Thank you for shopping with Meredith Etc. Enjoy My First Book Series and My Picture Dictionary which are educational resources for early learners. Proceeds support Community Library Mississippi, a nonprofit public charity chaired by Meredith Coleman McGee, Publisher, Meredith Etc.
My First Book Series by Meredith Coleman McGee, Danielle Bogan et al. 6 volumes, 208 pages.
Thank you for purchasing “Mary’s Story & Song” a memoir about the life of Mary Haralson Coleman of Scott County, Mississippi. Ms. Coleman grew up in the Jim Crow south with her family who were poor Negro sharecroppers.
Despite her humble beginnings, Mary excelled in life, in business, and in music. Mr. Haralson, a white Scott County, Mississippi landowner, purchased Mary’s ancestors – the entire family on the auction block in Virginia. Mary’s family and another family which Mr. Haralson purchased walked behind Mr. Haralson’s wagon and took turns riding on the back of the wagon from Virginia to Scott County, Mississippi. After slavery during Reconstruction, the Negro Haralsons became landowners. Mary’s maternal family became sharecroppers.
In addition, while sharecropping gave African Americans autonomy in their daily work and social lives, and freed them from the gang-labor system that had dominated during the slavery era, it often resulted in sharecroppers owing more to the landowner (for the use of tools and other supplies, for example) than they were …
Sharecropping… High interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants often kept tenant farm families severely indebted, requiring the debt to be carried over until the next year or the next. Laws favoring landowners made it difficult or even illegal for sharecroppers to sell their crops to others besides their landlord, or prevented sharecroppers from moving if they were indebted to their landlord.
After reading “Mary’s Story & Song” compare sharecropping with Mass Incarceration. ***Laws favoring landowners made it difficult or even illegal for sharecroppers to sell their crops. Crops ($$$$) belonged to landowner as it did during slavery. ***drug-code violations targeted people of color. ***The federal laws and the state legislature set the system up.
The term “mass incarceration” refers to the unique way the U.S. has locked up a vast population in federal and state prisons, as well as local jails.
Legislators enacted policies that led to more people being locked away for increasingly smaller offenses… combined with policies that kept people locked up longer.
“We must understand our history to influence policy makers. Owning land, homes, businesses, products, and valuable assets is the America dream. Laws and policies over land, homes, businesses, products, and the media is in the hands of the 1 percent. Sweeping Public Policy reforms are needed to undo racial economic inequality.”
I was happy and felt privileged to acquire another manuscript earlier today for publication. Irma Rodgers Walker, a South Jackson resident is a native of Sharkey County, Mississippi in the Delta. Walker imparts mother wit treasures in her upcoming work. Irma Rodgers Walker is the author of “It Starts with the Parents,” which was published in 2013. As the eighth of 15 children, Walker learned early in life that the common sense of mothers is valuable.
Signing Day with Meredith Etc, represented by Publisher/Acquisition Editor Meredith Coleman McGee and Author Irma Rodgers Walker
The news out of Louisville is a devastating setback to everyone who has demanded accountability for the police shooting and death of Breonna Taylor.
A grand jury indicted one of the three police officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) involved in the death of Breonna Taylor more than six months ago. And none of the officers were charged for killing Ms. Taylor.
He was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree for reportedly shooting into the apartment next door to Ms. Taylor’s.
The outcome of the Breonna Taylor grand jury proceedings has shocked much of the public. It has sent the message that no officers will be held accountable by the state of Kentucky for the loss of an innocent young woman’s life, a life that held so much promise, at the hands of law enforcement officers.
Yesterday’s announcement reaffirms that we need a drastic transformation in the regime of impunity that protects police officers — the regime that brought those officers to her door — and justifies their killing of innocent Black people. We need to fundamentally transform how we define and support public safety infrastructures in our country.
LDF will await the outcome of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s separate investigation and the LMPD’s internal investigation of the officers involved in Ms. Taylor’s killing. And we continue to join with over 200 national and local organizations in demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice conduct a civil rights investigation of the LMPD to determine if it has engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful policing.
Finally, LDF filed suit in July against the City of Louisville, challenging LMPD’s unconstitutional conduct and brutality against protesters who demanded justice for Ms. Taylor during May and June of this year. Protesters were met with live ammunition, projectiles, and excessive force.
In this painful moment for the Louisville community, we call on the LMPD to exercise restraint as they engage with protesters exercising their First Amendment rights. We will continue to protect the rights of protesters in Louisville and urge local officials to do the same.
But in the meantime, Attorney General Daniel Cameron has a responsibility to the public — we deserve a full and transparent understanding of the grand jury proceedings. And we will not rest until we have one — will you add your voice to our call?
With you in solidarity,
Sherrilyn A. Ifill
Meredith Etc 