Born to Norwegian immigrants in the 1920s Midwestern United States, Marion Helland learned how to celebrate one's differences and advocate for others who were seen as outsiders. By becoming an elementary school teacher, she found her avenue for pursuing equality by opening her students' eyes to the discrimination that permeated the world around them. Her lessons about the reality of racism and the need for critical analysis worked to change the one-sided narrative of segregation, which had long been impressed on young minds. In 1965, Marion responded to an ad "Teachers WANTED to Teach FREEDOM" and migrated down to the segregated American South. There she began her lifelong commitment to social justice, documenting her life's work in 50 boxes of journals and photographs. Years later, Marion entrusted these to her family to share with others, to remind us how a history of segregation and intolerance still resonates in our struggle for equality today. In this collection of memoirs, we follow Marion as she visits a Ku Klux Klan meeting, teaches in the Freedom Schools, marches in the Meredith March, camps on Capitol Hill with the Poor People's Campaign, and changes social policy for years to come. In her lifetime, Marion bore witness to the endless atrocities that stained our collective consciousness, and she worked with other visionaries to inspire our march towards a brighter, more equitable future. - publisher.
OCLC:
(OCoLC)1372181966
Locations:
MUPB553 -- Whittemore Public Library (Whittemore) — Copies: 10
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.