A little black girl I keep thinking about tonight.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

It was 1966 Chicago. I was nine and called to the school office. I was told many new students were
being enrolled that day and I was to escort them to the right room. The school was primarily
Latino and White. The little girl and the other new children were Black.

I escorted her and her Mom to the door, she peeked in the window, saw all those white and Latino
faces looking back at her and she started to cry. Her Mom took her by the shoulders, looked her in the eye
and said "young lady you walk in there with your head held high, no more tears, now off you go." And so she did.
Her Mom and I were a few steps away when her mom started to cry FOR her daughter. Such courage.

Today I think of that little girl and how much she has overcome and how proud she must be. She taught me something very important that day and I thank her.

[babylonsister]

1. Wow. Thanks. nt

[BlooInBloo]

2. :)))))))

[firedupdem]

3. Wow...that's the year I was born and the city I was born in. Wow..

I never felt that until High School. I went to an all black catholic grade school but I crossed Western Avenue for an predominantly white all girl catholic high school. High School was the first time I encountered racism up close and personal.

This election has caused the nation to examine itself. I think we're headed in the right direction now.

[Lilyeye]

4. Great and touching story. I swear some of the stories on DU tonight have me all teary.

[Clio the Leo]

5. I am HOPING to hear word that Ruby Bridges....

.... is in the crowd there somewhere.



7 of the Little Rock 9 are there (and I think that's only because one or two of them is deceased.)

Too bad we can't put THEM on the platform and not some of those congresspeople.

[rasputin1952]

7. That has always been one of my favorite Rockwell paintings...

there are plenty of them, but that particular one is just so powerful...thanks for posting it...:hi:

[Clio the Leo]

8. If only Rockwell hadn't included the "n" word.....

.... I would say that it should hang in the Oval Office.

I understand WHY it's there, but that word has no place in our house.

[rasputin1952]

10. It is indeed offensive...

but it adds power to the pic...that little girl, standing up to the hatred, guarded by the very government that had recently been so oppressive.

The power of that painting goes far beyond the mere words I can conjure up...:hug:

[Berry Cool]

6. Today, I'm thinking of the time when I was very small

and I called one of my sisters the N-word...not because I had any clue what it meant, but because I'd heard other kids use it as a pejorative, and I figured it must mean something pretty bad, like some kind of monster.

And my mother, angry but not punishing, took me aside and explained to me what that word meant and why I should not use it...ever. At the same time, making it abundantly clear which side of the line she stood on regarding racism and whether any people had any right to think they were better than other people because of physical appearance of any kind.

I think she would have liked Barack Obama. Damn, I wish she could have lived to see this day. But she died the day before Bush was declared president.

I don't know. Maybe she got the better end of the deal.

But I sure do wish we could undo everything that happened at that time the same way we're going to start to undo his presidency today. Then she could come back, and I really could pretend the past eight years were just a nightmare from which I have finally awakened.

[uponit7771]

9. +1