Continuing with Black History Month.
A quick personal story: Two things influenced me to study history – The Pony Express and the 54th Massachusetts. To this day these are still major influences in my life and one day I would love to stand at the monument for the 54th in Boston, while at the same time, travel the Pony Express Trail.
As this is a month to teach and emphasize Black History – which Persons of Color have influenced you or your life.
I was 11 years old living in Prince Georges County, MD, 13 miles northeast of Washington, DC when Martin Luther King was assassinated. NE DC exploded. The riots that followed came within a few miles of our house. It was many years before those scars were erased from the neighborhoods.
Just after getting out of Vietnam my dad ended up on the LA Fire Department – six months later the Watts riots broke out. He rarely talks about it, but between the war and the riots changed some of his perspectives. Almost 40 years later he was the LA Riots … the city still holds the scars of both.
We were living in Ft. Worth, TX and hubby was running air freight from Dallas to the LA airport. The hotel where the drivers stayed was a block from where Denny was dragged from his truck and beaten. Him and his partner were told to shelter in place until after the riots.
Geeze that’s a little to close!
I ended up sitting by the phone for days, just waiting. When we heard a firefighter had been injured … my stepmom called to let me know dad was fine. Not even a year later he was at the Malibu Fires he’s had an interesting career.
LA has a very diverse history, good and bad. IT has moments of forward thinking then WTF situations. Hopefully *crosses fingers* we’ll learn … one day.
It might sound strange but I grew up watching Western television shows with my dad. When the Magnificent 7 television series debuted, I was interested in Nathan Jackson, a former slave. That interest led me to study black history and appreciated the struggles of the slaves. As for real persons of color, Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama. I just finished reading books that both women wrote. Born in 1951, I see the civil rights movement through a different viewpoint from what I remember growing up white.
I have Michelle’s book on my to read list, I’m looking forward to it!