John Lewis: Faith

 “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 111.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 111

There is one question people ask me more than any other. How did you do it? How did you hold to nonviolence when a pounding wall of vicious hate was pushing through you like waves of fire during the protests and sit-ins of the civil rights movement?

How was it possible to be cracked on the head with a night stick, left bleeding and unconscious on the trampled grass, and not raise your hand one time in self defense? How could you bear the clear hypocrisy of being arrested on trumped up charges and taken to jail for disturbing the peace when you were the one who was attacked and abused?

How could you survive the unanswered threats, the bombings, and murders of a lineage of people like Medgar Evers, Jim Lee Jackson, Andrew Goodman, James Cheney, and Michael Mickey Schwerner without holding any bitterness or anger?

The answer is simple. faith, faith has the power to deliver us all, even from the greatest harm.

Junebug

 

Junebug was a good cow. So I’m told. By the time I was old enough to notice, Junebug was gone. Tuscaloosa zoning had pushed Junebug out.

Junebug was gone but not forgotten. She was a good cow. Nothing quite like a good cow. Everybody needs one. But cities say “No!”.

An Envelope Notated "You Need To Read This" Lucille Daffron (Allen)'s effort to record moves of the family while they were tenant farming

The Family of William Thomas Daffron and Jessie Mae Hackleman Moved From Place to Place in Alabama during the Years The Family Worked As Tenant Farmers

An old envelope is my mother's effort to reconstruct the moves. 

My mother's notes do not have a date. The envelope itself is postmarked 11 March 1983 

Front of Envelope:

Back of Envelope:

Details:

Unfortunately, what I cannot yet add are the dates

The boys were born

 On this envelope my mother, Lucille Daffron Allen, noted the dates and times of birth of her three sons. Father was Julius Page Allen

Sidney Page, Oct 14, 1939. 3:30 A.M.  Old Druid City Hospital (now U of A hospital). Dr. Rosco Shamblin. 

Robert Daffron. August 6 1941. 4:30 P.M. Old Druid City Hospital

William Julius. November 8, 1945, 6:30 P.M. "Dad's 40th birthday". 

She does not say so, but I think that I, William Julius, was also born at Old Druid City Hospital, located on the campus of the University of Alabama. 

Dowdles

 My Dowdle Family Photograph

Document photographs, as distinct from documentary photographs, can be frustrating. Once subject and other information is lost, the photograph may be charming and have an aesthetic appeal and be interesting from a purely temporal point of view, but devoid of the kind of information that a viewer wishes for they often come up lacking. This is true of family photographs such the Dowdle Family, a picture I inherited from my mother who got it from her mother, Jessie Mae Hackleman (Daffron). 

A line in pencil on the back, in my grandmother's hand says "This Jesse & Jessie Dowdle & family"

Family Search org provides this overview of the family

Jesse Allen Dowdle
Male
1856–1932
•

Jessie Mildred Goodman
Female
1861–1929
•
Marriage
<1878>Millport, Lamar, Alabama

• 

  James Edwin Dowdle

  Male

  1879–1947

  •
• 

  William Lester Dowdle

  Male

  1880–1953

  •
• John Belton Dowdle

  Male

  1883–1964

  •
• 

  Mamie Lou Dowdle

  Female

  1886–1971

  •
• 

  Jesse Olen Dowdle

  Male

  1891–1948

  •
• George Leon Dowdle

  Male

  1891–1968

  •
• Waldsee Theo Dowdle

  Male

  1893–1920

  •
• Louis Vaughn Dowdle

  Male

  1896–1949

  •
• Katie Lee Dowdle

  Female

  1900–1985

  •