OT: I cried Today

As I go through some old photos -- that I picked up when my great aunt (My Father's sister) died 6 months ago and was passed down to my siblings some of the pictures are of my grand daddys sister sitting down resting in cotton field with a big bunnet on her head , I reflected on stories that my grandmother used to tell me when I was a little girl, she was a tall thin light skinned woman half American Indian, she was about 70 years old when I was born, she lived to be 95 years old -- she looked younger than her years, she was the youngest of 23 children, she was born in 1880 her parents were born in the early 1800s her parents parents were slaves.

My Grandfather (My daddy's father) her husband was black as tar, a very intellectual black man who always had a pipe in his mouth, his grand father was a slave master and his grandfather was a white man.

They lived in Manchester, Georgia (Southern Georgia) in a big old white house, a house that seemed to be haunted and filled with old Negro spirituals. The house had a fireplace in the living room and fireplace in the bedroom, we used to be very scared to spend the night with our grand parents since we used to hear things at night, there was a underground shelter in the back yard, I hear that was used to "hide" out from the KKK when ever there would be attacks or killings.

My grandmother used to sit down and tell me and my siblings stories, I was too young to really understand but I remembered the stories, too painful to type, but I do remember a lot of painful stories, I was the youngest in my family and my mom was 42 years old when I was born, so most of my aunts, uncles are now deceased as well as my parents.

Black men and women were strong back then, that had to be in order to survive, they stay together raised  their families, there was no such thing as babies mommas or daddies in those days, Black men WERE MEN. I still have a picture of my daddy in his military uniform -- tall curly haired handsome black man, he fought for his country he was part of the Tuskegee military men who fought for this country but could not vote, nor could they share the same bunks as their white counterparts.

I am crying today because my parents are not hear to see this moment in history and I sit here with tears coming down my face while Barrack Obama took oath of office today.

I thank my grand parents AND parents for making me who I am today, and making me feel that I AM somebody and each and everyone of you ALL ARE somebody.

Thanks for listening to my humble story

Now see you dun gon and dunnit now!  I didn't even cry at President Obama's inauguration so far, but lost it after reading your post.  I feel ya girl.  All my grandparents are gone except for my   grandmother (my moms mother) was born in 1920.  She fortunately did get to witness this awesome triumph for "our" people and everyone around the world.  I remember her stories as well.  Her mother was part American Indian and black with beautiful hair that was almost to her butt.  My grandmothers looks just like her mother.  Interestingly, my grandmother does not know who her dad was.  Back then you didn't really ask questions, so she lived all her life not knowing(still to this day).  Enuff of that, but I love your story.

Hugs!

~Catt~ 

Thank you Catt!!, I am still teared up, I gotta get out of the house, my story is among many many black American stories, I am just happy that I DO know my history and where I came from, you cannot move forward unless you know where you came from.

Yea, there were MANY African Americans did not know their family heritage because their families were split up and pulled apart, but again that was in slavery and not really in the 1800s....it's so ironic that slaves built the White House and MOST of Americana's infrastructure and now we have a Black man in the white house...Most young Americans do not understand the Americans DIRTY history and past, 95 percent of Black Americans are MIXED by force.

You an me both.  I think of my great grandfather who was the son of slave parents.  I think of how my parents sacrificed for me to go to college when my dad only had a grade school education.  I look at how my father didn't live long enough to see me graduate from college, get married, have children and buy a home.  And despite all the things personally my dad didn't get to see me accomplish - I wish he could have seen this election day coverage more than anything else.