Colored Girls DO Go To College
Author: Ruth, Darwin, Gia'nna, Ariani, Kayla
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Say I'm Dead, E. Dolores Johnson, Copyright 2020, Chapter 7, 86 - 89
“He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another." “ - W.E.B. Du Bois”
Say I’m dead tells the story of Dolores, a biracial girl who struggles to find her place in the world in this novel that explores a deep delve into her past.
Direct Quotes:
Gianna: I arrived early to the appointment in my good plaid wrap-around skirt and white blouse to make an impression and browsed college catalogs while waiting my turn.
Then a trim white woman in black heels called me to take the seat she gestured at.
She sat behind a desk, empty except for office supplies and a phone book
Kayla: "What can I do for you?"
Gianna: the thirty-something Miss Guidance asked.
I bumbled through my request for help figuring out about going to college.
Kayla: "College?"
Gianna: she asked, raising her eyebrows.
Kayla: "Oh no, Dolores.
Colored girls don't go to col-lege.
1 If you do anything after high school, you should go to Fosdick Masten Vocational School and take up sewing.
1It's right downtown by the baseball stadium."
Gianna: She flipped her dark hair back over her ear, as white women do to signal what they think is their allure or power, crossed her legs, and rifled through the phone book.
She wrote the phone number of the trade school on a slip of paper and handed it to me.
Standing up, she went over and opened the office door, signaling the end of the conversation.
Not knowing what to say, I thanked her and wandered out, defeated.
Gianna: Was that why I didn't know about college?
I wasn't supposed to go because I was black?
But she'd said something ridiculous about me sewing.
I'd earned a single D in eleven years of school—in sewing.
Too upset with the counselor's advice to face the kids on the Ghetto Express, I went around to the empty street behind Bennett to think, where nobody would see me.
She hadn't even reviewed my transcript.
Was she crazy, randomly picking sewing of all things out of a hat?
None of the white honors students were being told to take up sewing at Fosdick Masten.
Pacing up and down the street, I snorted out loud, imagining the eye doctor's cashmere-clad white daughter taking up other people's hems.
She would never sit in her fancy mansion with the music room and library I'd seen, pumping the pedal on a sewing machine for a dollar.
Why should I?
Gianna: I was not about to let this white woman blow me off because I was black.
Not after all those fire hoses turned on civil rights demonstrators.
Not after that new law for equal access Mr. M. kept talking about.
I pulled out the notepaper with the phone number to call and ripped it to pieces.
I wanted what my white classmates were going to get.
That sorry white lady wasn't going to keep me from having it.
Now I wonder how many other worthy students' professional careers that woman killed because of their color.
I applied blindly to a few colleges in New York state my classmates talked about, without understanding that different colleges taught different things, without knowing the distinction between public and private universities, liberal arts or professional majors.
I had no idea some were harder to get into, or which offered scholarships, or what the relevant selection criteria was.
I never asked anyone else how to get into college.
Gianna: Daddy watched me work on applications at the kitchen table as he rinsed collard greens in the sink for Sunday's dinner.
Darwin: "You know college costs a lot of money?"
.
"Why are you filling out all those papers?
We don't have that kind of extra, you understand?
If you want to go to college, I don't know how you're going to pay for it."
Gianna: I kept on mailing completed applications, adding requests for financial aid, like some of the white kids were doing.
One crisp Saturday morning that fall, Mama and I hung sheets out on the line in the backyard.
Our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Mosby, leaned over the chain-link fence and asked if I was taking the exam for Howard University the next Saturday.
Mama and I looked blankly at each other, dropping the wet sheet and wooden clothespins back in the basket to listen.
Mrs. Mosby said the scholarship exam could be a great chance to get college paid for, and I should have a good shot at it with my school record.
It would be held in the Urban League office where she worked.
That neighbor said that education was the way up and out.
Kayla: “You would do well to go to Howard," she said.
"It's the leading black university in America."
Gianna: I'd never heard of it.
Ruth: "Put her name down," "What time will it be?"
Gianna: The only preparation I made that week was to get the specified pencils and pack a good eraser.
It would probably be something like the SAT, which I also hadn't known people prepared for.
That Saturday at the Urban League, I answered everything and checked it twice.
Acceptances started coming in for my classmates, including Jackie, who was heading to the University of Michigan.
A few mainstream white schools accepted me, like Russell Sage, offering financial aid so paltry Daddy said we'd have to go to the poor house.
I came home from school one afternoon to find Mama still hadn't left for work yet, even though her clock-in time had passed.
She sat in the living room in her spotless white shoes, stockings, and nurses' aide uniform, ready for her second shift at the hospital.
An oversized envelope rested in her lap, torn open.
Ruth: "It's all set," "You did it."
Ariani: "Did what?"
Ruth: "You got into Howard University."”
https://vimeo.com/1047689521/afe4886e58 →
I like that they used the college wall in the school, it was a creative touch. The narration was also pretty good
A question I have is why were so many people were discouraging Delores from going to college
General Document Comments 0
Let’s work on creating a subheading that captures the essence of your text and entices readers to dive deeper into the story. Here are some strategies to guide you:
1. Highlight the Struggle and Triumph: Focus on Dolores’s journey from facing discouragement to achieving a significant milestone. What key elements of her story can you emphasize to draw in readers?
2. Create Curiosity: Think about how to engage readers with the challenges Dolores faces and the barriers she overcomes. What questions can you raise to make readers want to know more?
3. Use Emotional Power Words: Consider using words that convey the emotional weight of Dolores’s experiences and the victory of her acceptance into Howard University. How can you express these emotions succinctly?
Would you like to see examples of subheadlines I’ve crafted using these strategies? Just let me know if you want to see them. Once you have your subheadline, share it in a Reply, and I can give you feedback on it if you ask in a Reply with AI.
E. Dolores Johnson balks in the face of her college counselor, Miss Guidance, informing her that “colored girls don’t go to college.” Her drive and ambition lead her to take the Howard scholarship exam and throw her hat in the ring with many prestigious colleges and end with her being the first in her family to attend college.
I liked how they opened with a quote.
What led up to this scene in the book?
The best part was the narration.
Liked: The narration of the story.
Question: Which college does DOlores end up going to?
Best Part: When Dolores got the news that she was accepted.
on the uploaded document.
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