We R Listening

  The first time I encountered Toni Morrison was in my English class, senior year. I read her book, Beloved which tells the story of a woman who was formerly enslaved but at the time the book takes place, she is living in a post slavery America. I am particularly thankful I got to read this book in a classroom setting, as it is a difficult book to read. I say this because naturally a book discussing the realities of slavery is going to be graphic, but also because the story is not told chronologically. The lack of chronology in the book sounds counter intuitive, you’d think a book about a historical event would put those events in order. However, this is what makes this book so remarkable and memorable; as I was told in my English class, the lack of chronology symbolizes the broken narrative that accompanies our country’s history of slavery. In more simple, less book reporty, language: the story being out of order demonstrates how so many people who were enslaved had important storie

  When I think of Rosa Parks I immediately think of her courageous refusal to give up her seat on the bus to a White person. What I didn’t realize was that Rosa Parks was one of many Black women who did this. Today’s edition of Factual Friday (or maybe I should rename it to “Women We Didn’t Learn About in School”) is about Claudette Colvin; a woman who refused to give up her seat 9 months before Rosa Parks in 1955.                                                                                        (Photo from NPR.org) According to NPR.org, “there were a number of women who refused to give up their seats on the same bus system. Most of the women were quietly fined, and no one heard much more. Colvin was the first to really challenge the law” (NPR.org). At the time, Claudette was only 15 years old. Take a moment to really internalize that, 15 years old. It’s easy to brush past that, you may think her age is not an important detail in this story but I think otherwise. It is both unbe

  The first time I had ever heard of the Stonewall Riots was my freshman year of college so for our younger readers, I’ll fill you in. On June 28th, 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village, NY. According to History.com, “ The raid sparked a riot among bar patrons and neighborhood residents as police roughly hauled employees and patrons out of the bar, leading to six days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement outside the bar... The Stonewall Riots served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world” (History.com). However, we can’t talk about the Stonewall Riots without mentioning this week’s star of Factual Friday: Marsha P. Johnson. (Photo credits to ucnj.org) Marsha was born as Malcolm Michaels Jr. on August 24th, 1945. After graduating high school and a quick stint in the U.S. Navy, Marsha moved to Greenwich Village to do some so

  Most of us are probably familiar with the Little Rock Nine, the first group of Black students to attend, and integrate, Little Rock Central High School. However, it wasn’t until today that I learned who was the brains behind this movement. Buckle up ladies, today we’re learning about the life and legacy of the courageous Daisy Bates. (Photo credits to blackpast.org)      Daisy’s dedication to the Civil Rights Movement was in part, to avenge her mother who was murdered under racist pretenses. When Daisy was 15 years old, she and her (future) husband moved to Little Rock, AR and started their newspaper entitled, The Arkansas Weekly . At the time this was one of the only Black run newspapers that concentrated on the Civil Rights Movement and it was distributed throughout the entire state with Daisy at the forefront as editor of the paper.      In addition to being editor of The Arkansas Weekly , Daisy wa