Karen shares stories about how her childhood shaped her into a pioneer having the courage and resilience to defeat opposition she faced when applying to become the first black member of the DAR; her parents being fervent civil rights activists and requiring her to ride a bus one and a half hours each way to integrate a school "because somebody has to", describing it as the “worst year of my life”; being shaped by growing up in Detroit, Michigan in the 1950's and 60's; growing up reading books about the black struggle in her home library; exploring commercial art, attending operas, visiting museums, learning violin, and being in Campfire Girls as a youth; reluctantly being a debutante and her father founding The Cotillion Club and presenting young black women to society; her father ending up in a convalescent home as a kid from a leg injury going untreated due to lack of access to a doctor; her father reinjuring his leg in the Detroit race riots, as a student, and him deciding to amputate to not let it stand in the way of graduating medical school; keeping her father's poem by Emerson on her wall; her father becoming a doctor and her mother working as a teacher; majoring in anthropology at Fisk University; graduating from Oakland University with a bachelor's in psychology; completing Wayne State University law school as a single mom; going into law to apply research skills developed from doing genealogy; working as a litigator, in-house counsel, and a lobbyist; knitting to honor the practice of ancestors; participating in colonial period reenactments to carry out her interest in living history; her membership in the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches and her ancestors being hung and accused of witchcraft; her membership in and being eligible for numerous New England hereditary societies and feeling "more American than apple pie".
This is the first in a series of three episodes.
In the second episode, Karen talks about her pioneering genealogical research which led to discovering her white Revolutionary War patriot William Hood and shares her family oral history about what happened when Jennie Daisy Hood, her white maternal great grandmother, married a black man, Prince Albert Weaver, in 1889; and her enslaved paternal great-great-grandmother Charity Ann being torn away, as a child, from her mother who ran after the wagon that carried her off, crying out goodbyes.
In the third episode, Karen discusses being admitted to the DAR in 1977 as the first known black member by defying resistance within the society; being unable to meet the requirement of attaining the sponsorship of two members since no one would invite her to a chapter; then President General Baylies reaching out to chapters to ask who would accept her; being blackballed by a chapter who voted against sponsoring her; the Ezra Parker chapter in Royal Oak, Michigan who finally sponsored her; a California chapter contesting her application; and Mrs. Baylies protecting her by putting the application documents in her desk and closing the file for years.
Read Karen's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters
Subscribe to the newsletter at www.daughterdialogues.com
Follow @DaughterDialogs on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
Karen shares stories about how her childhood shaped her into a pioneer having the courage and resilience to defeat opposition she faced when applying to become the first black member of the DAR; her parents being fervent civil rights activists and requiring her to ride a bus one and a half hours each way to integrate a school "because somebody has to", describing it as the “worst year of my life”; being shaped by growing up in Detroit, Michigan in the 1950's and 60's; growing up reading books about the black struggle in her home library; exploring commercial art, attending operas, visiting museums, learning violin, and being in Campfire Girls as a youth; reluctantly being a debutante and her father founding The Cotillion Club and presenting young black women to society; her father ending up in a convalescent home as a kid from a leg injury going untreated due to lack of access to a doctor; her father reinjuring his leg in the Detroit race riots, as a student, and him deciding to amputate to not let it stand in the way of graduating medical school; keeping her father's poem by Emerson on her wall; her father becoming a doctor and her mother working as a teacher; majoring in anthropology at Fisk University; graduating from Oakland University with a bachelor's in psychology; completing Wayne State University law school as a single mom; going into law to apply research skills developed from doing genealogy; working as a litigator, in-house counsel, and a lobbyist; knitting to honor the practice of ancestors; participating in colonial period reenactments to carry out her interest in living history; her membership in the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches and her ancestors being hung and accused of witchcraft; her membership in and being eligible for numerous New England hereditary societies and feeling "more American than apple pie".
This is the first in a series of three episodes.
In the second episode, Karen talks about her pioneering genealogical research which led to discovering her white Revolutionary War patriot William Hood and shares her family oral history about what happened when Jennie Daisy Hood, her white maternal great grandmother, married a black man, Prince Albert Weaver, in 1889; and her enslaved paternal great-great-grandmother Charity Ann being torn away, as a child, from her mother who ran after the wagon that carried her off, crying out goodbyes.
In the third episode, Karen discusses being admitted to the DAR in 1977 as the first known black member by defying resistance within the society; being unable to meet the requirement of attaining the sponsorship of two members since no one would invite her to a chapter; then President General Baylies reaching out to chapters to ask who would accept her; being blackballed by a chapter who voted against sponsoring her; the Ezra Parker chapter in Royal Oak, Michigan who finally sponsored her; a California chapter contesting her application; and Mrs. Baylies protecting her by putting the application documents in her desk and closing the file for years.
Read Karen's biography at www.daughterdialogues.com/daughters
Subscribe to the newsletter at www.daughterdialogues.com
Follow @DaughterDialogs on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter