Alright: How My Black Parents Reclaimed The Promise Of America By Car
<p>Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described the indignity that black travelers experienced in his searing <em>Letter from Birmingham Jail.</em> He described the cramped sleeping arrangements in cars that were intimately known by scores of weary black travelers. Black bodies would contort themselves in cramped quarters until they could obtain a position that would summon a restorative slumber. In my teens, my grandmother, mother, and aunt would describe their journey from Arizona to Oklahoma. Stories of how they would drive through the barren landscape of Texas that was made inscrutable by a moonless sky, sustained by food squirreled away in a wicker picnic basket, and rotely singing gospel songs to stave off drowsiness on their way to the safety of my great-grandparent’s farm. I would ask why didn’t they stop at one of the many motels that dotted the highways. My mother would smile and quickly dismiss my question or say something about not having money to afford a motel.</p>
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