Racism to Reconciliation Archives - Page 10 of 12

#MLK50: A Hostile Land

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 3, 2018. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 5 Comments on #MLK50: A Hostile Land

In reading Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community, I was struck by Dr. King’s repeated point that, following the Civil War, the country released the formerly enslaved into the land of their oppressors. These men and women found themselves in the “territory of their enemies.” In their new life, they were financially dependent...

#MLK50: What was the Civil Rights Movement?

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on April 2, 2018. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 7 Comments on #MLK50: What was the Civil Rights Movement?

Here in Memphis, we are about to roll from Holy Week and Easter Sunday into the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassination. In preparation for this, I’ve been reading Where Do We Go from Here, Dr. King’s last book published in 1968. This phrase—Where Do We Go from Here?—is the tag used by MLK50 for...

Activists Weren’t Born that Way

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on March 24, 2018. Posted in General, GRIEF, Racism to Reconciliation. 4 Comments on Activists Weren’t Born that Way

When I wear my Black Lives Matter t-shirt, I’m self-conscious at first then I forget about it until a middle-aged white man keeps staring or a woman my age stares and looks away and stares back to make sure she’s seen what she thinks she’s seen. And then I feel a bottomless well of pride for the activists who speak up and walk...

After a Year, Enough

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on December 10, 2017. Posted in FASHION, GOD, GRIEF, HOMELESSNESS, LOVE, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 11 Comments on After a Year, Enough

I have lived in shock for a year. I could not believe that a man who put himself at the center of the universe and tore down everyone around him in the ugliest manner possible had been elevated to the presidency. The vote of my fellow and sister Americans sanctioning his behavior felt like gaslighting, an attempt to convince me that all I saw...

I Bet You do it Too

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on November 16, 2017. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 6 Comments on I Bet You do it Too

The first Community Writers Retreat I put together for Door of Hope Writing Group, the panel of facilitators was white. Every writer I’d identified to come and teach us about writing in an all-day conference was Caucasian. I wasn’t being racist. I was asking for favors: will you come—unpaid—to the Retreat and teach a workshop on writing? Of course...

Writing as Hope

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on October 14, 2017. Posted in GOD, Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 12 Comments on Writing as Hope

Romans 8:24-25 24 But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. I am working on a trilogy. The first novel is in the hands of my agent. He’s had it for two years. He hasn’t sold it . . . yet. This novel is THE BONE TRENCH. Here’s the “elevator...

I Would Have Been A Confederate Soldier

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on August 17, 2017. Posted in Featured, General, Racism to Reconciliation. 16 Comments on I Would Have Been A Confederate Soldier

If I had lived during the 1860s, I probably would’ve done exactly what my mother’s grandfather did. Cursing, I would’ve picked up a gun and left my Mississippi family to protect my homeland. I would’ve fully understood I was fighting for a cause I did not support—preserving the right to own people. But the irresistible...

Tearing Apart Your Manuscript

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on May 15, 2017. Posted in Racism to Reconciliation, Writing. 9 Comments on Tearing Apart Your Manuscript

I know, I know—I’ve been missing as of late. For two months, I’ve been holed up inside my novel doing everything I can to meet a self-imposed deadline for revision. The first of March, I received a reader’s report from my paid editor on JAZZY AND THE PIRATE. As you, my readers, know, I’ve been working on this novel since...

It’s Not Anyone’s Fault Our Jails are Racist

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 20, 2017. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 4 Comments on It’s Not Anyone’s Fault Our Jails are Racist

The exploitation of Black Americans in my lifetime shows itself as mass incarceration. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not calling those working in the judicial system racist. I don’t blame the white woman who confused my Black friend for a purse snatcher months after the actual mugging took place. I don’t blame the police officer who arrested my...

Don’t Fall for the Ewing Effect

Written by Ellen Morris Prewitt on February 5, 2017. Posted in General, Racism to Reconciliation. 4 Comments on Don’t Fall for the Ewing Effect

Cast your mind back to 1982. The time is the NCAA Basketball Championship. The game pits the Georgetown Hoyas, coached by the brilliant John Thompson, against Dean Smith’s Carolina Tar Heels. The Hoyas’ star is the new phenom center Patrick Ewing. As the game opens, Carolina puts up a shot. The seven-foot Ewing soars to the rim and knocks it...