Cultural Diversity Consultant

Lavinia Bell, A Story to Pass On (Part 1)

Born in Washington DC / Enslaved in Texas / Interviewed in Canada 1861 I was going over newspaper and magazine interviews, 1827-1863 in collection edited by John W. Blassingame. Lavinia Bell’s story is particularly touching in her determination to be free at all costs yet disturbing in the raw violence to which she was subjected. Born free in Washington she was stolen as an infant and enslaved in Galveston, Texas. As the property of William Whirl, his wife, Polly, taught Lavinia to be a performer, “taught to dance, sing, cackle like a hen, or crow like a rooster…” About the age of 13 or 14, she was sent to the cotton field an exposed to a different level of bondage. In the Galveston, Texas cotton field the Whirl's laboring slaves were exposed to the relentless sun naked, their hair shaved close to their heads, and receiving fifty lashes daily, whether they worked or not. Bell reported that “they were also compelle...

A King Day Quiz

1. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., graduated from Morehouse with a degree in Divinity. True False 2. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., pastored what church in Montgomery, Alabama? 3. According to Rev. Ralph Abernathy the movement received a worse reception in Chicago than in the South. True False 4. Name one of the girls killed in 1963 at the 16 th Street Baptist Church bombing, Birmingham, Alabama? 5. At the time of his assassination, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his advisors were planning what campaign? 6. Of the following women which one was not part of in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s: Pauli Murray, Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Septima Poinsette Clark, Fannie Lou Hamer, Sojourner Truth 7. What does SNCC stand for? ...

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