Like A Lot Of Black Women, I

There Are Two Ways To Worry Words. One Is Hoping For The Greatest Possible Beauty In What Is Created. The Other Is To Tell The Truth.

That Attitude That Fighting Is Probably Not Fair, But You Have To Defend Yourself Anyway And Damage The Enemy, Has Been Profoundly Consequential As Far As My Political Activism Goes.

South Africa Used To Seem So Far Away. Then It Came Home To Me. It Began To Signify The Meaning Of White Hatred Here. That Was What The Sheets And The Suits And The Ties Covered Up, Not Very Well. That Was What The Cowardly Guys Calling Me Names From Their Speeding Truck Wanted To Happen To Me, To All Of Me: To My People. That Was What Would Happen To Me If I Walked Around The Corner Into The Wrong Neighborhood. That Was Birmingham. That Was Brooklyn. That Was Reagan. That Was The End Of Reason. South Africa Was How I Came To Understand That I Am Not Against War; I Am Against Losing The War.

But, Based On My Friendship With Evie As Young Mothers, I Started Going On Freedom Rides In 1966.

A Democratic State Is Not Proven By The Welfare Of The Strong But By The Welfare Of The Weak.