Edmonia Lewis and her brother became orphaned at the age of ten. Edmonia original name was Wildfire and her brother name was Sunrise. When their two aunts adopted and took them to northern New York, that’s when their name changed to Edmonia Lewis and Samuel W. Lewis. A bright education for her future, Edmonia went to prep school and Oberlin College in 1859. Not being able to finish College because of two white girls accused her of poisoning them and was not able to finish her last year.
The book she was to review, and criticize if necessary, was the only biography ever written of Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (1837-1921), Reconstruction governor of Louisiana, and the first African American to be governor of a State. As the book was composed by James Haskins, an established author, she worried being viewed as immodest, or even an ‘upstart’ should she reveal flaws in the work. I know that because I was there; she was my mother. Why would Dr. Taylor, who was at that time America’s leading expert on Reconstruction in Louisiana ask a graduate student to undertake such a task? The answer is that my mother had chosen to write her Master’s thesis on P.B.S.
Her parents were both slaves, but her grandmother had been emancipated and owned her own home, earning a living as a baker. When Jacobs was six years old, her mother died, and she was sent to the home of her mother's mistress, Margaret Horniblow. Horniblow taught the young Jacobs to read, spell, and sew; she died when Jacobs was eleven or twelve and willed Jacobs to Mary Matilda Norcom, Horniblow's threeyear-old niece. While living in the Norcom household, Jacobs suffered the sexual harassment of Dr. James
At the age of 11 she was enrolled at the Montgomery Industrial School for girls once graduated, she went on to Alabama State Teacher's College High School. She, however, was unable to graduate with her class, because of the illness of her grandmother Rose Edwards and later her death. After this Rosa once again tries to return to Alabama State Teacher's College, which she did but then her mother also became ill, she then had to care for her mother and also their home. What made Rosa’s life special and also famous was her courageous act of activism. On December 1st, 1955, Rosa was asked to give her seat to a white man, she was extremely tired but she also knew that she had paid the bus fair just like everyone else and felt that she had the right to remain seated therefore, refused to grant her seat to the white man, reason why she then was arrested.
Whereas all attention is given to Dee, as she has taken a new road. When Maggie comes back to visit Mama, she arrives with her new boyfriend Hakim-a-barber, which Maggie has been studying with. Dee has also changed her name to an African name: Wangero. Mama was astonished of how her daughter had changed. And as the story is set in the start 70’s where the Afro-Americans is fighting for their rights and identity, Mama is a kind of afraid of “letting Dee go”.
When Angelou was 12 years old an educated black woman from Stamps by the name of Bertha Flowers helped her to break this silence. Angelou graduated at the top of her Morrison 2 eighth grade class in Stamps, Arkansas. Because of the racial issues in Stamps, their grandmother thought it was in the best interest of the children to move them to California. Angelou attended George Washington High School where she studied dance, music and drama. At the age of seventeen Angelou graduated from high school and gave birth to a son Guy Bailey Johnson.
A little while later in her teenage years, Oprah’s promiscuity caused her to become pregnant, but didn’t end well as the child died as an infant. After these events, Oprah moved to Nashville in Tennessee to live with her father, who gave her a stable home that she so desperately needed. She enrolled in school, where she excelled beyond expectation and was given the opportunity to attend Tennessee State University on a full scholarship. During her years in Tennessee she also won Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant, and landed her first
Angela Davis was born January 6, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama to two highly educated parents, both of whom where educators themselves. As it was for all black Americans, Angela’s childhood was faced with much humiliation of racial segregation. Racial segregation existed throughout the United States. Angela was born amid Jim Crow Laws: “where state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans” (Wikipedia).
The idea of how to use the quilt in Mrs. Johnson’s family in Georgia in the early 1970s describes the whole picture of historical and cultural conflicts in the African-American community at that time. The major characters in "Everyday Use" are Mrs. Johnson and her two daughters, Maggie and Dee (who later changed her name to Wangero). Mrs. Johnson is a muscular African American woman with a second grade education. Maggie has a poor-image with many scars on her body, while her sister Dee is very educated, confident, and good-looking. In the beginning of the story, Dee comes to her mother's home with a much different appearance as an educated urban girl while her family members are as the backward sharecroppers at a remote village.
Scout Finch: Boyish Girl Growing Up Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, “People grow through experiences, if they meet life honestly and courageously.” In Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the character of Jean Louis Finch provides an example of how experiences shape one’s personality. She is Atticus’s daughter, Jem’s younger sister, and Boo Radley’s neighbor. People call her “Scout” because of her outspoken, headstrong, and boyish characteristics. As the novel progresses, she grows from age 6 to age 9, experiences turmoil in her small hometown, and transforms from an innocent girl to a thoughtful person. A tomboy, a curious child, and a maturing girl, Scout proves to be the most dynamic character in the novel.