I was born in 1948.

Even before the day I was born my life had been affected by what was and wasn’t going on in America regarding civil rights.  I was well into my thirties before I, a Chinese Black girl who once-upon-a-time passed for white, was acutely aware of America’s dirty laundry. Mother protected me well.

In 1948 at the Democratic National Convention members of certain southern states walked out (which later led to the formation of the States’ Rights Party) when “liberal democrats won by a close vote” (according to Allie Shay, July 2011, Publishing the Long Civil Rights Movement.

Proudly, from my home state (smithonianmag.com):

“Hubert Humphrey, mayor of Minneapolis and a candidate for Senate, delivered the liberal argument in an intensely emotional speech: “The time is now arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.“

I am learning much that is difficult, and emotional-yet necessary-as I continue my research while writing Love Imagined, hoping to make sense of an identity that Mother felt necessary to hide.

Click on READING RECOMMENDATIONS under PAGES for a list of some of the books that have helped me along the way.  Please feel free to recommend books that have been meaningful to you in your search for identity.

Sherry Quan Lee

June 18, 2012