One Hundred Year Anniversary of the Rosewood Destruction

In January 1923, a white mob of Floridian men burned a prosperous and peaceful African American town named Rosewood, to the ground. They were hunting for an escaped chain gang convict who had been accused of assaulting a white woman. There was no evidence to support the accusation nor was there an evidence that the escaped convict was in Rosewood, nonetheless, the mob tortured and murdered a crafsman who lived there trying to get him to tell them where the convict was. Then they killed 30 men women and children and burned the town down. The survivors fled via a train.

Recently people were made aware of the torching of the "Black Wall Street" of Oklahoma which took place in 1921 when another, much larger, very prosperous business and reidential center of Africa Americans, near Tulsa, was also burned to the ground and several hundred peope killed and buried in mass graves which are currently being excavated, bodies identified and given proper burial.

If you have been following the re-surgence of African American History, you have probably been aware of the Oklahoma massacre, but possibly not the one in Rosewood, Florida. You are probably also aware of the renewed attention to the history of lynching for racial intimidation that took place throughout the South. Several memorials and monuments have been erected to honor those murdered under these terrible circumstances. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama is the most recent and most renowned.

As most of us have agreed, the crimes of history must be remembered lest we repeat them, also so that we can understand the repercussions they leave behind. For this reason, a great deal of effort has been put into Holocaust History, and just in time, as in recent years, Holocaust deniers have spread their horrendous lies

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This is a well known quote from philosopher George Santayana from his book The Life of Reason, 1905. At the very least we must remember and acknowledge the pain and suffering and make a vow to prevent the reocurrence of it.

The 1619 Project made the point that many of our current ills have their roots in our History of Slavery. HULU, a streaming video channel is currently hosting a documentary based on the bestselling book The 1619 Project which first appeared as a Sunday New York Times Magazine long article. I read it and was impressed and have since watched the first two episodes of the HULU series. It is shocking and mind expanding even to those of us who have made an attempt to educate ourselves about the Civil Rights struggle and Black History in general. I strongly urge anyone who has HULY to watch it. And if you are interested in finding out more about Florida's racial history, you can buy Historian/Educator Marvin Dunn's book, A History of Florida through Black Eyes in paperback for $30. I think it especially important at this contemporary moment as Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis passes increasingly restrictive acts against teaching race history.

It is an interesting paralell to me that as, thanks to the Women's Rights Struggle, women were increasingly able to move up the educational ladder, they began to research and publish more of the 'lost' and forgotton history of Women in America, and similarly thanks to the Civil Rights Struggle, more and more Black scholars have been able to research and resurrect lost and hidden History of African American citizens. At the same time, I would like to thank all the devoted local historians both informal and formal, who have kept our history alive to be found and shared in the present and the future.

Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

CALL FOR ARTISTS

https://hmhsfeminism.wixsite.com/mysite The web address above is the contact for an upcoming Art Exhibition and Contest being held by the Haddonfield Fornightly in cooperation with the 50 50 Club of Haddonfield High School. Registration fees go toward scholarships to girls all over the world for higher education. It is a worthy effort in every way.

The piece I am working on, for their theme: S T E A M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) is based on the piece I wrote about in the previous post POCKETBOOKS, only this time it will be one Pocketbook, and a larger size. My subjects for the small portraits are: Patricia Bath, who invented and patented the Laserphaco probe, an opthalmologic device to remove cataracts, Rear Admiral Grace Paley who developed COBOL the major compiling computer programming language for decades in the development of computers. She also worked on the UNIVAC. And my old favorites, Frances Moore Lappe, whose book DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET, emphasized the role of animal agriculture in climate degradation, and Rachel Carson, whose book SILENT SPRING drew attention to the the impact of pesticides on the health of the earth as well as the rest of the creatures living on it. Finally, I always want to mention Rosalind Franklin, whose electron/microscopic photograph of DNA gave Watson and Crick the last piece to the puzzle for assembling the spiral helix of the DNA Model.

The deadline for registration has been extended, so to any artist out there who might want to join this noble effort, you have time! Registration is 2/9/23.

The show only goes up for a day, so you drop off on Feb. 24th and pick up on the 25th after the show. Even if you aren't interested in entering a work, you might want to take the opportunity to see the work! It is always a good show! Oh, and I almost forgot, there are cash prizes!

This is a project full of Heart, so I think I can use this as my wish for you to have a Happy Valentines Day! Also, think of this as a good early motivation to get something special for that one you love be it a friend, a lover, a spouse, a parent, a sister/brother, neighbor, whoever. Hopefully you have lots of people to love! By the way, the Winter Group Show is still up at The Station, 10 E. Chestnut, Merchantville, NJ and you can not only have a GREAT meal there, but the shop is full of wonderful things for a unique valentine gift, as well as delicious baked goods for the same purpose, if you arent' ready to spring for something big like a work of art, although the prices on the Art there are very very reasonable! Also they have cards, and you can always get a gift card for a lunch for that special someone!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com

The Root of Inspiration

The photo above is from the opening of the show BRAVE 100, in 2019 at the Eiland Arts Center in Merchantville, NJ 2019, the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, when Women Won the Right to Vote! The show was a celebration of that momentous event and I was so proud to be included and even more proud to win first prize for my entry which was entitled Pocketbooks.

The work was 5 quilt squares per piece, with an acrylic portrait on water color paper behind clear plastic sewn into the front of each square. Five 'pages' or squares were sewn together at the top and a hanging strap was attached. Each portrait was of a woman of accomplishement who was a hero of mine: Margaret Meade, anthropoliogist, Rachel Carson, environmentalist and author of a ground breaking book: Silent Spring, and Frances Moore Lappe, who wrote another ground breaking book Diet for a Small Planet about the impact of animal agriculture on our environment and our health. They were just three of the twenty women I featured in this work.

There were many inspirations for the format of this piece: my Grandmother Mabel who was a quilter and inspired my lifelong interest in quilting and women's lives, Judy Chicago who opened the Art World to Women's needlework and who also opened the Art World to the idea of collaborative work. Finally, my main inspiration was my daughter. When Lavinia was very little, I wanted to introduce her to books and I wanted them to be safe and relevant. Books were very expensive and in the beginning we wwere fairly poor, so I made the books. I wanted them to be safe so I made the pages out of fabric; at first, they were made from some of my own clothes, later, from things I bought at thrift shops to offer a variety of textures. It was the development of the same idea, a square of fabric with a pocket in the middle. In the first ones, I put photographs - City Animals (a photo of a police horse, a cat in an antique store window, a pigeon) and so on. The book had pages made of faux fur, satin, corduroy, muslin, denim, tweed wool, to offer a variety of textures for her to enjoy. I loved that book and so did she. I would put in the pockets, little toys like dollar store trinkets or things I had, a threat spool, a collection of buttons.

I always loved that idea and wanted to do something more with it, so when the show came up, I thought of putting portraits in the pockets.

Just this morning, in e-mail, I recieved a notice of a show coming up in February featuring historic women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. I thought I should use my idea again and do a five page "Pocketbook" with one woman for each area: Rosalind Franklin (who took the electron-Microscopic photo of dna that Watson and Crick useed to figure out the 3-d model, and since today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I decided to add an African American woman of scientific merit in engineering, the first African American Woman to receive a medical degree in Opthalmology who invented laser technology to remove cataracts, Patricia Bath.

Just an hour ago, I went to Walmart and bought the fabrics and to make it a little different, I thought I might embroider the names on the squares so I bought embroidery thread and needles. Now I have my work cut out for me and only two weeks to get it done! Tomorrow I will et up my sewing machine in the back room. My materials today cost $100. My materials for the first Pocketbooks Art Piece cost about $400 because I had to spend $200 to get my sewing machine fixed and up and running - it was my mother's sewing machine, and I also have my great-grandmother's sewing machine in the attic. the quilting grandmother and her mother, Mabel Wright and Catherine Sandman, made a living with their sewing machines after they were widowed, and that was how they survived and raised their children.

Happy Trails - through the woods, the mind, the world! Jo Ann

to comment or discuss use my e-mail wrightj45@yahoo.com as 'comments' is polluted by robo spam.

Happy New Year and Resolutions

Today I am going to Cooper Health near the Cooper River in Cherry Hill for X-Rays to begin my first and foremost Resolution for 2023 which is to improve my fitness with an eye to the future and staying independent in my own home through my old age. On Thursday I begin Physical Therapy to address issues that have arisen recently, as in the last year or two: increasing knee stiffness and inability to bend my leg for basic functions such as putting on socks and tying shoes. Hips issues: I stopped going to the gym in the middle of November because a couple of the machines I was using caused hip pain which I hadn't experienced before. I decided to see my doctor and get physical therapy before I continued at the gym to make sure I am not causing new problems. My spine has been stiffening over a couple of decades since I was diagnosed with desiccated disc disease,which means the little pads between the vertabrae are drying and becoming brittle. I had inured a couple of those discs in my active outdoor life in my 50's, lifting a kayak off a car and that's how I found out about this problem. So Number 1 Resolution - find out how to safely strengthen and increase flexibility so I can ontinue the life I enjoy in the home I love.

The second resolution is one I have been working on for about three years and that is improving and increasing social relationships. As with most people who worked, I had a wide string of friendships created at my job, teaching, and a few groups in which I had membership after retirement: I was a volunteer at a couple of historic sites, and I was an active participant with the Outdoor Club. As age and disabilities increased, I had to let go of these activities and over time, the relationships I had formed, kind of drifted away. In a recent essay based on a Harvard study of happiness that followed nearly a thousand people over 3 generations, it was concluded that social relationships were the number one factor in happiness in life. I decided to do wwhatever I could to increse and improve my own. First, I formed a Seniors group with the help of the mayor of the town where I live. I wrote a proposal to use the Senior Center that had been created in the old firehall and it was presented to Mayor Wolk and then the town council which approved it. I didn't need money or budget, just a place and our Senior Center was PERFECT - handicap accesible, close to my home, and clean and comfortable with a little kitchen. We have been meeting for about 3 or 4 years once a month, though we close down in January and February for weather concerns and then begin again in the Spring. There are about 8 of us who are regulars and a few who drop in to see what we do.

The second thing I did was I joined the Woodbury Friends Meeting. I had been feeling for some time, a need for a spiritual community and spiritual practice and the Woodbury Friends Meeting is less than a 10 minute drive from my home. Here I have found a half dozen new friends with shared values and a chance to develope my spiritual life. Increasingly as we get older, in the modern period, family members move away and there have been numerous articles and even on PBS. last night. a segment on loneliness in America and the negative affect it has on health. A spiritual community is like family in many ways, I find, and the shared values of respect, compassion, kindness and ethical behavior make it a safe space.

Many of the essays go into detail about social relationships and healthy but not as many give actual steps to improve your situation. One that I recieved in e-mail did and I took the first three steps: 1.analyze your existing relationships 2.Make an effort to do an 8 minute phone call with a friend you haven't seen in awhile 3.speak to a stranger. I did all three and the 'stranger' in my case a neighbor, has become a sometime dog walking pal since we began to chat on days when I passed her house walking my dog. Herea re more tips I found:

Make Yourself Available. Building close relationships takes time.

Stay Connected.

Attend Social Activities.

Develop Your Communication Skills.

Build Trust.

Show Up for Others.

Well, this is only the first two weeks of my two big resolutions but I do feel as though I am putting in a good effort and making a good start. All these things take time to develope, like planting a garden, and from time to time, I will post on progress. First I will let you know how my physical therapy experience is going. I am so pleased that I have a caring and proactive general physician, Dr. Deborah Ubele at Cooper Health. When I told her about my incresing proglems with sitting down and standing and other functions, she got right on board with setting a program to address these problems. I feel hopeful.

Have you made resolutions? How are they going? Walking is a great way to begin a fitness effort and my dog helps to keep me on board with that one. My e-mail if you wish to talk about any of these things is: wrightj45@yahoo.com I don't use the comments section on this blog because it is polluted with robo spam and such detritus that it takes too long to delete all of it, and it is too discouraging to see it when I delete it.

Get Going on your Happy Trails! By the way when I write Happy Trails, I still Hear Roy Rogers and Dale Evans singing it! Jo Ann

Peachfields

Peachfields is hosting a Virtual Tour of the oldest one-room school in New Jersey which is located in Mount Holly.

There is a request for a donation with registration. The Zoom Tour is January 12 and you can visit peachfields.org for more information and to register. Years ago, a teacher friend and I were fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit the one-room schoolhouses of this area of South Jersey from Burlington County to parts of Camden County. I have always loved the One-Room School houses of our nation's history and what they represent in the great experiment of educating a nation. My personal favorite one-room school house is in Greenwich, way down south in historic Greenwich on the Cohansey River. It isn't as old as the one in Mount Holly though. My second favorite is the Clara Barton one-room school in Bordentown which I have visited on those special days when historic tours had it open to the public. Happy Trails! Jo ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

Whitesbog

A hike that I often enjoyed back when I was able to do such hikes, was the Moonlight Hike at Whitesbog. In addition to the advice given in the copied and pasted information below, I add that a head-lamp is very useful. Sometimes night hike leaders do not want unnecessary light in the forest but if your leader permist it a head-lamp can be a lifesaver. This is a beautiful and mysterious hike so if you are still able to do such hikes, I recommend this one!

Moonlight Hike meets at the General Store, no reservations are needed. We recommend you arrive a bit early to ensure you meet the group and have time to check-in. Check back here in case of poor weather. The hike will continue in light rain.

Trails can be very bumpy, sandy and it will be dark! You are responsible for your own safety. We recommend bug spray, sturdy shoes, a flashlight to check for potholes in the path, and water. Come explore the village and the bogs by moonlight, this special opportunity is scheduled on or as close to the full moon as possible. An experienced guide will share insights about Whitesbog and the nature that surrounds us.

Meet your guide in the General Store before the start time and look around prior to the start. All walks are 3-5 miles in length.

Trail paths are sandy and can be bumpy or wet. Dress is weather appropriate.

$10 per person suggested donation. Members of Whitesbog Preservation Trust $5

If it is your first visit we recommend you set out early to allow time to find the village and park in the parking lot.

GPS address: 799 Lakehurst Rd., Browns Mills, NJ 08015

Please check Facebook for weather updates on Moonlight walks.

PLEASE NOTE: The Start times vary by the date due to the time of the year.

Reservations are NOT required! You can call and leave your name, phone number, and the number of participants at 609-893-4646, but it is not required!

If improving fitness is on your list of New Year's Resolutions, then you may want ot join up with this hike!

Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com