Oct. 5, 2021
Maugan Shepherd and Allen Sims
Maugan Shepherd and Allen Sims are the recollections The Blackman Who Reads Aloud journeys to today. Maugan Shepherd, whose first words to his interviewer in Alabama in the late 1930's was that he heard that slavery was coming back. Allen Sims who wanted to return to slavery because being freed offered his life no enjoyment, only the bitter fruits of poverty. This is why this nation can no longer ignore the pleas for black reparations. Because, our ancestors and many of the descendants of those enslaved by slavery and Jim Crow still suffer from the adverse effects of those institutions today.
Bryant Bolling
The oral history you read on the life's of Shepherd and Sims was a powerful reflection on the condition and attitudes of the Black people who experience it.
SMOKE, your readings are important. Keep R