We Got By: A Black Family’s Journey in the Heartland - Brossura

Sheffield, Ric S.

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0814258425 ISBN 13: 9780814258422

Casa editrice: Trillium, 2022

Riassunto

Life along the color line in rural Ohio was hard. Being Black often meant feeling frightened and alone. For a family like Ric S. Sheffield’s, examining this reality closely meant confronting challenges and tragedies that often felt overwhelming, even as their odyssey also included the joyful and inspiring. Navigating day-to-day existence in a world where trusting white neighbors required a careful mixture of caution and faith, Sheffield and his kin existed in a space where they were both seen and unseen.

Spanning four generations and assessing the legacies of traumatic events (arrests, murders, suicide) that are inextricable from the racial dynamics of the small community his family called home, this gripping memoir is a heartfelt, clear-eyed, and rare chronicle of Black life in the rural Midwest. Experiencing the burden of racism among people who refused to accept that such a thing existed only made the isolation feel that much worse to Sheffield and his relatives. And yet, they overcame the obstacles and managed to persist: they got by.

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Informazioni sull'autore

Ric S. Sheffield is Peter M. Rutkoff Distinguished Teaching Professor at Kenyon College and former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Ohio. He is founding director and principal investigator for the Knox County Black History Archives, a website devoted the experiences of Black Americans in rural Ohio. He has authored numerous articles in the field of legal studies.

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Once widowed and once divorced, Lon Hammonds had come to make a good living for himself and his family over the years. By the time that he met my grandmother, he was by all accounts a distinguished older gentleman. Regarded by the unmarried colored women around town as a good catch even as he neared sixty, he enjoyed the attention that he received from those who were forward enough to show their interest in him. But there was something about this newcomer in town who had recently visited his church. Unlike the handful of other unmarried ladies of the church, my grandmother seemed to pay him no mind. His frequent and obvious flirtations seemed to have little effect upon the mysterious woman who, he had learned, was boarding with Aunt Becky on the west end of town. Didn't she know who he was? How long could she possibly resist his charms? It likely was a combination of her light gray eyes that captivated him on the rare occasion when she was willing to look into his and the challenge posed by her seeming disinterest; he was immediately attracted to Bertha Fisher from the outset. In very short order, he had declared to his brother that she was "the one" and was dead set on getting her.

With jet-black, wavy hair that refused to stay tucked up under her hat, Bertha had a natural beauty that didn't require the assistance of fine clothes and piles of makeup, things that she couldn't have afforded even if she wanted them. She arrived in town from Coshocton, where she had gone to live with her sister, Leona, long before the untimely death of Arthur Fisher, her husband and the father of her girls. Art and Bertha had been going through some rough times in their marriage; she was tired of his infidelities and empty promises to put an end to them.

Making the decision to leave Barnesville to go live with Leona was hard enough; it was complicated further by the fact that Bertha was unable financially to take her two girls with her. So, her brother and his wife agreed to take one of them for a spell, and her father agreed to look after the other. She was to send for them when she found work and got settled. Leaving Art was also difficult because she still loved him. She, like many country girls, had the misfortune of falling for the first man to come into her life. He made her feel special, something that she had never experienced, and his attention was what she felt she needed more than anything else. Just as easily as he swept her off her feet, he repeatedly hurt and disappointed her. She hated to admit it to herself, but it soon became obvious to her and many others that he was perhaps the furthest thing from being a good husband.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Trillium
• Data di pubblicazione: 2022
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0814258425
• ISBN 13: 9780814258422
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 216
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile