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Myth of Flying Africans
Historical roots of the flying Africans legend can be traced back to the spring of 1803 in Savannah when slaves were said to have "flown away" from their oppressors. -
African American familes, like the Deads, migrated to escape racism and find opportunities in the North.
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In Song of Solomon, Winnie Ruth Judd was discussed as a "lunatic" part of the "white madness" (Morrison 100).
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Chloe Ardelia Wofford is born in Lorain, Ohio. (Toni Morrison is a mixture of a college nickname and her married name.) Her birthday is the same as the date Robert Smith gave in his suicide note (Morrison 3).
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Milkman is "...a colored baby born inside Mercy for the first time" (Morrison 9).
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This event is referenced in Song of Solomon when Milkman asks Guitar why he doesn't change his slave name, "Baines," like Malcolm X did.
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Chloe Wofford majored in English with a minor in classics. She changed her name to Toni, a shortened version of her middle name, during college.
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Morrison graduated from Cornell University in New York.
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Till was brutally murdered by white men for flirting with a white woman.
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Packard was an American luxury automobile built by Packard Motor Company in Dettroit. Production began in 1899 and ended in 1958. Milkman recalls Sunday drives in the family's pristine Packard.
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While in jail on April 16, MLK writes "Letter From Birmingham Jail," advocating civil disobedience.
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MLK leads The March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom, attended by 250,000 people. It was one of the first demonstrations to have extensive television coverage.
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MLK's Eulogy The bomb kills four young black girls, ages 11-14, who were attending Sunday School. This is referenced in chapter 8 when Guitar ponders bombing a white church to avenge the Birmingham church bombing.
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James Meridith becomes the first black student to enroll for class at the University of Mississippi. After rioting breaks out, President Kennedy sends 5,000 troops.
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The Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin.
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Black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, Malcolm X was shot and killed in a public auditoriam in NYC.
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This Act made it easier for Southern black to register to vote by illegalizing literacy tests, poll taces and other requirements that restricted black voting.
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Six days of rioting in Watts, an African American section of Los Angeles, kills 35 people and injures 883. (August 11-16).
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Morrison won the National Book Critic's Award and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Song of Solomon.
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Morrison is the eighth woman and the first black woman to receive this honor.
