In the Wheel

A note about pictures throughout this blog: not all of these will be great!   That's because my main focus is hearing from the people who are sharing their stories. In most cases, I take these to capture the information on plaques, or to help me remember all I've seen. May 21, 2021 Canton Freedom House is about ten miles outside of Jackson, MS. It's a civil rights museum that shrinks the decades between the Freedom Summer and today. This is a place that was the headquarters for the Congress of Racial Equality  (CORE), and was also used by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick").  George and Rembert Washington  George and Rembert Washington are pictured above in front of the store they owned and ran. They also owned the building across the street, which became the Freedom House. Like many who were active in the civil rights movement across the south, the Washingtons' business and buildings were attacked, and Mr. Washington was ...

May 20, 2021 Jackson, Mississippi Visit to Medgar and Myrlie Evers' Home Former home of my grandparents in Lancaster, Ohio. Built 1959. My grandparents' house in Lancaster, Ohio had a carport. None of the many homes (over 10 of them?) I lived in as a child ever had one, so their carport was a unique little adventure when our family would visit during the summer. It was adjacent to their neighbor's carport, but was about four feet lower, so there was a little wall that gave the space an even cozier feeling. My grandpa used to smoke his pipe out there after dinner, sitting on the low wall, with his foot up on the milking stool. I loved the smell of the pipe smoke, the warmth of the summer evening, and the fireflies. It's different than hanging out in the driveway, which would be weird. For many people, it's like an outdoor living room. The acoustics are different, and you can stand out there during a belligerent midwestern rainstorm and feel safe from potential danger...