Tracing Black Family History, via Black Nuns

This post is even more relevant now, than two years ago:

Tracing one’s family, particularly a family full of mostly Enslaved Persons, and some Free People of Color (free before the Civil War and subject to the Black Codes in most states), means learning the language of genealogy, and then learning your own family language, with names that run in families, especially middle names, and have certain meanings known only to the inner circle at that time. In order to survive, each of those People of Color had to decide and choose which hill they wanted to die upon: the hill of passing for White, in some cases, despite loosing family to do so, the hill of fighting to educate Colored people, despite the many hurtles, as my 2xs great grandfather and his daughter, in her turn, did, or the hill, today, of bearing the torch to help educate all people, as many of us are choosing in this difficult time.

What hill do you choose to die on? Building or choosing ‘Found Family’ for me is about connecting deeply and personally with other folks who share my values, as my great Aunt Sr. Mary Felix Manzilla did, when she joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Catholic sisterhood open to Colored women, in 1914. I seek to help build community that honors safety and Enough for All, and is willing to die upon the hill of Empathy and Compassion, fighting for Everyone to have Enough of Everything

(… taking a quick “station break” for some Standing Action Items on that:
1.) Tell your local Transit Board to build more Light Rail stops,
2.) Tell your local city council to hire more librarians, add social workers and nurses to the library staff, and add washing stations to Public Library bathrooms,
3.) Ask your Community College Provost to give free classes on State Law Basics covering local land, property, contract and Statutes of Limitations laws (with shuttle bus service from poor neighborhoods!),
4.) Ask your State Senators and Reps to pass Universal Health Care in your state, and tell your Congressmen to do likewise at the Federal level.
…)

that Every Human Being needs to live with human dignity. But I seek that community as one looking to build personal family connections, to walk, to teach, and eat together, to look after one another and if necessary, to die for and with one another. In other words, Family, like my great aunt found, with the OSP.

Please consider the people and institutions linked above, and

Action Items:

1.)    Share your Hill, if you wish.

2.)     Simply Google your town’s Mass Transit Authority, to see if you have a Light Rail.  Then, if you have one, ask them to expand it!  🙂  If not, ask them how a simple and cheap trolley or light rail line could be put in.

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Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.