The Education of an Motherless Child

     Sunny- Marie Birney  was adopted as an infant by a Caucasian couple. Though she was thoroughly cared and provided for Birney felt a sense of longing for the African American identity that her adopted parents could not give her. Through personal relationships with strong Black women who took on the responsibility to enrich not only her mind but persona as an African American woman, Birney was able to find her place in the world.

     Birney emphasizes the importance of two literacies:educational liberation and identification. The author discusses the necessity of knowing that knowledge is the key to freedom. Birney also makes it clear, no matter how much information you review or the grades you receive, none of the educational teachings make a difference unless you realize your place in the world. When you understand your identity you are able to relate and create personal connections to abstract concepts. With out knowing how you perceive yourself, it's difficult to give your opinion the world. Birney was not provided with an African American setting to discover  her history and roots but yet created one from influential role models through out her life. The author created her own identity in the world to give her critique of the world.

Unearthing Hidden Literacy (Lillie Gayle Smith)

Unearthing Hidden Literacy by Lillie Gaye Smith was about Smith realizing that her past is what helped her become the literate woman she is today. Coming from a retched past of picking cotton, she rarely wanted to talk about it. Smith thought of her picking cotton as embarrassing especially since it was closely associated with slavery so she decided to keep that part of her past a secret. She only used her past of picking cotton as for a story of how she grew tremendously, however, once she enrolled in a "Black Woman's Literacy" class she began to notice how her past of picking cotton helped her literacy build and grow into something powerful.Smith concluded her passage with saying that all the experiences that you have will serve as a stepping block to your life as well as your literacy.


I totally agree with Smith in many ways. I do understand how it feels to run from you past and not want to relive it again but the circumstances that was presented to you will always benefit you in the future. Just as telling a story, we all learn from past experiences, whether it is ours or someone else's, these past experiences teaches us in extraordinary ways. It enhances us as we grow into a new form and a new life and it plants roots in us so that we never forget where we came from. As black women, we all have some experience, bad or good, that we know of. These things builds up our literacy because we are able to recall them and manipulate them in many ways. I know my past helped my literacy blossom beautifully and with out my dilemmas, I am not sure of where I might be physically and with literacy. I know that the past is the past and does not want to be revisited again but as the great Maya Angelou says, "History, despite it's wrenching pain, cannot be unlived...But if faced with COURAGE, need not be LIVED again!"

Lessons From Down Under: Reflections on Meanings of Literacy and Knowledge From an African-American Female Growing Up in Rural Alabama By Bessie House-Soremekun

     Lessons From Down Under written by Bessie House-Soremekun is a first hand account of the growing up in the South in the midst of civil right turmoil. House-Soremekun's reflections on the limitations that slaves were given through out the course of slavery which lead to storytelling, protesting and other unconventional forms of literacies being utilized in order to obtain education and humanity. 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. Not only did these literacies keep culture alive within the Black community, the information that was  given could never be taken away or limited by the restrictions of White society.

     The entire focus of our class has been centered on the various forms of African American literacies. House-Soremekun introduces a literacy that I never took into consideration until reading her reflection. Boycotting and protesting are fashions of displaying the understanding of the law and the rights one is indebted because of their citizenship. For example the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 marked African-American's understanding of their economical power and ability to influence society through protest. Saying no, reflects the immense intelligence of the Black community and it's leader in knowing how to change injustice in a black and white world. Protesting and boycotting are clear forms of literacy that African Americans used as mode of transportation for equality despite the social barriers of existing in a White constructed world.