By Michael H. Brownstein
Once when I was teaching school,
the request was made of me to create
a lesson plan for American Women in History,
and I got right on it beginning
with famous women of color, but
too many took their fifteen minutes
and entered Jesse Jackson time.
Rosa Parks was not the first to get arrested
for not giving up her seat, just the luckiest:
Jo Anne Robinson, literate and intelligent,
made Parks into the icon she became,
and we forget the others, some who died,
for refusing to move. And then there were the
Harriet Tubmans, smart and original –
his story denied them their true place
and found them another. Tubman became
the head of the underground railroad,
a woman with headaches who could not read,
but was one of our greatest spies,
who could memorize Confederate orders
and pass them on word for word to Sherman.
Other women of color freed thousands of slaves,
but his story could not let Tubman be
and she became somebody else.
There were others: Marva Collins
home schooled her children into fame,
and yet what of Augustine Witt and Barbara Appleberry
and all of the others who did what she did
and gave the credit to everyone else?
His story is his story, the one history wants us to know.
Let it go: Without Jo Anne Robinson
there would never have been a Martin Luther King.
| Copyright © 2020 by Michael H. Brownstein Michael H. Brownstein’s volumes of poetry, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else and How Do We Create Love?, were published by Cholla Needles Press in 2018 & 2019, respectively. |
I received this yesterday in an email from the National Audubon Society:
ReplyDelete“Harriet Tubman, an Unsung Naturalist, Used Owl Calls as a Signal on the Underground Railroad
“As Black History Month comes to a close, let's look at a lesser-known story about Harriet Tubman. Many are aware of her work on the Underground Railroad, but perhaps fewer are aware of her prowess as a naturalist.
“In fact, historians say she used the call of a Barred Owl to inconspicuously signal that it was safe to pass, eventually helping some 70 people escape slavery. It was her deep knowledge of the region’s environment, not to mention an unbridled determination, that helped her communicate, navigate, and survive those 13 rescue missions.
“Read on to learn about the numerous skills Tubman learned from her close contact with the natural world and how it helped her accomplish the impossible: https://www.audubon.org/news/harriet-tubman-unsung-naturalist-used-owl-calls-signal-underground-railroad.”
I feel Jo Anne Robinson was the greater hero--she took on the City of Montgomery and Jim Crow almost all by herself, directed an army of people and though she does not get credit for much of anything, she's the one who convinced Rosa Parks to do the right thing and introduced the world to Martin Luther King.
ReplyDeleteI finally did something I should have done weeks ago: look this woman up! I think I found her – Wikipedia spells her middle name without the ‘e’:
ReplyDeleteBorn Jo Ann Gibson, near Culloden, Georgia on April 17, 1912, she was the youngest of twelve children. Her parents were Owen Boston and Dollie Webb Gibson who had owned a farm. Her father died when Jo Ann was only 6 years old. After her fathers death Jo Ann, her mother, and her eleven other siblings moved to Macon, Georgia. Jo Ann excelled in school and earned valedictorian her graduating year at her high school. She became the first person in her family to become college graduate and attended Fort Valley State College.
Wikipedia’s next paragraph:
ReplyDeleteJo Ann graduated from Fort Valley State College with her bachelor's degree in 1934. After College she became a public school teacher in Macon, where she was married to Wilbur Robinson for a short time. Five years later, she went to Atlanta, where she earned an M.A. in English at Atlanta University. She continued her education even after earning her Masters New York's Columbia University and continued to study English. Short After Jo Ann went to teach at Mary Allen College. After teaching in Texas she then accepted a position at Alabama State College in Montgomery.
And a couple more paragraphs, further down, apropos buses:
ReplyDeleteIn 1949, Robinson was verbally attacked by a bus driver for sitting in the front "Whites only" section of the bus. The whites only section was empty. Out of fear that the incident would escalate and that the driver would go from verbal abuse to physical, Robinson left the bus. Her response to the incident was to attempt to start a protest boycott against bus segregation in Alabama. However, when Robinson approached fellow WPC members with her story and proposal, she was told that it was "a fact of life in Montgomery." In late 1950, she succeeded Burks as president of the WPC and helped focus the group's efforts on bus abuses. To further her efforts Robinson met with the major of Montgomery at the time William A. Gayle. Robinson met with City Hall's council but they were not interested in what she had to say. When City Hall's leaders were no help, Robinson took matters into her own hands and organized a boycott once again. Robinson was an outspoken critic of the treatment of African-Americans on public transportation. She was also active in the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
The WPC made complaints about the bus seating to the Montgomery City Commission and about abusive drivers, and achieved some concessions, including an undertaking that drivers would be courteous, and having buses stop at every corner in black neighborhoods as they did in white areas.
I think Jo Ann Robinson’s the one. THANK YOU, Michael, for remembering her and singing her praises.
It is gratifying to read someone with your level of knowledge about the Civil Rights movement and the sacrifices it entailed. Abuse, rape, beatings,lynchings, much from real racism but some used as cover for revenge crimes or to get a black man's land. All you had to do was wear a white sheet and poof! "The KKK did it!" We had KKK marches in our town (Eau Gallie FL) and people brought their CHILDREN, dressed in white sheets and peaked caps; can you imagine? I despise anyone who wears a mask when doing evil, like some of our more recent riots with the "Anonymous" crowd, only a coward wears a mask.
ReplyDeleteI received an email yesterday from the Congressional Black Caucus PAC that provided this information about another black woman whom we should honor:
ReplyDeleteKatherine Johnson (1918-2020) not only helped America win the space race, but also fought tirelessly for inclusion and equality as a black woman in a white male-dominated field.
Her life story was told in the movie Hidden Figures, and in 2015 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama.
In honor of her life, we’re launching a Katherine Johnson Legacy Survey to make sure EVERYONE knows her incredible story....
In a time where Donald Trump is doing everything he can to strip away our Civil Rights and erase the legacy of Black Americans, it’s more important than ever we protect and celebrate the legacy of our heroes.
One reason-perhaps the most important reason--is that African-American women who accomplish something are too often delegated into "the back of the line". Harriet Tubman was a fantastic spy. Appleberry and Witt were fantastic teachers. Too often His Story takes one individual woman of color, gives that person one trait, and then forgets all about all of the others who came before, during and after. I wanted Her Story to be prominent. Thank you, Morris, for making Her Story a reality.
ReplyDeleteThank you also for all of your research on Jo Anne Robinson.
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you motivated me to look into her curriculum vitae!
Delete