Born Colored: Life Before Bloody Sunday

by Erin Goseer Mitchell

Born Colored is about generations of a family living in the deep South prior to the start of the Civil Rights Movement. Bloody Sunday--March 7, 1965--was the day that 200 troopers beat 500 peaceful marchers with billy clubs, whips and tear gas as they attempted to walk from Selma to Montgomery. Mitchell's book captures this "boiling over" which she sees as the result of years and years of emotional and physical injuries. By simply telling the truth, she captures the tyranny upon which the Movement was built.

Genres: Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially recommend this book to others like myself were “Born White”. The author seems to be both fully the product of a strong, southern African American family and fully a citizen of a multiracial, multicultural community still forming. What this does for her memoir is make things clear to insiders and outsiders simultaneously. It is too easy to lock away our memories of race relations in the well practiced narratives of the Civil Rights Movement. What Born Colored captures is what it was like for one intelligent, ambitious, musical girl observing a world of very peculiar organization. It tells as well what it has been like for the woman that girl became to become a constructive part of the changes that have come.

I have the good fortune to know the author. We attend the same church. Even if I did not know Erin, I would be deeply grateful for her book. I recommend it without reserve.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at life in the time period. I met with the author and the book became more real when I heard her telling some of the stories.

[Greg Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories in each chapter provide a window into the past that is ordinary yet captivating. Many of the experiences are ones to which I could readily relate to given the time I spent with my grandparents on a farm in Tennessee, yet many other parts are totally foreign to me as a white male roughly the same age as the author's children. I am very grateful to the author for insight into a world of which I have never known. I will confess an unbiased review is not possible for me given the positive impact of the author's brother "Sonny" as the teacher for a third of my day in eighth grade in the 1972-1973 school year at Shamrock High School in Decatur, GA for Georgia history and band. I already had great respect for Mr. Goseer, but now I better understand what it meant for him to be one of two black teachers in a school with exactly two black students. Between that personal connection and my career choice in education, it was a forgone conclusion I would enjoy the book. However, even aside from that bias the personal insight and perspective gained from reading the stories about the author's experiences going up as a black women in rural Georgia/Alabama are something valuable to anyone who wants to understand people.

[Patrick Edmondson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was curious about the lives of my African American neighbors growing up in segregation and found this book. The author was born nearly a decade before me 30 miles away. Her account is enjoyable reading. Stories of gathering and storing food really brought memories. Stories of the many slights and prejudices endured also brought memories.
"I was in a reflective mood as we drove back to Atlanta. That was the day I took another look at myself and realized racial prejudice is a two-edged blade. I had also been guilty of prejudicing people by the color of their skin rather than allowing them to define themselves as individuals.
It has taken me a long time to completely overcome the conditioning of growing up in the South, in a racially segregated society. It is a good feeling to be free of those chains. As the Negro spiritual says," Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.""

[MidnightAce Book Bar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book Bar Review 🍷🍷🍷

This was our book club choice for February, a great choice for Black History month and celebration of love, family and community. In Born Colored “Life Before Bloody Sunday” the author documents some vital parts of our history

Ms. Mitchell shares her memoirs giving us an inside view of what it was like for a little colored girl growing up in the south during a time of education inequalities, racism and segregation. We see through her journey of how people, wisdom and events that was part of her life, shaped her into the adult she became.

What I liked most is how the author’s accounts reminded us of the simpler times in the mist of racial disparities and unfair treatments of people of color. There were a few times I had to check my own family tree because so many of the names were familiar.

While I found this one to switch back and forth between time periods, it didn't take away from the informative points.

[Christie P · Rating 5 out of 5]

I casually met and had an opportunity to chat with Mrs. Mitchell during a visit to the DuSable Museum this summer. *Of note: If you're ever in Chicago and Mrs. Mitchell happens to be at the DuSable Museum, do yourself a favor and stop in and chat with her for a while.*
Anyway, about the book, I absolutely enjoyed this book and all of the fond memories she shared throughout her memoir. While I grew in in a completely different time from Mrs. Mitchell, I found myself relating to quite a few of her experiences (visiting my grandparents, going further south to visit relatives, being raised by the neighborhood, etc.) and many of them brought back warm memories of my own. Mrs. Mitchell paints such vivid pictures of people and places that I feel like I was there myself and almost feel like I need to visit Selma to visit all of the places she mentions in the book.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an insightful and thought provoking book about the way that racism affected the life of a young black girl in South Georgia before the Civil Rights Movement.

I grew up in Fitzgerald as well as the author, but my experience was different because I am white. As a young child, I was lucky to have parents who always taught me to be kind to everyone, no matter the color of their skin and I was blind to acts of prejudice. But as a teen ager, I saw first hand that racism was still rampant in my high school in the 1970’s.

Mrs. Mitchell is a lovely storyteller and does a wonderful job of describing her life growing up. Everyone should read this book!!

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting to read about a time during the Jim Crow era.