Sister: An African American Life in Search of Justice

Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography

by Sylvia Bell White

Raised with twelve brothers in a part of the segregated South that provided no school for African American children through the 1940s, Sylvia Bell White went North as a teenager, dreaming of a nursing career and a freedom defined in part by wartime rhetoric about American ideals. In Milwaukee she and her brothers persevered through racial rebuffs and discrimination to find work. Barred by both her gender and color from employment in the city’s factories, Sylvia scrubbed floors, worked as a nurse’s aide, and took adult education courses.            When a Milwaukee police officer killed her younger brother Daniel Bell in 1958, the Bell family suspected a racial murder but could do nothing to prove it—until twenty years later, when one of the two officers involved in the incident unexpectedly came forward. Daniel’s siblings filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city and ultimately won that four-year legal battle. Sylvia was the driving force behind their quest for justice.            Telling her whole life story in these pages, Sylvia emerges as a buoyant spirit, a sparkling narrator, and, above all, a powerful witness to racial injustice. Jody LePage’s chapter introductions frame the narrative in a historical span that reaches from Sylvia’s own enslaved grandparents to the nation’s first African American president. Giving depth to that wide sweep, this oral history brings us into the presence of an extraordinary individual. Rarely does such a voice receive a hearing.Winner, Wisconsin Historical Society Book Award of Merit

Genres: Book Club, Nonfiction

283 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Anthony Rainey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly splendid read. It is part anthology, part biography, combining into an authentic telling of a life story, and a people's story. Sylvia Bell White is an African American Woman, whose brother Daniel Bell, was murdered by Milwaukee police in 1958, and covered up for twenty years. Sylvia Bell White is an African American Woman who for an entire lifetime has yearned for and chased after a better life in an America she knew was denying her the opportunity she deserved. In the telling of these stories, of her pursuit for justice, for her brother Daniel, and for herself, Sylvia and her co-author Jody LePage have done a remarkable job. The book is exquisitely crafted by LePage setting the tone, in time and historical perspective to each chapters beginning and then followed by Sylvia's oral recounting of her rembrances of each timeframe in her life. The life story of Sylvia Bell White would be remarkable, without the tragedy of her brothers murder juxtaposed to it. A very fine read.

[Thea Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Living in Wisconsin and hearing about Daniel Bell's murder this was a sad story. A sister of an African-American male murdered by Milwaukee police tells her story to a white female and encourages her to tell the story. The only girl in a family of 13 that migrated from the south to the north tells how Milwaukee police murdered her brother, Daniel Bell, in 1958. The family suspected murder but could not prove it. In the late 1979's , one of the 2 police officers came forth and told the truth. The police did murder her brother. After over 4 years of litigation justice is served.

[Fredi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking and sincere. She was a great woman.