their inheritance.

Sixteen-year-old Judith is white, uneducated, and devastatingly poor. What she possesses is a beautiful talent for singing. Hearing the Negro music aired from New York City--only at night due to its scandalous sexuality--Judith longs to go to New York and become a famous singer.

Cassie, fifteen and cinnamon in color, lives with her grandmother and mother, a hardworking laundress. Grandmother determined that her daughter--and plans for her granddaughter--to take white lovers with the expectation of diluting their African blood until they can pass as white. Cassie's mother hopes to spare her daughter this indignation, encouraging her to follow Judith's quest for the father and leave town.

The story of the girls' road trip across the south is delightful reading, episodic with wonderful characters and twists and memorable characters.

Early in the story Cassie meets Ovid Beale who tells her that mules 'useter be colored folk'; it is easier for colored folk to turn into a mule because they are 'already half one thing and half another.' And it is this theme of passing between two worlds, the legacy of slavery making colored folks black but not black, appearing white while being deemed legally black, that informs the story.

On their travels each sister acts out different roles according to the expectations of the audience and what they need to do to survive. Cassie acts the black servant to Judith, then tries passing as white, learning about herself and deciding on her future. Cassie learns that what is important is the past, to never forget her roots.

It took time for me to get hooked to the story, then it picked up considerably. The characters are interesting and Feldman has an original take on the timeless theme of race and identity in America.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Absalom's Daughters
by Suzanne Feldman
Henry Holt & Co,
Publication July 5, 2016
$26 hard cover
ISBN: 9781627794534

Tales and Legends, History and Truth: Daisy Turner's Kin by Jane C. Beck

Jane C. Beck, founder of the Vermont Folklife Center, has preserved the remarkable journey of one African American family from the shores of West Africa to the hills of Vermont.

Daisy Turner's stories covered 178 years of her family history, her father's stories dating back to his father's life in Africa. Beck spent several years interviewing Daisy, resulting in the 1990 Peabody Award winning documentary film Journey's End: Memories and Traditions of Daisy Turner and Her Family.

After Daisy's death Beck continued her research, investigating the authenticity and recorded history behind the stories.

Daisy's father Alexander (Alec) Turner (1845-1923) told tales of the family history every night after dinner. His father Alessi was the grandson of a Yoruban chief. His mother was a European woman who survived a shipwreck off the coast of Nigeria. Alessi traded with Europeans; around 1830 traders kidnapped him. After a torturous and eventful passage he landed in America and was illegally sold into slavery to the wealthy and sporting Jack Gouldin of Port Royal, Virginia. Gouldin made Alessi his champion in boxing and cockfighting. Alessi married Rose, who was Cherokee and was knowledgeable in herbal remedies.

Alec felt a strong connection to the Gouldin family; he later named his daughter for the kind granddaughter of his master. But he longed for liberty. During the Civil War he ran away when he was fourteen, and took the name Turner. He was mentored by surgeon and Northern Abolitionist Ferdinand Dayton. As contraband Alec could not join the army but worked as Dayton's personal servant and orderly, carrying wounded men from the field of battle to the hospital. After the war Dayton helped Alec get an education and found him employment. Alec fell in love with a frightened, newly free fourteen-year-old refugee, Sally Early, and she became his wife.

Alec's work took him to a slate mine in Maine and to the lumber mills of Grafton, Vermont, where he established bought land and built his house.  He employed the knowledge gained from his plantation life, patterning his home on the Gouldin manor.

The Turners were extraordinary people. Alec had pride and charisma and ingenuity. He was resourceful, and his strength was legendary. His work ethic and honesty garnered respect from white society. He held a deep Christian faith and taught his children to face trials with "contentment and understanding".

The Turner women were also hard working, proud, and upright. Alec's wife Sally has a strength beyond imagining. And she could write poetry. Daisy learned her facility with words from her parents; she could recite from memory improvisational poems she had created years before.

Turner heirs include Rev. Veronica Lanier, the first African American Baptist minister in New England. During the 20th c the family demanded equality under the law and continued to break down racial barriers.

The Turner family will amaze readers.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Daisy Turner's Kin: An African American Family Saga
by Jane C. Beck
University of Illinois Press
Publication date July 15, 2015
ISBN: 9780252080791
$24.95 paperback

Songs of My Life: The Biography of Margaret Walker, Poet and Author of "Jubilee"

Growing up my mom would leave the books she was reading around the house and I would pick them up. Often I sat and read them through. One of those books was Jubilee, published in 1964.

I had not thought about that book in years and I knew nothing about the author Margaret Walker. When I saw a biography on Margaret Walker on NetGalley I requested it and am so glad I did. The book is short, richly illustrated, and fascinating. It is appropriate for young adult readers.

Margaret's father was a Methodist clergyman who had studied at Tuskegee Institute with classmates Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.  Her mother Marion Dozier taught music.

Margaret was a precocious child. For her ninth birthday she wrote an operetta which was performed by the local children. At ten years she was placed in the seventh grade. Margaret began writing poetry at age twelve. And by fifteen she was attending college. At Northwestern she began writing her Civil War Novel Jubilee.

At the time of her graduation the country was in the Depression. Margaret was hired by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writer's Project. Her office was near that of Poetry magazine and she connected with the editor, other writers, and most importantly novelist Richard Wright. Wright introduced her to modern literature, local writers and writers groups, and critiqued her poetry.

It was a big breakthrough was when she was accepted into the University of Iowa and their new Iowa Writer's Workshop. Stephen Vincent Benet was so impressed with her submission For My People to the Yale Series of Younger Poets he strong-armed the judges panel to give her the award; he said it was perfect.

Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a
bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second
generation full of courage issue forth: let a people
loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full of
healing and strength of final clenching be the pulsing
in our spirits and our blood. Let the martial songs be
written, let the dirges disappear. Let a race of men now
rise and take control.

At twenty-seven she married Firnist James Alexander, a disabled military veteran with little formal education but who was intelligent and supportive of her career.

Her novel Jubilee had its roots in stories she heard from her grandmother Elvira Ware Dozier. She learned all she could about the Wares, even locating her grandmother's youngest sister. Receiving the Ford Fellowship allowed her to travel for her research on the novel. But from 1955 to 1962 she published nothing, focusing on family and working to support them.

It is humanly impossible for a woman who is a wife and mother to work on a regular job and write. Margaret Walker, "How I Wrote Jubilee"

In 1961 she she returned to Iowa to complete her PhD in English with her novel as her dissertation. It provided a haven from the turmoil in the country. Her Jackson, MS neighbor Medgar Evans was assassinated in front of his home. She was shaken by the assassinations of Rev. King, Malcolm X, and President Kennedy; the Birmingham church bombing; the murders of civil rights workers; the marches and protests. She was inspired to write a series of civil rights poems.

Her dissertation adviser directed her to the songs of slavery, negro spirituals, and other folk songs which would come to inform her novel. By early 1965 she had the first draft finished, and after a few months of serious revising and cutting she obtained her degree--and a contract from Houghton Mifflin. It was the first novel about the Southern African American experience in the 19th c., and the first from a female view point.

The award-winning book was a best seller. Margaret went on to establish the first black studies program in the country. She created the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival which hosted prominent African American female writers.

In 1976 Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of an American Family was published and won the Pulitzer and National Book Award, spawned the first mini-series Roots, and made Haley a household name. Two lawsuits were taken against Haley for plagiarism. Margaret saw fifteen scenes, six characters, and 150 verbatim expressions from her novel in Roots. She did not win her case, but Haley did admit to plagiarism of The African by Harold Courlander and settled out of court.

Margaret continued to receive awards. She became active in politics, supporting Jesse Jackson for the presidency. She wrote a biography of Richard Wright.

I am so glad to learn more about Margaret Walker. Why have we 'forgotten' her while Haley is still a household name? I have to put Jubilee on my to-read shelf. Its been fifty years and its time to reread it.

Note:
The book has numerous photographs. I noted many taken by photographer Roland L. Freeman, who wrote the very interesting book A Communion of the Spirits: African American Quilters, Preservers, and their Stories which I have in my library.

Read poems by Margaret Walker at The Poetry Foundation and the Internet Poetry Archive.

Songs of My Life: A Biography of Margaret Walker
by Carolyn Brown
University Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781628461473
$20 hardcover
Publication Date November 4, 2014

And Still We Rise: Race, Culture, and Visual Conversations

"As an artist, I strongly believe art has the capacity to touch the spirit, engage, educate, and heal in ways that words alone cannot." Carolyn L. Mazloomi

The origin and use of quilts has always been about warmth and protection. Quilts have also always been about art and expression. Quilts have been created to express political affiliation, to raise funds for causes, and to communicate the ideals and goals of various groups and social causes.
(For an overview see: http://worldquilts.quiltstudy.org/americanstory/engagement/awareness-activism)

And Still We Rise consists of 97 quilts by 69 artists that express the totality of the African American experience. In her opening essay Carolyn Mazloomi explains the genesis of the quilt exhibition: using the accessible and visual medium of quilting, artists explore 400 years of history, from 1619 when the first kidnapped and enslaved Africans landed on American soil to Trayvon Martin's murder.

Each quilt merits a full page and a detail illustration accompanied by the artist's statement. Unlike many "coffee table quilt books" this is not a book to flip through lightly. The quilts incorporate diverse techniques that merit study. The subject matter and story behind the quilts are thoughtful and passionately presented. The diversity of the subject matter is extraordinary, and very personal to the quilt artist.

The quilts are presented in historical order beginning with 20 and Odd  concerning the 1619 arrival of the first enslaved Africans in America. The Dutch ship The White Lion battled a Spanish ship and captured "20 and odd" enslaved Africans. The White Lion landed at Jamestown, Virginia and traded the Africans for food and supplies.  The quilt by Carolyn Crump shows the ship hull made of African bodies.

The quilt subjects include the expected: Crispus Attucks who died in the Boston Massacre; enslaved first American poetess Phillis Wheatley; Nat Turner rebellion organizer; the Amistad case; Harriet Tubman; and John Brown. Other subjects appear that are not covered in typical American textbooks: Griot Lucy Terry Prince; Levi Coffin who established the Underground Railroad; political activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper; political activist Ida B. Wells; the first black U.S. Naval ship captain Robert Smalls; Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks; and the first African-American Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Benjamin O. Davis Sr. Iconic African American achievements in music, athletics, and the arts appear.

The artists address the dark side of the African American experience. Ironic by Sandra Hankins portrays the three men murdered in Mississippi in 1964 whose story was central to One Mississippi, Two Mississippi  by Carol V. R. George which I reviewed at the beginning of the month. The Scottsboro Boys: The Arrest by Patricia Montgomery commemorates the nine Negro young men who were wrongfully arrested and condemned to death. Other quilts present The Freedom Riders, Martin Luther King, the bombing of the Birmingham 16th Street Baptist Church, and the signing of the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

There are quilts to celebrate achievements and firsts: the first all African-American flight crew; the election of President Barack Obama; the appointment of Condolezza Rice; Brigadier General Hazel Q. Johnson-Brown; and astronaut Mae C. Jemison.

Reading the book, confronted by the quilts, brings a roller coaster ride of emotions. One is educated, one remembers, one mourns, and one hopes. Arriving at the 2012 Trayvon Could be My Son by Dorothy Burge brings a heavy awareness of current turmoil and the inequalities of our society and justice system.

The last quilt Visionaries of Our Freedom: Quadricentnnial: The First Four Hundred Years of African Presence in America by Sherry E. Whetstone-McCall is a crazy quilt collage in the shape of the continent of Africa. The artist states, "Let that anniversary be marked by the telling of stories that recognize and celebrate the perseverance and triumph of the African-American people. Let the stories inspire the world to take courageous steps for freedom today and for generations to come."

I received a free book from Schiffer in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

And Still We Rise: Race, Culture, and Visual Conversations
Carolyn L. Mazloomi
Schiffer Publishing
$34.99 hard cover
ISBN: 9870764349287

Healing Quiltmaking and Jim Crow Segretation: "The Colored Car" by Jean Alicia Elster

Last weekend we visited Leon & Lulu's wonderful home decor store for their annual Books & Author's fair. We visited with 18 Metro Detroit writers of all ages and genres. 10% of the proceeds from book sales went to the Oakland County Literacy Council so of course we had to buy some books.

One of the books I found was Jean Alicia Elster's "The Colored Car" based on her own grandmother's experiences growing up in Detroit and traveling from Detroit to Tennessee in 1922. Ms Elster garnered stories and recipes from her grandmother.

The Ford family lives in Detroit where Douglas runs a saw mill and his wife May uses her home economics education to put up food, sew clothes, and run the household. Several family recipes are included in the text. They live in a working class neighborhood of immigrants. May grew up in Tennessee and has not been back in nine years. There had been a terrible flood in her hometown and May decides it is time to go home and see her family again. She decides to bring her young daughters along.

Her eldest daughter Patsy is 12 years old, just taking over her brother's family chores now he is helping in his dad's business. The train trip seems a big adventure. Her mother has sewn new clothes for the girls, and they wear white gloves for traveling. They sit in upholstered seats and are served delicate sandwiches. But in Cincinnati they must change trains to ride in the "colored car". It has no cushioned seats and a stove spews out smoke. Patsy resists getting on. She had never encountered the Jim Crow laws of the south before.

How Patsy deals with her collision with a new reality is the focus of the second half of the book. Her grandmother gives her fabric to start her first quilt, a Fence Rail quilt. She tells her granddaughter that she is to put all her pain into the quilt. When the quilt is completed she will be free of the bad memories.

Patsy has been profoundly disturbed by her experience. The family faces another crisis but things turns out okay. There is drama in the book, but nothing to give a child nightmares. Ms Elster explores serious issues in context of a charming family's life.

As I was talking to the author I learned that quiltmaking played a role in the book. How cool was that? She was not a quiltmaker herself, but her family had many.

To make the Fence Rail quilt Patsy's grandmother gave her fabric to cut into 1 1/2" x 6 1/2" pieces. Patsy was given a brass thimble and shown how to use a running stitch to sew the quilt. Once the blocks were made she set them together and quilted the with a running stitch. What happens to the quilt? Read the book and find out!

For an interview with the author visit SORMAG"S Blog.

As Ms Elster notes in the forward to her book, the history of civil rights can be traced through lawsuits against the railroads. One early crusader was the formidable journalist and activist Ida B. Wells who appears on my quilt I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet. Like Patsy, Ida resisted being sent to "the colored car" and started a campaign. Read more about her here:
http://www.biography.com/people/ida-b-wells-9527635#later-career
http://people.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/AAIH/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

On a personal note, my mother told me of her first train ride from Kane, PA to Albany, NY to see her grandparents. Mom was only five and had never seen a person of color before and the porters were African American. She asked my grandmother, "Why is that man brown?" My grandmother wanted to end the discussion and told her "Because he is made of chocolate." Well, my mom went up and bit the man on the hand! It was quite a shock to all involved.

Perhaps biting that poor porter taught Mom that we all have the same color blood; we all feel the same pain.

Americans carry a heavy legacy.

The Colored Car
Jean Alicia Elster
Wayne State University Press
ISBN-13:978081336069
$14.95

Sending my Heart to Lancaster, PA

This week I shipped my quilt "I Will Lift My Voice Like A Trumpet" to Paducah, KY. They will then take it to Lancaster, PA to appear in the American Quilt Society quilt show there next month.

I Will Lift My Voice Like A Trumpet when it appeared in a quilt show in Muskegon, MI

I had only entered one juried show before--the World Quilt and Textile Show which travels to different venues. My Barbie Quilt appeared in their Lansing, MI show. I have some quilt pics on My Quilt Place (http://myquiltplace.com/profile/NancyBekofske), which is part of the AQS website, and received an email from AQS inviting me to submit quilts for consideration. I knew that this quilt needed to be seen, and submitted my entry.

It was exciting to find an acceptance letter in the mail. Then my stomach flipped over and I decided I was not sure my quilt was 'up to' coming out in public. Especially I hated the binding job I had done, which was too thick and awkward.

I had recently found a great binding tutorial online, and it motivated me to rebind my quilt. (quilt.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2hWQ5-ZccE&feature=share)  I spent a day removing the original binding. Then another day preparing the new binding, another to sew the binding on, and two more to hand sew down the back side of the binding. The new narrower binding made the quilt look SO MUCH BETTER!

And yet taking my quilt to the post office, I felt nervous. Would it get lost out there? Would people see all the technical flaws in workmanship? Hopefully, the message of the quilt, honoring the sometimes forgotten women who risked everything to make their voices heard for freedom, is what viewers will remember.

After learning Redwork embroidery by making Michael Buckingham's pattern for The Presidents quilt, I had designed a quilt of the First Ladies. At that time I was disturbed to realize that, at that time, only European Caucasians were represented on these quilts, and I wanted to do something that celebrated America's broader and more inclusive heritage. I considered various themes before emailing a local college professor of African American history. She told me about a book, Freedom's Daughters, which she used in her course.

 The President's Quilt, on which I learned Redwork. I added a border of new and traditional blocks.

Detail of my Remember The Ladies, my original quilt of the First Ladies and my second Redwork Quilt

I had been reading Life Up Thy Voice by Mark Perry, about Sarah and Angelina Grimke', and had already read about Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, and Harriet Tubman. Lynne Olson's book, Freedom's Daughters, The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970 was just what I needed to read. The stories of these women, many of whom I had never heard of, were inspiring. I was too young to understand the battles that had occurred in the early Sixties. I did not read newspapers, or watch tv news, or hear about current events in the classroom when I was ten years old. It was not until the Detroit riots the summer I turned sixteen that I became aware of Civil Rights and the fight for equality in America.

So this quilt was a part of my self-education as I read about these women and designed the quilt.

Now it is out of my hands, and open to the world.