A generation beyond enslavement and into the twentieth century, my family sought freedom’s promise, something more than the American Dream. Gathered are fragments of stories told on the way of saying something else---stories of nation, family, and the tenaciousness of will
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We also invite you to share your stories and meditations, and to ask for those stories not yet given.
References, Resources, and Copyright
- Marion Post Wolcott, an American photographer, was commissioned by the Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information, during the Great Depression, 1938 – 1942. Wolcott, M. P. (2008). The photographs of Marion Post Wolcott. London: Giles.
- Shotgun house, a common southern housing architectural style during the 1920’s, had a rectangular and narrow shape with front and back doors in straight alignment with one another.
- 1928 Florida hurricane, also known as the Okeechobee Hurricane, was a category 4-5 storm, killed at least 2,500 people in the state, of these nearly 30% were black. Victims were also buried (set afire) in mass graves due to the heat and health considerations. This is also the storm that Zora Neale Hurston references in her book, Their Eyes were Watching God. See also Nicole S. Brochu, Florida’s forgotten storm: 1928 Hurricane. The Sun Sentinel (September 14, 2003).; See Eliot Kleinberg (2016) Black Cloud: The Deadly Hurricane of 1928. Florida Historical Society Press.
- 1945 Homestead Hurricane hit Homestead, Florida on September 15. 1945. Wind gusts up to 150 mph, and sustained winds from 130 mph to 140 mph have been reported. This was also my aunts' birthday, who was rendered unconscious by flying debris, she was 14 on that day.
- The Great War: World War I or the First World War. Fought in Europe from July 28, 1914 until November 11, 1918, and the United States entered the work in April 1917. It is estimated that 350,00 to 400,00 black men were enlisted in the U.S. Army.
- The 1918 Flu Epidemic, also known as The Spanish Flu, affected over 500 million people, and global death toll is estimated at between 17 and 50 million globally, and up to 675,000 Americans died. See John M. Berry, The great influenza: The story of the deadliest plague in history. Viking Press (2004).
- Camp Devens, U.S Army base built in 1917, located in Massachusetts, was at the epicenter of the virulent second wave of the pandemic. See Catherine Arnold, Pandemic: Eyewitness accounts of the greatest medical holocaust in modern history. St. Martin Press (2018). Byerly C. R. (2010). The U.S. military and the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. Public health reports (Washington, D.C. 1974), 125 Suppl3, 82–91.
A Colored Girl Speaks Podcast Team
- Andrea Hunter, Essayist and Producer
- Tiera Chiama Moore Narrator, Co-Producer and Vocal Artist
- Vernonia Thornton, Announcer
- Jamonica Brown and Deanna Floyd, Production Assistants
