Thought some of ya'll might dig this. She sued her former owner, and won, and it charted a trajectory of success for her descendants. Didn't post the entire article per forum rules.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/02/24/henrietta-wood-reparations-slavery/?arc404=true
“Whether we realize it or not, every little decision our ancestors made charted a path for us as their descendants,” said Nick Sheedy, lead genealogist on the PBS series “Finding Your Roots.” “And the decisions we make today affect the people who come after us. History isn’t some static set of facts. … We are connected to history today.”
The great-grandfather David had known simply as a lawyer was one of the first African Americans to graduate from what is now Northwestern University’s law school, in 1889. David can’t think of anyone in the family who hasn’t gone to college. The family is full of professionals, in medicine, law, social work, information technology, school administration.
After Simms bought the house on South Wabash Avenue, he purchased two more. Where did the money for his tuition and home down payment come from? McDaniel surmised the seed money for Simms’s prosperity came from the restitution Henrietta Wood had won in court.
Then there was the violin that Simms had bought for his son, Arthur Jr., and the music lessons that came with it, symbols of the elder Arthur’s ascent into the middle class. Arthur Jr.'s children and their children, too, would all take up instruments, with one of David’s uncles, William Adkins, making his career as a jazz saxophonist who toured and recorded with Count Basie. David plays the guitar; Winona loved the piano.
Wood’s descendants shared a sense of thrift, self-discipline and the belief that hard work eventually would bring reward. These qualities had been embodied in David’s mother, Mary Blackman, the daughter of Simms’s daughter, Neata.
Mary, who worked for the Chicago Housing Authority, was an accomplished pianist and violinist who sang in the choir at church. On Sunday mornings, she would make delectably flaky biscuits, and David’s friends would come to services with the family just to get a taste. David remembers Mary’s close attention to her children as a single mother, especially when they misbehaved. Like Simms Sr., she took no guff.
“You didn’t mess with her if you wanted to keep your scalp,” said David, now a bespectacled 69-year-old with a full gray beard.
Mary’s children were expected to work, and as a teen, David got a job at the public library. “We were a ‘be all you can be’ family,” he said.
The job kept him out of trouble as the character of the Southside neighborhood where Mary had bought a house in the late 1950s began to change. Even as he plotted his comings and goings to avoid rival gangs, David said his life at home with Mary and his siblings remained a rock.
“We were doing better than everyone around us,” David said. “When I look back now, I think that was part of the legacy. If Henrietta Wood hadn’t sued for what they did to her,” if she hadn’t been the kind of person to sue, he said, “things probably would have turned out very differently.”
After Mary’s children were grown, she earned her undergraduate degree and then a master’s degree from Chicago State University. On graduation day in 1981, Mary posed for a photograph in her cap and gown with David, who had just earned his undergraduate degree that day after serving in the Vietnam War. Mary’s sister, Thyrza, also received her diploma on the same day.
Danielle Blackman grew up looking at that photograph in their Pensacola home. “There wasn’t a point in my life where I thought about not going to college,” Danielle, 34, said. “When you see a picture like that, there’s just no excuse, is there?”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/02/24/henrietta-wood-reparations-slavery/?arc404=true
“Whether we realize it or not, every little decision our ancestors made charted a path for us as their descendants,” said Nick Sheedy, lead genealogist on the PBS series “Finding Your Roots.” “And the decisions we make today affect the people who come after us. History isn’t some static set of facts. … We are connected to history today.”
The great-grandfather David had known simply as a lawyer was one of the first African Americans to graduate from what is now Northwestern University’s law school, in 1889. David can’t think of anyone in the family who hasn’t gone to college. The family is full of professionals, in medicine, law, social work, information technology, school administration.
After Simms bought the house on South Wabash Avenue, he purchased two more. Where did the money for his tuition and home down payment come from? McDaniel surmised the seed money for Simms’s prosperity came from the restitution Henrietta Wood had won in court.
Then there was the violin that Simms had bought for his son, Arthur Jr., and the music lessons that came with it, symbols of the elder Arthur’s ascent into the middle class. Arthur Jr.'s children and their children, too, would all take up instruments, with one of David’s uncles, William Adkins, making his career as a jazz saxophonist who toured and recorded with Count Basie. David plays the guitar; Winona loved the piano.
Wood’s descendants shared a sense of thrift, self-discipline and the belief that hard work eventually would bring reward. These qualities had been embodied in David’s mother, Mary Blackman, the daughter of Simms’s daughter, Neata.
Mary, who worked for the Chicago Housing Authority, was an accomplished pianist and violinist who sang in the choir at church. On Sunday mornings, she would make delectably flaky biscuits, and David’s friends would come to services with the family just to get a taste. David remembers Mary’s close attention to her children as a single mother, especially when they misbehaved. Like Simms Sr., she took no guff.
“You didn’t mess with her if you wanted to keep your scalp,” said David, now a bespectacled 69-year-old with a full gray beard.
Mary’s children were expected to work, and as a teen, David got a job at the public library. “We were a ‘be all you can be’ family,” he said.
The job kept him out of trouble as the character of the Southside neighborhood where Mary had bought a house in the late 1950s began to change. Even as he plotted his comings and goings to avoid rival gangs, David said his life at home with Mary and his siblings remained a rock.
“We were doing better than everyone around us,” David said. “When I look back now, I think that was part of the legacy. If Henrietta Wood hadn’t sued for what they did to her,” if she hadn’t been the kind of person to sue, he said, “things probably would have turned out very differently.”
After Mary’s children were grown, she earned her undergraduate degree and then a master’s degree from Chicago State University. On graduation day in 1981, Mary posed for a photograph in her cap and gown with David, who had just earned his undergraduate degree that day after serving in the Vietnam War. Mary’s sister, Thyrza, also received her diploma on the same day.
Danielle Blackman grew up looking at that photograph in their Pensacola home. “There wasn’t a point in my life where I thought about not going to college,” Danielle, 34, said. “When you see a picture like that, there’s just no excuse, is there?”
