Jim Crow Era

In this installment from the StoryCorps Mobile Tour visit to Fort Myers in Feb. 2024, we hear Martha Bireda, Ph.D. talk with her son Jaha Cummings about perceptions of their own childhoods, the importance of family and community for POC during the Jim Crow era.

In my life, I have found myself as a colored, a negro, a Black, an African American, and a person of color. This is my reflection as a colored girl. Cultural deprivation is a sociological theory that asserts that ethnic and social groups possess inferior values, norms, skills, and knowledge which place them at a disadvantage in the larger society.

In my life, I have found myself as a colored, a negro, a Black, an African American, and a person of color. This is my reflection as a colored girl, growing up to become Negro in college.

In my life, I have found myself as a colored, a negro, a Black, an African American, and a person of color. This is my reflection as a colored girl. There was never a question that Bireda would attention college, at least according to her community.

In my life, I have found myself as a colored, a negro, a Black, an African American, and a person of color. This is my reflection as a colored girl. Education wasn't just for the classroom. Training at home taught some empowering lessons.

In my life, I have found myself as a colored, a negro, a Black, an African American, and a person of color. This is my reflection as a colored girl. Education was essential for her family, but attending the best school in the region forced Bireda to ride the bus from Punta Gorda to Sarasota.

In my life, I have found myself as a colored, a negro, a Black, an African American, and a person of color. This is my reflection as a colored girl. Education had been a core value since the colored community in Punta Gorda was founded.

In my life, I have found myself as a colored, a negro, a Black, an African American, and a person of color. This story is my reflection as a colored girl. Traveling as a colored child was my greatest adventure, while also experiencing unlimited inconveniences. The colored travel experience during Jim Crow could involve frustration, indignities, and even danger.

In my life, I have found myself as a colored, a negro, a Black, an African American, and a person of color. This story is my reflection as a colored girl. My mother, Bernice Andrews Russell is memorialized on a mural in Punta Gorda. She was my example of the colored woman that a colored girl like me must aspire to be.

In my life, I have found myself as a colored, a negro, a Black, an African American, and a person of color. This is my reflection as a colored girl.