Juneteenth, A Founder's Story

This is a picture of my paternal grandmother, Adelaide, and me on the day I graduated from college.  My grandmother was born in a little-known town called Supply, Virginia in 1913.  Her grandmother, Matilda (my great-great grandmother), grew up in slavery and was emancipated in 1865 but continued to work as a sharecropper.

 

Her mother, Margaret (my beloved great grandmother), grew up sharecropping and used to talk about how badly picking cotton pained her hands. She, her husband, Richard, their children, and a few other families all moved to a small town called Bordentown, NJ during the great migration. That's where I grew up.

 

My grandmother attended school at the Manual Training School for Colored Youth in Bordentown, also known as the Tuskegee of the North. She studied laundering and housekeeping and went on to work as a launderer at the Ft. Dix Army base, where she met my grandfather who was stationed there. She also took a second job as a housekeeper working for the Joseph family.

 

My Grandma Addie cleaned rich folk's houses for a living. She took cleaning seriously too. She taught me how to clean, dust, hang clothes on the line and fold them, all with immaculate detail.  She would watch me do a task over and over again until I got the hang of it and once I did, she would walk away confidently.

 

She was oh so proud of me on my graduation day. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. She made her transition home a year later and I miss her very much.  She would have loved Good Vibes All Purpose Cleaner and I know she continues to be proud of me! I am so grateful for her and all the sacrifices that were made by her, my grandfather, my great grandparents, and my parents. I am because they endured!

 

As we celebrate our freedom, let us remember our ancestors on this Juneteenth and tell their stories.  Thank you for tuning in.