Survival, Resistance and Resilience

Amber N. Mitchell, director of education at Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, has spent a great deal of time considering how to preserve and present the history of American slavery to visitors. In the latest issue of Learning for Justice magazine, Mitchell details how the experiential learning tour at Whitney Plantation sheds light on the lives of the people whose enslavement generated great wealth for their captors.

Mitchell’s reflections on the history of the South are in keeping with the theme of this issue of LFJ magazine: The Power of Place. When focusing on the fight for democracy and justice in the South, we must acknowledge those at the center of an unjust system, those whose very survival served as a form of resistance. “For sites of slavery like Whitney Plantation, physical spaces allow for empathy and connection to the past, where books and other two-dimensional sources fall short,” Mitchell writes. “It is important to remind our visitors that Black people were and are at the center of the story of the U.S. and that we have the right to question past and present narratives.”

Read more here.

Where I’m From

Growing up in rural Mississippi, Lolita Bolden remembers her grandfather describing all he endured for his right to vote as a Black man. And she shares his words in her poem: “Go to school and get a good education … What you get in your head, nobody can take away from you.” Today, Bolden draws on her childhood memories to stay determined in the continuing march for justice.

The Shoebox Lunch

In this story for young readers from the new issue of LFJ magazine, 11-year-old Jordan helps his grandmother clean out her home six months after the death of his grandfather, “Pop.” An old metal lunchbox prompts Nana to reveal a poignant story about Pop’s business travels back in the days of the segregated South, when even finding a place to eat safely was no easy thing.

The Spring 2023 edition of Learning for Justice magazine is here! This issue highlights the deep-rooted legacies of power and justice in communities in the South. As attacks on democracy intensify and children’s education and their very well-being are threatened, LFJ Director Jalaya Liles Dunn emphasizes that “the victories for justice must be fought for and by ordinary people in the South together with allies from other parts of the nation.”