2023 Black History Month: Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity

As a child, I spent many summers, in rural Virginia, visiting my extended family...grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. With them, I learned to cook, sew, and take care of the animals. Now as an adult, building our family tree, I appreciate the lessons they taught but wish I had been less shy about asking them about their lives. 

Here is a list of questions I found on the AegisLiving website that you could ask your family members to better know their lives and, maybe, your heritage:

1. Where were you born? What was your house like as a child?
2. Were you named after a family member or does your name have a special meaning?
3. Do you have a nickname that your siblings or friends call you? How did you get the nickname?
4. How did your family spend time together when you were young?
5. What did you want to be when you grew up?
6. What was your favorite subject or teacher in school?
7. What is the most important lesson that your parents taught you?
8. What did your friends do for fun when you were young? Did you have a best friend?
9. Did you ever get in trouble as a child or teenager? Did you have a curfew and what time was it? Did you ever miss curfew?
10. Were you ever in the military? College? A club, sorority or fraternity?
11. How did you meet grandma/grandpa?
12. What were your grandparents like?
13. What was your marriage proposal like? When did you get married?
14. Where was your wedding? Who was your matron of honor/best man?
15. Have you had a job? What was your first job?
16. Where have you lived? Tell me about your first house.
17. Where have you traveled? What is your favorite city to visit? Do you have a favorite family vacation memory?
18. Do you practice a religion? What impact has religion had on your life?
19. Who are your children? What is your favorite memory with your children?
20. How do you handle stress?
21. What could you tell me that I would be surprised to learn about you?
22. What is your dream for your children and grandchildren?
23. What is the earliest memory that you have?
24. Tell me about the day when my mom/dad was born?
25. Have you owned any pets? What was your first pet?
26. What makes you happy?

Most are are available through SORA.

Loving v. Virginia. US Supreme Court case that struck down state laws that banned interracial marriage.  This film tells the back story of Richard and Mildred Loving.

Still a Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class (1968) Director:  William Greaves. William Greaves Productions. NET Journal. Episode: 185/248.  Comprehensive look at the Negro Middle Class of the late 1960s. Produced for National Educational Television (NET). Documentary.

Meet award-winning author, entrepreneur, educator, filmmaker, and  CEO of two different companies, Clifton Taulbert, This is his back story of growing up on the Mississippi delta. There he learned invaluable lessons, in a tough but nurturing community, that shaped his destiny. Did I mention he wrote and produced this film?