Black Excellence – Transracial Journeys

Black Excellence: Shannon Gibney

Shannon Gibney is a writer, lecturer and professor living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the 1980s as a mixed-race kid adopted by white parents. As adult transracial adoptee who has spent over two decades unpacking the intersections of adoption, race, class, gender, power and family—and then writing a library of awarded-winning books that can help us get on board with what she’s been building: the healthy identities and communities we want for ourselves and our kids.

One of the most powerful things that Gibney’s work does is to teach readers how to hold the complexities of grief and loss, of the unknowables in adoption, of anger, of joy, of love, of hope, and then tenaciously use these things to fuel our own work. She is a model of how to turn these heavy burdens on their side so that we can imagine futures where societies acknowledge, supports and celebrates differences, and power isn’t centralized in homogenized communities.

In this month’s Book Corner, you’ll find a review of Gibney’s latest book. Hear an interview with Shannon Gibney from Minnesota Public Radio here:

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/02/17/minnesota-author-shannon-gibney-on-her-new-speculative-memoir . Find out more about Shannon Gibney on her website, www.shannongibney.com

Black Excellence: Sharon G. Flake

Sharon Flake b. 1955 in Philadelphia, PA

Award-winning author, Sharon Flake didn’t get her start as a writer. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in English, she went to work for several years in foster care as a house parent. She later went to work in the public relations department at the University of Pittsburgh Press followed by a directorship in the public relations department for the University of Pittsburgh’s business school.

As a student and later in her career, Ms. Flake coped with apprehension related to her writing (spelling and grammar) but she persevered and wrote articles and stories which she submitted to publishers. These attempts were mostly rejected until after fifteen years of working to be printed or published, Ms. Flake’s first book “The Skin I’m In” was picked from a “slush” pile of manuscripts by Andrea Davis Pinkney. This book went on to win the Coretta Scott King Award, YWCA racial justice award and many, many more accolades.

On her website, Ms. Flake writes:

"I am so much like many of my readers. I grew up insecure; not very confident. Yet here I am, one of the top authors for young people in the world.

I write about everyday, average teens who are loved and cheered on by readers on six continents. My characters fall down, get up and learn life lessons that help readers believe they too can achieve anything; make it through any storm. Quirky. Honest. Open.. Vulnerable. My characters get young people of all backgrounds reading as never before."

Ms. Flake has authored several books with two more on the way.

Black Excellence: Victor Hugo Green

Victor Hugo Green and The Travelers’ Green Book

“There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication for then we can go wherever we please, and without embarrassment.”

Born in Manhattan, New York City in 1892, Victor Hugo Green grew up to become a postal carrier with the U.S. postal service. He married Alma Duke, a woman from Richmond, Virginia, and they settled in Harlem at the same time the Harlem Renaissance was blossoming.

Mr. Green had spent most of his life in Hackensack, NJ and in New York City, but after his marriage, he began to travel to Richmond with his wife. He then realized the need to find safe places to stay, eat, use the toilet and put gas in his car while on his travels, and he realized a lot of other people had this same need too. It was then, he had the idea of creating a small guidebook to not only support Black-owned businesses, but also to support the safety of Black travelers and holiday-goers in the United States.

“He found a model for his publication in the guides for Jewish travelers that appeared in Jewish newspapers.” His first installation of the “Green Book” appeared as “The Negro Motorist Green Book” in 1936. The first edition was a small, 15-page booklet which listed businesses that were Black-owned and/or friendly to Black travelers and diners. It included places to stay and places to eat. “By the early 1940s, thousands of establishments nationwide - identified as either black-owned or verified to be non-discriminatory - were listed in the Green Book.”

Over the years, the guide grew to cover much more territory in the United States as well as as places in Canada and Europe. Using the nationwide help of fellow postal carriers, he used their input to expand and promote safe travel for Black people in the Jim Crow era.

“By the early 1940s, thousands of establishments nationwide - identified as either black-owned or verified to be non-discriminatory - were listed in the Green Book.” Although the guide ceased publication during WWII, it was re-started and eventually grew to have a print run of 15,000 copies per year. Mr. Green died in 1960, but his wife continued as editor publishing the guide until its cessation in 1966.

You can watch a short video about the impact of The Green Book and some of the experiences of Black travelers in the 20th century here: The real story of the Green Book.

Black Excellence: James Weldon Johnson

One of his most famous writings is the lyric to the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing” which he wrote in 1900 to commemorate President Lincoln’s birthday. In 1919, the NAACP claimed this song as the Negro national anthem. Now considered the Black National Anthem, it was initially written as a poem. When put to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson, it became the hymn we now know it by today. Recently, the hymn was sung for the first time at a Superbowl (February, 2023) by African American performer Sheryl Lee Ralph.

Over the course of his life, Johnson accumulated many achievements as an author (The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man), a statesman in international politics, a leader in the ranks of the NAACP, as the first African American professor at NYU, as the first Black lawyer admitted to the Florida state bar after the Reconstruction era and as a lifelong advocate for civil rights.

He tragically died in a railroad accident in 1938 while on vacation in Maine. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Black Excellence: Maya Angelou – April 4, 1928-May 20, 2014

Poet, author, singer, dancer, activist, playwright and director Maya Angelou nee Marguerite Ann Johnson was born April 4, 1928. Over the span of her life and career, she accomplished many things, but the list of her extraordinary accomplishments may have started in San Francisco where, as a girl of 15, she became the first female African American streetcar conductor! Close to the end of her life, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 by President Barack Obama.

One of her most notable works was her autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” which begins with the story of her life in Stamps, Arkansas where she was raised with her brother Bailey by their grandmother for part of their childhood. Angelou overcame almost insurmountable hurdles in childhood throughout her life to become one of the most important voices of American history. She is thought by many to be a “symbol of strength and leadership for the plight of women and the underprivileged.”

Black Excellence: Martin Luther King, Jr formerly known as Michael Luther King, Jr

This month’s Black Excellence piece concerns famous African Americans who either changed their names or had their names changed by someone else.

With your child, choose someone from this list and try to do a little independent research on that individual and the names they’ve had. Have a conversation with your family about these name changes and why they happened. After that, have a conversation about your own names, their meanings and the reasons why any of your names may have changed. You’ll discover that people change their names for many different reasons.

Did you know Martin Luther King, Jr’s name was changed when he was five years old? His father, for whom he was named, made a visit to a Baptist World Alliance convention in Berlin, Germany in 1934. While there, he learned about the Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther. King Sr was so impressed by Martin Luther that he changed his name from Michael to Martin. Even though Martin Jr’s name was changed when he was five, his birth certificate wasn’t amended until he was 28!

Note: If you have the TRJ Conversations cards, they can guide you in these discussions about names. Stay tuned for a new and improved edition of June in April conversation cards coming soon!

See April's Conversation Cards

Black Excellence: Daryl “DMC” McDaniels

contributed by Jennie Rosenstiel

Hip Hop turns 50 this year and when it comes to hip-hop’s influence on American music and culture, there are few names as celebrated as Darryl “DMC” McDaniels. Frontman to pioneering new-school hip-hop trio Run-DMC from 1983 until 2002, DMC is beloved to music fans worldwide. But when it comes to DMC, being a musical icon is only part of the story. He’s also a writer, activist, and advocate for adoptees and foster (and former foster) youth.

Born and raised in Hollis, Queens, NY, DMC grew up in a middle-class family and spent his days in Catholic schools. He was still in high school when he taught himself to DJ, a developing passion that would lead him to 3 platinum albums. Though he was bullied at school, DMC reflected that at home it “felt like Christmas every day.” That picture of the past became unimaginably complicated when DMC was researching his early life for his autobiography, King of Rock: Respect, Responsibility, and My Life with Run-DMC. It was then–at 35–that DMC learned of his own experience in foster care and ultimate adoption. As a late discovery adoptee, he has spent the better part of two decades grappling with the truth of his past and all of the many emotions and questions it brought up for him. But through therapy, building community with other adopted persons, and his art, DMC has worked hard to integrate his previously hidden truth.

In the years since learning of his adoption, DMC has joined with fellow adoptee and casting agent, Sheila Jaffe to form The Felix Organization, providing mentorship and summer camp experiences to foster youth. He’s become a voice for the rights of adoptees to access original birth certificates. He’s collaborated with fellow adoptee Sarah McLachlan on “Just Like Me.” And he’s authored even more books–a memoir entitled Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide, children’s books including Darryl’s Dream, and multiple comic books.

Today, DMC is still making music, but his work as an advocate for adoptees and foster youth is arguably just as important. While no adoptee is obligated to disclose their trauma, DMC’s sensitive handling of his own past and present have turned an unknown history into an opportunity to help and inspire others. Through his art and activism, DMC has become one of the most important voices for adoptees and foster youth in America. DMC is a prolific and accomplished musician, writer, producer, and now comic book publisher. It’s difficult to imagine a better representative of the complexities inherent in the “lucky adoptee” narrative nor a more accomplished example of Black Excellence.

Darryl and his wife Zuri joined us (virtually) for camp in 2020.

For more, you can listen to a beautifully honest and nuanced conversation between DMC and our own April Dinwoodie from her podcast here.

Black Excellence: Spotlight on blackhistorymonth.gov

This month, we shine our spotlight on blackhistorymonth.gov, a website created with contributions from:

The Library of Congress
The National Archives and Records Administration
The National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Gallery of Art
The National Park Service
The Smithsonian Institution
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

On this website, you’ll find curated compilations of the contributions and lived experiences, both historic and contemporary, of Black people in the United States. Collections of images, audio and video along with links to beautiful exhibits created by the aforementioned institutions populate this online tribute to Black History Month. Please take the time to visit the site and share some of its content with your children as well as with their teachers. Take some time to acknowledge and celebrate Black History Month this February with your family.

Black Excellence – Kiese Laymon

Considered to have written one of the best 50 memoirs of the past 50 years by the New York Times, Kiese Laymon is an American author who is currently on the faculty at Rice University His memoir, “Heavy”, has received multiple accolades and awards including the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Award for Excellence. The autobiography is about growing up Black, bookish and overweight in an abusive home in Jackson, Mississippi.

Why write about Laymon for January’s Black Excellence? Well, last year, “Heavy” was chosen as one of the “15 Books to Read During Black History Month and Beyond” by the Innocence Project. To commemorate Black History Month this year, consider reading Laymon’s book.

Currently teaching at Rice University as the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of Creative Writing and English, Professor Laymon also works with and founded the Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative which promotes reading and writing with children in Mississippi.

Black Excellence – Chris Kennedy, the Black Santa

Two years ago, Chris Kennedy put up an inflatable, seven foot tall, Black Santa in his front yard. An angry community member responded with a racist note stating:

“Please remove your negro Santa Claus yard decoration,” the letter, signed by an anonymous “Santa Claus,” read. “You should try not to deceive children into believing that I am negro. I am a caucasian (white man, to you) and have been for the past 600 years.”

In response to the note, Mr. Kennedy did not remove his Santa and added a second Black Santa. He posted about the incident on Facebook and his neighbors and community responded by decorating their front lawns with Black Santas too.

Inspired to further action, he stated,

“I couldn’t let hatred win,”...“You don’t like me having a Black Santa in my front yard? I will go and be the Santa Claus for the entire city.”

So he rented a Santa suit, began taking photos with his daughter and then traveled across the country from his home in North Little Rock, Arkansas to attend a Santa Camp run by the New England Santa Society in New Hampshire. At camp, he was the only Black Santa. His experience at camp is portrayed in a new HBO documentary “Santa Camp” along with the stories of a disabled man and a transgender man. Get your hankies on hand before you watch!

(Rated TV-MA for mature audiences. The content is intended for adults, and isn't really suitable for children under the age of 17.)

Exploring race, adoption, and identity in a family setting

Sharon Flake b. 1955 in Philadelphia, PA

Victor Hugo Green and The Travelers’ Green Book

Lift Every Voice and Sing Lyrics