Baileyblog
The Slave Auction: A Poem
This week, thanks to a friend and colleague, I rediscovered Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and her poem on a slave auction. Harper was an African American abolitionist, suffragist, and writer. One part of her biography speaks to me today. In 1859, the same year of the...
The Weeping Time and The New York Times Sunday Magazine
August 17, 2019 This week is an important week for many reasons. It represents the 400th anniversary of the presence of people of African descent in America. Today is also the birthday of Jamaican born...
TURNING POINT: WORDS MATTER
August 3, 2019 Dear Readers, First I want to say that my heart goes out to the many families who lost loved ones this weekend and last across America. There really are no words of condolences that are enough. I am in the midst of preparing a new post in response to...
Could it happen here?
In recent days, some citizens in our midst have called for others to "be sent back to where they came from." I am thankful that those who repeated such a disturbing chant do not represent all of us but for any who are convinced this was just an idle chant, like the...
Keeping Families Together: Who we are vs. Who we were
In the sweltering heat, my thoughts are with the families at the border. The piece below I wrote last year and sadly, the situation though it has changed for the young woman in question (she has been thankfully reunited with her family), many others are facing a...
Reparations 101: Harriet Tubman and the Reparations debate
I wrote the piece below a year ago which I am reposting because it shows how even Harriet Tubman's story speaks to the rationale for Reparations. Almost 200,000 slaves fought in the US Civil War and less than half of them received pensions for their war efforts....
