I learned from my "Other-mother"

In "Voices of Our Foremothers," author Sunny-Marie Birney tells us of her personal literacy journey.

       Birney begins to tell us, the reader of how her love and appreciation for education had grown to be.  Adopted at the age of 2 by parents she called Euro-Americans, Binery just felt as if she never completely fitted in.  It wouldn't be until her college years that she would begin her "journey home," and acknowledge the many women who have indeed helped her, both directly and indirectly.

       It was with the help of 4 distinctive professors at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, that allowed Binery to fully understand her own purpose for her life; of becoming an educator.  It was through these four nurturing, African-American, women professors that Binery received the proper care and teachings she, as a lost young black African-American needed.

 

                 "[T]hey were concerned overall with my mind,
                  body, and spirit, past present and future.
                  These women teachers cared about me and
                  held the same expectations for me as they had
                  for their own children... [they] 
             understood the power of caring"

       It is through the women educators commitments and cultural uplifting that we as young African-Americans should be inspired, as Sunny-Marie Binery had been.

~ A. Foster