WE MARCH!!!!

 

Lessons from Down Under written by Bessie House-Soremekun gives a firsthand account of growing up in the South in the midst of civil right turmoil. House-Soremekun's reflects on the limitations that slaves were given throughout the course of slavery and the progression to different types of literacies in order to obtain an education. House-Soremekun also discusses how African Americans have heavily depended on various oral traditions of literacy, such as storytelling, throughout history to strengthen and develop the race as a whole. Explaining that lack of formal education for African Americans during slavery lead to historical happenings, customs and common knowledge being transmitted through oral renditions instead of written text, which furthermore helped to keep African American culture alive and unrestricted by white society. An example of such unconventional forms of literacies is depicted in her conversations between her and her grandmother and what she learnt outside her textbooks. “My grandmother and I discussed many topics, including religion, philosophy, the nature of human existence, politics, health issues, and economics” (pg.62). 

In addition, although House-Soremekun does focus on the various forms of African American literacies. Through this reading I was also introduced to a literacy that I never took into consideration up until this reading, and that being boycotting and protesting as fashions of displaying the understanding of the law and the rights one processes due to citizenship. An example of such innovative literacy being the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 in which African Americans understood their economical power and ability to influence society through protest. Saying no, reflects the immense intelligence of the Black community and its leader in knowing how to change injustice in a black and white world. Thus, making protesting and boycotting clear forms of literacy that African Americans used as mode of transportation for equality despite the social barriers existing in a White constructed world.

In conclusion, the while I agree with House-Soremekun’s agrument that oral traditions have been used to help African Americans to become literate, I think as readers and literate black women it is important  for us to not generalize this concept and think that oral tradition are simply the only way for us as a race to not stay defeated. But instead understand and remember the power in which we hold as one union and the driving force in which change can come within that union. Hence we must ask ourselves “what can I do for my community?” and “what social issues at hand to I believe and am willing to fight for?” because only then can we work as a community to free and deliver our race from the barriers of social and economical depression.