Brave

On June 6, 2015, police were called and told there were "too many black people" at a pool party at an all white residential community in McKinney, Texas. This is what happened: When I saw this, what I thought was, Monson Motor Lodge.  "On June 18, 1964, black and white protesters jumped into the whites-only pool at the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Fla. In an attempt to force them out, the owner of the hotel poured acid into the pool." The manager of the motel James Brock was photographed pouring muriatic acid into the pool to get the protesters out. "Martin Luther King Jr. had planned the sit-in during the St. Augustine Movement, a part of the larger civil rights movement. " Then the hotel owner called the police. One of whom tried to club a rabbi in the pool with his nightstick:  Two rabbis had checked into the Monson Motor Lodge and the news media had been notified in advance that a "swim in" would occur at...

The Author, keeping it real. © Kerima Çevik  I speak about my stepfather and race a great deal. He was my mentor and guide into the world of being Black in America in the 1970s. My stepfather took some drastic steps to insure we assimilated American Black Culture, in all caps. He took us off military bases for 6 of the most vulnerable and traumatic years of my life, until I graduated from high school. He took me to housing projects and the slums of Chicago’s south side to visit war buddies, friends and family. He wanted me to understand both Delta blues and Chicago blues in the most organic fashion possible. Not for music history appreciation, or the witnessing of poverty, or any of the reasons those who are not raised in a blues culture can understand. He did it to share with me the way he retained his identity and sense of self when war, torture, racism, and injustice sought to tear it away from him. He passed it on to me in the way it was shared by his parents with him. This...