Murders, The Capitol Attack And An Acquittal: How Far Have We Really Come? — Blavity
Recently, I was considering how far we have come as Black women in these United States in 2021. I realize that we’ve come this far by faith — that was one of my grandmother’s, Ruth Westcott James (1913–1998), favorite songs. She never forgot that she was the granddaughter of former slaves.
She was the daughter of John Arthur Westcott Sr. and Georgie Anna Gunter (Gunther, in some censuses). She was also the granddaughter of John Gunter (born 1857) and Mary Ann Mears (born 1860), and Frank Wescott (born 1857) and Ruth Savage (born 1860). Ruth Westcott James was raised and loved by formerly enslaved people who knew the value of freedom. They instilled in her a drive to improve not only her life but the life of those around her. Her kindness and love was memorialized and written about in a book, Backward Glances, by Margaret Boole Downing.
When I think about her sacrifices and how she endured being sharecroppers’ daughters, and then being a sharecropper herself, she didn’t have much, yet she gave all she had to those around her. When I think of how she was viewed as less than because of her skin color, I am saddened to think about how we are still enduring this same racial hatred over 100 years later.
