Three Cents

Recently in class we watched a tremendous documentary entitled Goin' to Chicago, a story of Mississippi sharecroppers who escaped the Jim Crow South for better opportunities in Chicago during The Great Migration Era...and of some who chose to stay and fight. 

I hope all (at least the ones who weren't texting, sleeping, or distracting others) of my students can come to appreciate the difficult past of African American sharecroppers (and of their own ancestors and parents)  and the sacrifices made for the freedoms and educational opportunities they now enjoy.

THESE SACRIFICES MUST NOT BE TAKEN FOR GRANTED!

One of the stories (Mildred Fleming of Issaquena County, Mississippi) was especially poignant to me...

"I was born right down the road and I looked down the road and my mind goes back to when you just didn't have anything...when you go to school all day without anything to eat. And they would have a turnip patch for the school cafeteria for the cooks and that's how we would eat.

And most times in the wintertime we had just 3 cents to buy one box of milk...and by the time we came home we were so hungry that whatever was there to eat that's what we would eat.  Usually, it was a pot of beans.

But the last year of school my momma was sick, so that meant I had to come home and then I had to cook before I could eat...and my stomach is tearing up inside by you trying to cook.

And you know you can't eat while you're cooking 'cuz it gotta be enough for everybody else."

There is something about going back to your (even if its only in your memory...imagination...your parent's stories) home.

Please go back in your mind to those you never knew and say "thank you".

Then, tell those who sacrifice for you today how much you love them and live your life to make them proud.