Daytona Notebook # 1. In search of Gordon Parks at the Halifax Historical Museum
A 2021 article described local efforts to uncover Black history and revive historic African American neighborhoods in Daytona Beach. In it was a photograph attributed to Gordon Parks, and originating from the Halifax Historical Museum. I wanted to see the...
Look at the Trees!
A memory that came back to me as David and I rode from southern Virginia to Northern Georgia on this book tour. I am eight-years old .It is June,1966. We are in a blue station wagon, filled with plants and cats and little brothers. The infant is in a basket in the...Bookstores are Political
Bookstores are political. Today there are the those that have banned-book clubs and offer space to Trans support groups. They feature the works of Black, Indigenous, Latine and LGBTQ authors and subjects. “Labor” is a section, and so is “AAPI.” Genocide is a fact of...
Social Emotional Learning Circa 1965: “Be Like Christopher”
In Mrs. Macintosh’s second grade class at the Lawrence Elementary School in Brookline, Massachusetts, the October 1965 lessons focused on social emotional health. We were encouraged to believe in ourselves and our ideas, even if they were unpopular, to be...