Woodson, Literature, and Social Justice

 Katie Roessel

21st Century Lit. and Time

Oct. 25th 2022


Woodson, Literature, and Social Justice


Jacqueline Woodson’s “brown girl dreaming” is a memoir written entirely in poems, describing her life as a black Jehovah’s Witness growing up in the south during the 1960s and 1970s. In the beginning of the novel, in the poem “the beginning,” she writes of the beginning of her literacy journey. It was then when she asked her sister “Will the words end.” Her sister replies “Nope,” promising Woodson “infinity.” Woodson, through the description of her own life, portrays the idea that the whole world can be found through written words.

    
    This idea of the infinite world of literature brings to my mind the written works of social justice

figures throughout modern history. I think about the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter

from Birmingham Jail. I think about the written speeches of Malcolm X. I think about Nelson

Mandela’s various essays. I even think about actress Lupita Nyong’o, whose written account of

her experience with Harvey Weinstein greatly contributed to the “Me Too” movement. There is a

world found within written word, in fiction, fantasy, and even science. However, literature is also

a vehicle to spread the word of social movements both in the past and in the present. As a five-

year-old, Woodson probably did not realize that the breadth of “infinity” would encompass fixing

the injustices of the world, but the Woodson who wrote “brown girl dreaming” certainly

understood. In the latter half of the novel, she writes the poem “what i believe,” where she lists

the things in this world that she believes in. Of this list, she includes the lines “I believe in Black

people and White people coming / together. / I believe in nonviolence and ‘Power to the

People.’” She also says “I believe in one day and someday and this / perfect moment called

Now.” These lines in particular really resonated with me. We can see the influence of the writings

of Martin Luther King Jr. emanating through her words, and her faith in the present and the

future adds a hopeful tone to an otherwise somber issue permeating both Woodson's life

growing up in the South and modern-day America.

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