What, to This Young, Black Man,
is the Meaning of Freedom?
by Christian Edge,
Director of Strategic Partnerships
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Freedom is not a puff pastry.
It does not have layers.
Either you are free, or you are not.
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Edge brothers left to right:
Christopher, Charles, & Christian
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From left to right: Christian, Ellen,
Christopher & Charles Edge
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My maternal grandparents, Thomas and Georgia Harvey, were born in 1910 and 1920, respectively. They made their living, while raising eight children, growing cotton, soybeans, and purple hull peas.
Their names not written in the ledger of an enslaver’s journal, they were told they were free.
My mother, Ellen M. Harvey Edge, was born in Grand Junction, Tennessee in 1951. She attended a legally segregated, two-room schoolhouse until she was fourteen years-old and was the first member of our family to obtain a college degree, majoring in biology and microbiology no less.
She was told she was
really
free.
My mother bore three sons: Charles, in 1976, and the twins, Christopher and Christian, in 1986. Charles became the first person in the family to earn an advanced degree, Christopher, the first in the family to earn a medical degree, and Christian was the first to graduate from the Ivy League.
Born as the first generation after the end of legal apartheid in the United States, the three siblings were told they were
free,
free.
Freedom is not a puff pastry. It does not have layers. Either you are free, or you are not.
How could my grandparents be free when the price of their crops, their very livelihood, was determined by the whims of white people, whom determined to keep Black people in economic bondage, eyed them with hatred and avarice?
(
Click to read more
)
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Friends School of Baltimore:
Extends Quaker Value of Empowered Community to West Baltimore
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“Eventually, we were [all] running really low on toilet paper. I think that brought it home to all of us—what it must feel like to not have things
at a snap of your fingers.”
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Friends School of Baltimore family member
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Left + center: Signs by Friends School students have lined Charles Street all season; Right: Hygiene bundles for families
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You know that James Taylor song celebrating the importance of a deep and meaningful friendship? the one with the refrain,
"You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am, I'll come running...to see you again. Winter, spring, summer or fall--all you've got to do is call, and I'll be there. You've got a friend..."
We’ve long appreciated the
Friends School of Baltimore
as our devoted and supportive partner. They’ve been the kind of steadfast friends that everyone needs and cherishes, and have consistently “been there” for us, year in and year out.
Each winter during the past 18 years, the school has generously donated personalized gifts to the kids and families of Upton/Druid Heights. And once again this past spring, Friends School students and families proved how deeply devoted they are to empower their greater community and the people of Promise Heights.
The generosity of the families of the Friends School came in the nick of time, given that it was nearly impossible to find hygiene products in stores: using the remainder of their 2019/20 Giving Tree Drive donations to purchase essential products to share with many of our families.
(
Read more about this Friends School gift
)
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The Pearlstone Center Reinvents
Community Support During COVID-19
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“We hope that we’ll find new ways to partner with Promise Heights in particular and with other groups within our community. COVID might have changed some of the things people thought were going happen, but they haven't changed who we are or the relationships we’ve built.”
Eve Wachhaus, Deputy Director of the Pearlstone Center
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Autumn 2019 was a perfect time for Booker T. Washington Middle School for the Arts to visit the Pearlstone Center
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Students loved meeting the goats and exploring
Pearlstone's wilderness paths
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