I was one of the more than 500,000 persons attending the DC Women’s March. For me, the March was personal in honor of my mother, Naomi. My mom was born in Mt. Gilead, NC, a small town of less than 1500 persons in rural North Carolina. Growing up in the Jim Crow South, she longed for a better life as discrimination was rampant and the way of life there. Like so many Blacks living in the south during that era, she, as a young woman, migrated north, first to Buffalo, NY and later to Baltimore. During her lifetime, she experienced various forms of discrimination such as not being able to shop in stores due to the color of her skin, sit and eat in at many restaurants, live in many areas of Baltimore City, purchase homes in certain areas due to restrictive covenants preventing Blacks from living and buying homes in some areas. And this was after she moved to Baltimore. My mother fought for many health care reforms as an employee and later as a retiree of the … [Read more...] about I Marched the DC Women’s March in Honor of My Mother
Archives for January 2017
Remembering Barack Obama’s First Inauguration
On this Inauguration day, I choose to reflect on President Obama’s first inauguration on January 20, 2009 and what it meant to me. It was a blistering cold day with temperature in the 20’s. I attended with a college friend and sorority sister. We were so excited that we could hardly sleep the night before. My friend wanted to get there very early to make sure we had a good spot. We were not fortunate to have tickets with seats. We settled on arriving at 7:25 am.—a little later than the original 5:00 am time my friend suggested. The actual swearing in was not until 12 noon. The time passed by effortlessly. We talked to those in the crowd as though they were old friends. As I looked around the crowd, I saw faces of all races, ethnicities and ages. I recall an older black woman who came from Florida. Her son brought her a ticket and paid for hotel room in November. When she had to have back surgery, her son assumed she would not be able to attend. She was determined to make … [Read more...] about Remembering Barack Obama’s First Inauguration
Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 2017 Trump Era
On December 31, 2016, I attended a watch night church service where Rev. Dr. William Barber led the service. During the service, I heard a rousing account from singer, activist and song writer Joan Baez about an event with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It bears relevance for today. Baez tells a story from when she was traveling with Dr. King and he fell asleep, making him very late for a speech. The other ministers and activists could not wake him. They asked Joan Baez to go in into the bedroom and sing a song to Dr. King. As Baez finished her song, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”, Dr. King raised his voice and said, “Joan, sing another one”. Today we need to waken the inner voice of Dr. King to fight the battles that lay ahead of us with the new Trump Administration. As we celebrate the legacy of Dr. King on his holiday and birthday, we are reminded, as King once wrote from his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” And we … [Read more...] about Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 2017 Trump Era