The Next Thing Is Joy: The Gospel According to Vivian Grace by Tracey Michae'l Lewis

Author:Tracey Michae'l Lewis [Lewis, Tracey Michae'l]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: United States, Contemporary Fiction, African American, Christian, Literature & Fiction
Amazon: B00RO9H7G0
Publisher: NewSeason Books
Published: 2014-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

***

I’d come to terms with the fact that I would never leave Reggie just because he beat me. That would never be my last straw because sadly, pain was something I’d become accustomed to. No, my reason for leaving him had to be much simpler. At least it seemed that way.

Thanksgiving night of 1972 started off pretty good. I was eight-months pregnant and readying myself to give birth. Reggie had just spent sixty days in a treatment program and seemed to have come back to me a brand new man. He was the man I met in the bland cafeteria of the local school where we served breakfast to little brown girls and boys. The man who captured me with one glance and three words.

He seemed to have accepted the fact that I was going to have the baby despite him pressuring me to “get rid of it” only a few months before. I’d even overheard him bragging about “the kid” to the other Brothers—the ones that were left anyway. Since the raids and political turmoil had picked up, many had walked away from the cause. Or maybe the cause had walked away from them. Some had gone back to college if they hadn’t been drafted to Vietnam (or gone AWOL because they were drafted). Others were in jail or on the streets addicted. But there were still a few left; those that held out hope that the Panthers could make a difference. Or maybe they had nowhere else to go; no place to call home; no one to call Brother.

Anyway, on several occasions I overheard Reggie talking tough and explaining how his seed would lead the next generation of revolutionaries. I don't know if it was just a rant to convince himself that he could shape up and be a real father or if it was just him blowing off steam but either way, I held out hope that it was the former.

The one thing I loved about the Panthers was we were all about educating people on the real history of America. And when I say real history, I'm not talking about the history that was taught in grade schools across America back then.

This was never more true than when it came to holidays.

For most people, Thanksgiving was and is a day to give thanks, eat good food, and spend time with your family. However, no one ever considered what the holiday, as it was celebrated in America, really meant. Every year, we’d pass out informational flyers (later known as ‘communist literature’) in order to educate the community on the travesties that were committed against native peoples by colonialists only a short time after the alleged Plymouth Rock unity feast. The holiday represented to us not thankfulness, but the beginning of the demise of a whole people. It was not unlike our own plight.

Ironically, despite the holiday’s evil symbolism, you could not find one Panther who’d forgo their Thanksgiving feast or choose not to participate in any of the festivities held by their family or friends.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.