“… and Another Black Woman Dies”
I recently wrote an essay about being exhausted. Exhausted by hearing how Black women will save the election, how Black women are so strong, and I am tired of being thanked as a Black woman for marching in causes that will save everyone. Too many Black women are dying too young from what is expected of us by our families, by our communities and by those who fantasize about our presumed strength. I am exhausted — but for the sake of saving my own life, those I love as family and holding up community, I pull myself up each day and do my best to help make an unbiased world a reality. The ebb and flow of building a just society is not new. It is not just in the last 50 years or the last 100 years. I reflect on the heightened levels of discrimination and legal wrangling from the 1850s that still resonate with the same elements of discrimination. Diversity then becomes imaginable, but the same stench of ugly hate is repeated. We are once again at a moment in time to ask ourselves what we can do to build what is possible for everyone — and not depend on another Black woman to do it.
Althea Sumpter is a researcher and scholar who focuses on ethnographic documentation and cultural preservation of the Southern story in the United States. With her native Gullah Geechee culture and her historical connection to the story of Reconstruction Era in Beaufort County, SC, she uses her expertise to teach how to research and document stories of a family and a community. She presents talks and workshops on how to find cultural heritage and to make the link to historical context in community. Her research and work can be viewed at: altheasumpter.com.
- Facilitator: Charlene Ball
- Musician: Mick Kinney