Leesons From Down Under

This reading was about an African Amereican woman, Bessie House-Soremekun, growing up in Lanett, Alabama and learning different forms of literacy after the Civil rights Movement. She starts off talking about literacy being impacted by written and unwritten rules of behavior from behavior in Southern Society. Then she starts talking about the Civil Rights Movement and the events that took place were only the beginning of possibilities that were on their way to come. For example, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which later led to Affirmative Action which resulted in the opportunity for minorities, women and disabled to work. 

Also, since her childhood part of her literacy was interwoven with religion being that she grew up in the Methodist Church. She grew up learning how to read and understand the Bible and helped her understand issues regarding morality and what a morally constituted life should be growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. She was also ahead of her class but because of her mother's refusal to let her skip a grade she remained with the kids in her age group, because her mother believed "a child's intellectual and emotional development would proceed at an appropriate pace."
Ms. Bessie then goes on to talk about Formal and informal literacy which is "the various types of knowledge and knowing that is acquired through formal educational modes and activities." This section of the reading talks about integrating the schools and how black education was very much inferior to that of white. Blacks were ignored and were not considered worthy of inclusion. This had a negative impact on the attitude and self esteem of African American people. All they had to really call their own were the stories that were passed on from generation to generation.
Last but not least, Bessie talked about the Race Rules. This instituted the seperate but equal or Jim Crow Laws. Blacks had seperate restrooms and were not able to dine in public places. Also, whites did not have respect for blacks in the community. Whites insisted blacks call address them by Mr. or Mrs. but no matter the age of the black person, the whites addressed them by their first name. Even experiencing these events Bessie never gave up she still went on a quest to find her literacy.


Bessie House-Soremekun

None of this is new to me but it still triggers some feelings and empathy for those African Americans in that time period. Also, my empathy goes out to those going through such discrimation and hatred today because I know such behaviors still exist today. I know that in order to go through events such as the Civil Rights movement and slavery you have to be a strong person and because we as African Americans have lived through it and is still able to come out and tell our just stories shows how powerful we truly are. We are not as illiterate and inferior as we were made out to be.