Each February, we hear about the lives of Black Americans whose names occupy history books. This year, we wanted to zoom in on the personal histories of contemporary Black women, some of whom you may be familiar with, others likely not.

We asked five women, including Booker Prize-winning author British author Bernardine Evaristo and writer and podcast host Rebecca Carroll, to share a record of their lives — their origins, their upbringing, the elements that shaped them — in their own words.

These are their Black histories.

For this newsletter, we’ve excerpted a portion of each essay. See the link below to read the full pieces. 

32 | California
Carrie is a creative who works in inclusive marketing and a mother of four

I’m a California baby born on the Sunday before Mardi Gras — flown from San Francisco International to New Orleans’s Louis Armstrong at 2 months old, to be baptized in the waters of Blessed Sacrament Church, where my parents were married in the summer of 1969, a birthright that mattered most to my mother and my grandmother: descendants of the Diaspora, survivors of the hurricane and the flood; two women bred from the same New Orleans sweat and soil and love that made magic of my bi-coastal childhood. 

61 | Britain
Bernardine is the author of eight books, including the Booker Prize-winning “Girl, Woman, Other”

The London suburb of my childhood in the ’60s and ’70s was overwhelmingly White. I was half-caste, or so-called in those days, which wasn’t considered an insult, until it was replaced by “mixed-race” and latterly, “biracial.” Family makeup: Nigerian father with Brazilian slave ancestry; White English mother with Irish and German heritage thrown into the mix. Eight children, 10 years, I was the fourth. Other than my family, I rarely came across other Black people, and for most of my secondary education, I was the only Black girl in a school of 500 girls.

51 | New York
Rebecca is a writer, podcast host and author of multiple books, including “Surviving the White Gaze”

In the days after Michael Brown was fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, my then 9-year-old son asked me if I was going to get shot because I’m Black. And then, as if suddenly making the connection for the first time, he asked, “Am I going to get shot because I’m Black?” It was a conversation I didn’t expect to have so early on, or that I even felt truly prepared to have as a Black mother. No one had given me “the talk” in my White adoptive family, despite the consistent racism I experienced throughout my own childhood.

17 | Mississippi
Madison is a high school senior 

Being a Black female hailing from the Mississippi Delta is hard. I am living in one of the poorest areas in the country with little access to opportunity. Counties are still extremely polarized. Public school districts are failing while private schools flourish, and race relations are still tense. I think the beauty in my story is that I got to experience “both worlds” in the Mississippi Delta. 

34 | Ohio
Jennifer is a small-business owner

I am a first-generation American. My family moved from Africa to the United States in the early 1980s before I was born. I was raised in a predominantly White area with maybe one other African American family. I did not see color. I knew I was African, and my neighbors and friends were White, but I didn’t realize the significance of our different races. Looking back on my childhood, I can honestly say that I have dealt with racism as early as 5 years old — from being called the “N” word on the school playground to having kids throw rocks at me because I was Black. 

ICYMI

Three need-to-know stories

01.

Harriet Tubman has been inducted into the Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame. Most Americans know Harriet Tubman as the fearless woman who escaped slavery and then helped lead 300 other enslaved people to freedom, but she wasn’t only a hero of the Underground Railroad. Recruited by the Union Army, she later became a spy and scout behind Confederate territory lines.

02.

Pope Francis appointed a French nun, Nathalie Becquart, as one of two undersecretaries to the Synod of Bishops, an advisory body to the pope. It marks the first time a woman will hold a voting position at the Vatican. This is welcome news for many millennial women who were raised Catholic, the latest sign of progress in a church that has felt out of step with their reality.

03.

The Senate voted Saturday to acquit Donald Trump of a charge of inciting the deadly attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, bringing the historic second impeachment trial of the former president to a close. Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker wrote about the women who were in the headlines during the trial. 

Regram

A share from @thelilynews

Good news

A story to make you smile

A neighborhood on Long Island is bedecked with Christmas decorations — and not because people neglected to take them down. Twinkly lights and festive ornaments recently reappeared on the streets of Bethpage, in a show of support for a grieving neighbor. It started when Sara Pascucci received an anonymous letter in the mail on Feb. 3 that scolded her for still having Christmas decorations up. The message hit her hard. She lost both her father and her aunt to covid-19 in January, less than one week apart. Her father, who lived with her, had put up the Christmas decorations; she couldn’t bring herself to take them down. She shared the letter in the Long Island Moms Facebook group and explained why it was particularly painful, and the community was outraged on her behalf, writes Sydney Page in The Washington Post. In a show of solidarity, many neighbors began putting their holiday decorations back up.

Watch now

The latest from our video team

Ten years ago, the release of the music video “Friday” unleashed a storm of online harassment against 13-year-old singer Rebecca Black. She remembers feeling “existential dread” throughout her teenage years as a result of the bullying. Now 23, Black has come out as queer and is making new music. She says she hopes to be a role model for girls like her 13-year-old self. Watch her talk about how she’s healed.

Until next time

But before we part, some recs

Maya Sugarman

Video editor, The Lily

What I’m texting with friends about:

“Fake Famous,” a social-experiment-meets-documentary that tries to turn three people into social media influencers. Texting live commentary with my group chats made watching it an even more enjoyable experience.

What I’m listening to:

Reply All’s four-part podcast series about Bon Appétit, by reporter Sruthi Pinnamaneni. The episodes delve into what happened after the magazine faced allegations last year of being a racist and toxic workplace.

What I’m writing with:

I recently rediscovered Sakura’s Gelly Roll pens, and particularly love the metallic line. Journaling in glitter brings me joy these days, and I like the nostalgic feeling of slipping them into the pen case I’ve kept since my teenage years.

🖤

Thanks for reading.