Friday's Internet Edition, July 25, 2008.
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Features Editor
- Carole Boston Weatherford began writing when she was in first grade.
It was as her mother was bringing her home from school that she recited her first poem. Her mother was so surprised that she pulled the car over, asked Weatherford to repeat the poem — a short one about the seasons of the year — and wrote it down.
Years later, Weatherford would be asked by a group of schoolchildren about her first poem. Unable to remember, Weatherford would ask her mother about it — and would discover that her mother still had it tucked into her dresser drawer, written on a now-tattered piece of paper.
“I basically wrote my way through school,” she said during an appearance Wednesday at Davidson County Community College as part of the school’s Black History Month celebration. “I ended up majoring in creative writing in college, and when my first poem was published, I realized I wanted to be a writer professionally.”
She has been successful at her chosen profession, having authored 20 books celebrating her mission — which is to “mine the past for family, fading traditions and forgotten struggles.”
Many of her books are historical fiction written for children. One such book, “Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins,” is about an eight-year-old who desperately wants a banana split, but who cannot have one since the local lunch counter doesn’t serve blacks.
The girl’s siblings become involved in other sit-ins across the South, and her father fervently believes change is on the horizon.
“Putting segregation in terms of a banana split makes it a child-sized history lesson,” Weatherford said. “That’s important, because it’s something children can relate to.”
Weatherford said she is very interested in picture research, and most of her books contain historical photographs.
For “Freedom on the Menu,” Weatherford said she was able to find history in her backyard — she lives just 12 miles from downtown Greensboro.
There, at the Elm Street Woolworth’s, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain launched the Greensboro sit-ins. In just two months, the sit-in movement spread to 54 cities in nine states.
The group, who came to be known as “The Greensboro Four,” walked into the Woolworth’s to purchase school supplies and other items. They ordered coffee at the lunch counter there at 4:30 p.m., and were refused service. In protest, they remained in their seats until the store closed at 5 p.m.
Weatherford also talked about her latest book, “A Negro League Scrapbook,” which presents a detailed history of the conditions and segregation faced by black baseball players.
She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and an M.A. in publications design from the University of Baltimore.
She has been awarded for her work — she has twice received the North Carolina Juvenile Literature Award and has also won a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship, an NAACP Image Award nomination, and the Carter G. Woodson Award from National Council for the Social Studies.
Weatherford is currently a Visiting Distinguished Professor at Fayetteville State University, and conducts literacy, language arts, social studies, parent education, teacher in-service and community programs.
A newspaper columnist, Carole has been honored by the North Carolina Arts Council, North Carolina Poetry Society and North Carolina Press Association and has also received the Furious Flower Poetry Prize from James Madison University.
Her research interests include oral traditions, photography, folk art, and the Jim Crow era.
DCCC’s Black History Month celebration will continue the rest of this month with A Black History Month Essay Contest.
Participants should compose a two-page essay inspired by a black history or culture theme. The winner will receive $75. Essays are due to the DCCC Learning Assistance Center in the Gee Building by Feb. 21. Winners will be announced Feb. 28.
Other events this month include:
• The life and work of Rosa Parks, known as the mother of the civil rights movement, will be examined in a video shown Feb. 16 at 11 a.m. in the Mendenhall Building, Room 116. Dr. Dottie Burkhart, English instructor, will provide opening remarks. The video will be shown again Feb. 21 at 9 a.m. on the Davie Campus and on the Davidson Campus Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. in the Gee Building, Room 143.
• A Spike Lee documentary titled “Four Little Girls: The Church Bombing,” will be shown Feb. 23 at 11 a.m. in the Mendenhall Building, Room 116. The film documents the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church that took the lives of four young girls. The event became a pivotal moment in the civil rights struggle.
• DCCC’s Black History Month events will conclude Feb. 28 with a “Read-In” at 11 a.m. in Mendenhall 226. Staff and faculty and students will read from literary works that reflect the black experience.
For more information, call DCCC Director of Evening and Weekend Programming Lynn Watts at 249-8186, ext. 6355.
(Feb. 16)