By LORNA CHEROT LITTLEWAY
CLERMONT–The Clermont Historic Site hosted a “Black History Story Hour” at its Visitors Center on Saturday, February 3 at 1 p.m. Jane Miller, a Clermont volunteer and former librarian, read three books: “We March” by Shane Evans, “All Rise” by Carole Boston Weatherford and “Magnolia Flower” by Ibram X. Kendi.
Two adults and one 7-year old boy, Noah Reifer, followed Ms. Miller into the Children’s Corner, an oversized horse stall, in the converted carriage house. Before starting to read. Ms. Miller asked Noah, who attends North Park Elementary in Hyde Park, some questions to gauge his knowledge. The 2nd grader knew who Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman were. Noah, also, had some familiarity with 1950s and ‘60s segregation practices and integration efforts. Ms. Miller pronounced Noah as “well informed.”
“We March” follows one African-American family’s participation at the “March For Jobs and Freedom” demonstration in Washington, D.C. during the summer of 1963. The family gets up early. They go to church and pray for strength before starting their journey. When they arrive in D.C., they join others in making signs saying “WE WANT FREEDOM.” They watch scores of buses arrive with more demonstrators. The numbers swell to 250,000 participants.
The march starts at the Washington Monument and culminates at the Lincoln Memorial, where Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Ms. Miller reads, “We sing. We are hot. We are tired. We are filled with hope. We lean on each other.” She asked Noah, “Isn’t that what families do? Lean on each other?” Noah agreed. Ms. Miller also told him that Daniel Chester French, of Stockbridge MA, sculpted Lincoln’s image.
Ms. Miller told Noah about the famous painting by Norman Rockwell, “The Problem We All Live With.” Six-year old Ruby Bridges is surrounded by four white men (U.S. Marshalls) who were assigned to protect her as she integrates an all white elementary school in New Orleans. Noah agreed that it was a “scary” time and that it wasn’t “fair” that blacks and whites were separated.
“All Rise” tells the story of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s journey to become the first African-American woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. Ms. Miller called the story “uplifting.” Its theme is the many challenges Justice Jackson “rose above” from high school through college and her professional life, including “tough” questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee, to achieve her goals.
Ms. Miller told the group that when Justice Jackson’s younger daughter was 11 years old, she wrote a letter to then President Barack Obama to nominate her mother to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. Six years later President Biden made the dream come true.
The last book, “Magnolia Flower,” is an adaptation of a short story by Zora Neal Hurston. It uses personification to tell the story of Swift Deer, a Cherokee woman; Bentley, a Black man; and their daughter, Magnolia Flower, so named because she was born when magnolia flowers bloom. The book’s illustrations use especially vivid colors.
The story covers the historical periods of Trail of Tears, the forced removal of Cherokees from the southeastern U.S., under President Andrew Jackson, through the end of the Civil War. In a remote section of a forest, the water asks a tall pine to tell a story about the bondage of dark people.
The Pine tells about how Magnolia meets and falls in love with John, a free Black man, whom her father disparages as a “man of words” instead of a “man of medals.” John teaches Magnolia to read and write but her father locks up John. Magnolia frees him and they run away north.
When the Civil War ends trees and flowers again bloom. As an old couple, John and Magnolia return to the forest, where there are now three leaning pines, and give thanks.
In light of the current controversy about teaching America’s racial history to young children because they might feel bad, I asked Noah if the stories made him feel bad. His answer, “No.”
Noah’s mother, Jodi, added, “We live in an increasingly diverse world. I think it’s important for my son and all children to have an appreciation for their own history as well as for people who don’t look like them. The more we learn and understand about each other, the more we realize how similar all people are.”
