History is always with us. My colleague, Tananarive Due, came to understand that recently. She is a fabulous author of science fiction, mysteries, horror and memoir. I highly recommend her historical fiction about famed beauty entrepreneur Madame C.J. Walker, The Black Rose. However, she just discovered her great-uncle had stayed at the infamous Dozier School, a boys’ reformatory school. He was killed there in 1937. Her story about her great-uncle, born before her mother was born, is stunning and surprising. I am including the link to her blog so that you can read about her discovery for yourself.
I saw the report on CNN about the Dozier school before Tananarive had revealed her connection to the school. For me, the horrors of the Dozier school help to explain why six million African Americans were compelled to leave the South during the time of the Great Migration. She is working on a fiction piece about this tragedy. I eagerly await its release.
This post wraps up my Black History month series. Next week, I will start a special series of blogposts for Women’s History Month.