Diary of Avery Blackman: Joining

Today, they allowed me to join them in their schools. They finally heard my voice. I've been laughing with my friends about their term "Separate but Equal" since I heard it come out of their mouths. The walk up to the door was the longest one I've ever endured. They spit on me, they through things at me. They hate me. But they will not stop me. I will not just show that I am as good as they are, because that's not good enough. I must be better. They will not break me. I will stand tall and strong to show the world that we will not quit until I have proven myself. One day, we will show the white man that we can be better. I will put on my best clothes every day, no matter what they throw at my clean white shirt, and my fresh pressed pants.
The governor has sent National Guard soldiers to stop me from going to the white school. He even closed all of the schools in my town to try to ensure that the desegregation didn't happen. The president stepped in and sent in Army soldiers to help. From what I learned, the same brave unit had gone to Germany during the world war, and many of their victories swayed the entire direction of the War.
I will graduate with honors. I will not quit. I will strive to show them that we are not less. We are more...

Diary of Avery Blackman: War

A war has broken out again. Our world is under attack. Japs attacked and now good ol' Uncle Sam is calling me to war. Good enough to fight and die, but still barely good enough to die next to the white man. I will fight for my wife and child. I will fight for the men, women, and children who are being suppressed and held back. Those who are being treated like animals, and even less than. I will fight harder than the white man. I will show him with blood and sacrifice that we are not just equals. I am better...

They have separated me from the white man. My missions have been mostly support of support. They report that my limited negro intellect hinders me from being able to accomplish what the white man can, thus giving them a reason to report that my efforts in the war were marginal. Yet I fight. And I fight hard. I never give up, and I will not allow them to say that the little that I was allowed to do was not done as well as it could possibly could have been...

I saw a lot of action today. My brothers beside me fought with me, and some died, but did both valiantly. We won a great victory for the Allied forces, but I would be hard pressed to believe that anyone would ever find out what Negros have done for humanity this day. But one can only hope, that with the liberation of the people of Europe, we may one day see the same liberation on our own soil...

The Diary of Avery Blackman: Learning

It's been years since I'd been freed, and I still haven't seen one acre of my own land from my government. I now realize that it'll never happen. Now, I just hope to get a decent education so that I can get a job and buy my own land. My school is miles away, and without a bus system or any personally owned vehicles, I have to walk the distance. I finally made my way off of my former master's land, and am now living on my own. Times are brutally difficult in the south, the white men are bitterly determined to prevent me from making anything of myself. Things are a little different up north, but I get the feeling that even in the north, the white man doesn't feel like I am his equal. I will prove myself, and become something great, so that my children may walk in my legacy and remember my sacrifice and dedication. Praise God Almighty for the opportunities He has given me to prove myself. I believe in Him, even through the violence I endure simply for the color of my skin. I make it through with the power of song, and dance, for His namesake. I know I can be more than just a Nigger. One day, I will prove it to the world.

The Diary of Avery Blackman: Freedom

Today I realized that years in unpaid employment has left me with nothing. I complained to my government, and they promised that once the dust from the war had settled, I would receive reparations for my decades of work. Land and a beast of burden that I could own myself. It's a glorious day, I just hope that things get settled soon. My former master offered me and my family a job working on his land for actual money. I'll pay him rent and buy my food from him, but it's alright because at least this way, I'm still paying my own way. He even gave me a start-up loan to get me on my feet. He told me I could just pay him back at the end of the month, and with all the work I'm doing, it should be no problem. I'd love to start school soon, but the whites won't allow me into their schools, and have yet to build any for me. I'm sure it'll be a matter of time before the great President Lincoln comes through for me and I'll be living on and farming my own land.

The Diary of Avery Blackman: Emancipation

My name is Avery. I'm writing this diary now, not as some private collection of my thoughts, but as a private contribution to public resources, of my successes and failures, my triumphs and disgraces. Many people know me by many different names, some of which I'm proud, some of which, not so much. There are some names that I feel it only appropriate that I, among my own company am allowed to call myself. Some people find that silly, and hell, sometimes so do I, but that's just the way it is. I was brought to this country by white men, at first of my own will, but shortly thereafter, things changed, and before I knew it, I was struggling against a force I had never imagined even existed.
But there I was, on this boat, heading off into a world of which I never knew, but came to hate after a short period of time, while also learning to love after an even longer period of time. That place was the great country known today by the name United States of America, and for a long time, it was my back that it was built upon. I was chained and forced to work without wages, sold as property and treated with the same respect upon which a mule or any other beast of burden was treated. I was inspected like an item at auctions, degraded and told constantly that I was less than a man. The insults of my captors went by me unrecognized at first, but then I learned, and I learned quickly. The White men forbade me to learn to read or write, but quietly, by the light of the stars and the moon, by the night, during the few hours of the night in which I was allowed rest, I learned the language of the White man. I learned to hate the white man, or pity him, I can't clearly remember which, but I remember praying for him often. I sang songs to help pass the lonely tired nights that I wasn't plotting my escape, or my revenge, or my education. It's so strange to come from so far, wishing for nothing more than freedom and an education, and to be where I am now. It's almost laughable. But I'm getting ahead of myself aren't I? Well, to go back on topic, I spent so much of my time dreaming of having the simplest of rights, which the White Man told me was a privilege that as a filthy nigger, I didn't deserve. As time wore on, and more and more of this great country was built on the back of A. Blackman, and things began to change, for better and for worse. Up north, I was treated with much more respect, even sometimes considered a human. Down south, where so much still depended on me being a pack mule, things got worse. I secretly learned, as much as I could, and even started to make scientific contributions. I was an inventor, an entrepreneur, a savior, and one who needed saving.
One day, a war started, and there was a chance we would end up enslaved by a whole new country, built on the backs of a slave, with no hope of freedom. I convinced the president of the United States that he should stand up against these crimes against humanity. I told him that without absolute freedom there was no freedom at all. And one day, ha, I couldn't believe it... we were free. We were free. So now I am writing this diary, because it is my Constitutional right, that I be allowed to learn to read and write, and let the world know of my triumphs.