5.9.25: LOOSE ENDS

Reader responses and my additions (in italics) to recent PINKs:

BILLIE HOLIDAY (4.20): “What a story!” “Amazing, brave women!” “This is so powerful and eloquent, as well as heartbreaking. I play recordings of Billie Holiday often and never fail to be deeply affected by her voice and lyrics.”

“Billie Holiday was a singer with a very limited vocal range but a feel for the music and timing of how jazz is approached [which] changed much of what we hear today. Despite her own troubles with the law, she understood how blacks had to stand against the indignities they faced daily. Thanks for making folks aware of the tragedies that shaped her life. And the impact she had.”

NANCY DREW (4.28) remains a fan favorite. “I read every one!” “Loved this PINK . . . as I loved Nancy Drew.” “So interesting and so complicated! I never read Nancy Drew books. Now I wish I had.”

“My favorite as soon as I could read! Every several years I reread my collection. As a lifelong fan, I had already studied much of the history but delighted to read more this morning!”

“For Harriet Adams's 80th birthday, Random House, at its corporate HQ on Madison Ave., put out spotlights to highlight its birthday party for Adams. Also, sometime in the past 20 or 30 years, a real kid who was accidentally locked in a car trunk, followed the hairpin (?) method Nancy Drew had used to escape.”

“I loved Nancy Drew, spunky girl detective. My great-aunt Emma Bugbee (suffragist, NY Herald Tribune reporter and member of the Overseas Press Club) wrote a series of 13 books about another spunky girl reporter named Peggy: Peggy Goes Overseas, Peggy Covers the News, in the 1940s.”

“This was such fun to read but I had no idea that Carolyn Keene was a made-up person. Thx for these columns.”

“While I really enjoy all your columns, I must tell you how much I enjoyed the one about Nancy Drew. I was a huge fan and read all the books. She was quite a character. I loved her independence and abilities. The background you gave was just fascinating.”

“Your own next book! Why not? Very interesting particularly Wellesley’s role.” No need for me to write this book. See GIRL SLEUTH.

FREEDOM RIDERS (5.4): “Fantastic. I knew part of this story but learned so much - particularly about Nash's involvement. Thanks for researching and sharing this compelling story - even more important given this administration's determination to erase the heroic accomplishments of these brave women and men.”

I recently learned that the 1960 sit-ins prompted an inter-racial protest against segregation that predated the Freedom Rides. A new documentary depicts five Howard University students and a lot of white Jews and union members who picketed Glen Echo Amusement Park, located on the DC streetcar line in suburban Maryland. The whites lived in Bannockburn, a neighborhood created to oppose racial and religious real estate covenants. Glen Echo excluded Black families from its carousel, swimming pool, roller coaster and dance pavilion -- unless they were foreign diplomats. The film’s title, “Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round,” references a Langston Hughes poem.

Part of my research for FORMIDABLE was a road trip that followed the route of the first Freedom Ride. I visited Farmville, VA; Greensboro, NC; Atlanta; Aniston, Birmingham and Montgomery, AL (also Selma); and Jackson, MS. Every stop was a marker of white mob violence and a memorial to Black courage and resilience. It was a heartbreaking jounrey.

As David Brooks wrote in his NYT column a week ago, “The casual tolerance of cruelty is a river that runs through human history.” It cannot be denied, ignored or white-washed.

Since Trump’s GSA reversed its decision to sell the Montgomery Greyhound bus terminal, now a civil rights museum, Representative Shomari Figures (D-AL) has introduced the Civil Rights Landmarks Protection Act. It would require Congressional approval before the “sale, disposal, declaration of excess or surplus, transfer or conveyance” of historically significant federal property.

A REFLECTION: One of the reasons I was hired to lead an independent school is that I expressed enthusiasm for fundraising. To me, asking people for money was offering them an opportunity to support something they cared about. It’s lots easier to ask on behalf of a cause or a candidate than for oneself. If you find value in my PINK THREADS, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber. Subscriptions underwrite my time. I believe that everyone, but especially women, should have their time and work valued. I have chosen not to offer more columns or special perks to paid subscribers, so you are also supporting access for other readers.

Thank you. I’m value each of you.

Onward!

Betsy