 In 1941, I was five-years-old, just back from living with an aunt and uncle for almost a year. I didn’t know any of the kids on the block so when a girl from across the street invited me to play with her, I skipped to her house, filled with excitement.
She invited me to go down to the basement where a group of girls was waiting. The smiles on their faces didn’t make me feel good. The girl who invited me said, “We’re going to play a game. We’ll make a circle. Go into the center. You’re it.
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 In high school, I applied for and was accepted to Leaders, a club for athletes and dancers who taught part of the huge gym classes while the teacher stood on a kind of pedestal and watched. After being in Leaders for a time I decided to try out for Varsity, a prestigious club that accepted very few people.
 In 1953 I was a first-year college student, rooming with seven girls in the attic of an old Victorian house. One day, while lying on my upper bunk bed, I heard the housemother speak to two girls inquiring about the remaining two spots. “It’s a nice group of girls even though there are two kikes and two n.....s in the group.
That night, I told the other girls about the housemother’s comment and that I needed to find another place to live. When I asked if anyone wanted to come with me, one of the Black girls said she would. I was relieved, yet I wasn’t naïve enough to believe landlords weren’t prejudiced. |
Monthly StoriesLife tales from a woman different living in The City Different. Archives
November 2023
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Nancy King is a widely published author and a professor emerita at the University of Delaware, where she has taught theater, drama, playwriting, creative writing, and multidisciplinary studies with an emphasis on world literature. She has published seven previous works of nonfiction and five novels. Her new memoir, Breaking the Silence, explores the power of stories in healing from trauma and abuse. Her career has emphasized the use of her own experience in being silenced to encourage students to find their voices and to express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences with authenticity, as a way to add meaning to their lives.
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