What is heritage? How much weight does it carry in a
family? In this video, I sat down with my great-grandmother, Thelma Newman, and
my grandfather, Herbert Newman, to answer these questions. The value of knowing
how the past has morphed the present summarizes the theme of the video above
and challenges the viewers to discover how important their family history is to
them. Through this piece, the audience will be encouraged to look back with
pride and look ahead with hope.
Thelma
Newman was born in 1919 to two hard-working, African-American parents. Growing
up in the ‘20s, she always felt discriminated against a black young girl, as was
the norm. Tryingly, this discrimination came with a personal struggle because her
grandmother was a former slave, who rarely talked about her past life, but
worked to create a new life for her children. As a child and teenager, she was
burdened by the national financial crisis during the Great Depression, but
overcame with patience. In hindsight, she accredits her faith, family, and
studies to her success and advises the next generation to “study, think, be
careful”, and achieve the same.
Herbert
Newman was born in 1940 to Thelma and the late Herbert Newman, Sr. at the brink
of World War Two. Having a childhood in the aftermath of events like the Pearl
Harbor attacks and the atomic bombings in Japan spurred him to look upon veterans
as heroes. Unlike his mother, he felt accepted as a man of color because
everyone he knew was in the same financial position as him. He could always
depend on his neighbor and did not fully realize the corruption and segregation
of his community until his early adult life. Now, as a patriarch, grandfather,
and wise counselor, he looks back at his family and legacy with gratitude and
looks ahead with great expectations.
~Joshua Mitchell
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