Running head Black & White Rebecca Ray Introduction to Literature Holly Ledcke November 27, 2012 Black & White The story that I chose this week is “The Welcome Table”; this story is about an older black woman that was not allowed in church because of color. The story takes place in Georgia at a “white” church. I guess the keyword being white; an older woman wanted to go to church one Sunday morning. This woman decided that she was going to go to another church, a church that she did not belong in. “She is not a welcomed visitor to this congregation, though.
Lester Faigley. Boston: Pearson/Longman, 2010. bookPrint. Section 2: Summary “Everyday Use,” by ???? is a story about a black family who was struggling to make it in life. The main character “Mama” takes the part as narrator in telling her story of her burnt down house and two daughters named Maggie and Dee.
Therefore she has a ritual where she made this wall. ‘The whaling wall” was a wall in the backyard of the house where she would go and write down her thought or why she was upset at that very minutes and put the piece of paper in the wall and that would be her secret about why she was upset. This is a spiritual ritual that helps her cope with her issues regarding her life. The sisters of the house have a statue of the black Madonna the same on that is on the jars of their honey and they perform weekly prayer gatherings with other women around this
Oprah was originally named “Orpah” after the Biblical character in the book of Ruth, but there was a typo on her birth certificate. She was brought up by her grandmother, Hattie Mae Lee. Her grandmother taught Oprah to read and write by the age of three. Because they lived such poor lives, Oprah was made fun of for wearing dresses made of potato sacks and played with dolls made of corn husks. She actually didn’t receive her first pair
In “Country Lovers” Thebedi’s family is salves to Paulus family. The whit children go to school and get an education and are taught they are superior to the black children that are their salves. In “the Welcome Table” the little old lady wants to go to church but is told this is not your church and is thrown out of the church. We as Americans fought in the Civil War for equal rights for all races. For example: “And finally we fight a bloody Civil War, we get these three constitutional amendments, which say the law must treat everyone equally, must be race-neutral.
Reading Response #2 Charity Bowery by Lydia Maria Child Charity Bowery was interviewed by Lydia Maria Child. Bowery was at age sixty-five she had been enslaved as a house servant. She says that on Sundays, she have seen the Negroes up in the country going away under large oaks, and in secret places, sitting in the woods with spelling books. All the colored folks were afraid to pray in the time of the old prophet Nat. There was no law about it; but the whites reported it round among themselves, that if a note was heard, they should have some dreadful punishment.
Franklin was raised in the “all black town of Rentiesville, Oklahoma” (203), where he was exposed to racism at an early age. Society at that time was mainly based on race. After the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, different races were broken into social classes with African Americans at the bottom and whites at the top. This meant that blacks were treated as inferior to whites, and they could not do any activities with other races. In the essay “A Train from Hate,” Franklin and his mother were escorted off of a train because they mistakenly got on the whites only coach resulting in them having to walk home through the woods.
Mrs. Walker talks about her traveling to Africa and being given the name “Wangero” , by her Uganda family. She reflects back to the 60’s while living in Mississippi and how her peers began to return back to Africa figuratively. Many changed their hair and clothes and behavior trying to mimic their African descendants. However, Mrs. Walker felt it was very disrespectful to their ancestor that they had already known. She says that “Even though parents had done the best that they could be dismissed and denied” ( A Stitch in Time ).
Winfrey was originally named "Orpah" after the biblical character in the Book of Ruth, but her family and friends "didn't know how to pronounce it", and called her "Oprah" instead. Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to an unmarried teenage mother, Vernita Lee who was a housemaid. After Winfrey's birth, her mother traveled north and Winfrey spent her first six years living in rural poverty with her grandmother, Hattie Mae Lee (April 15, 1900 – February 27, 1963), who was so poor that Winfrey often wore dresses made of potato sacks, for which the local children made fun of her. Her grandmother taught her to read before the age of three and took her to the local church, where she was nicknamed "The Preacher" for her ability to recite
Kintul Jordan English Comp 1 Ms. Tate 19 November 2012 Forgetting the Real Meaning of Heritage: An Analysis of Dee and the Search for Her African Roots Alice Walker, the youngest of eight children, was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. Like many of Walker’s characters in her stories, she was the daughter of a farmer who barely scratched out a living for his family. At age eight, Walker’s brother accidently shot her in the eye with a BB gun. Her partial blindness prevented her from participating in normal childhood activities; instead, she began writing poetry to ease her loneliness. She found that when writing, one must have peace and quiet, but it was not easy when ten people lived in four rooms.