13 May Welcome to Day 2 of Shirley Harris-Slaughter’s “MOTHER’S DAY AND OTHER FAVORITE THINGS” Blog Tour! @sharrislaughter @4WillsPub @4WP11 @RRBC_Org #RRBC #4WillsPub.

TODAY IS MOTHER’S DAY!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL THE MOTHERS, GODMOTHERS, GRANDMOTHERS, FOSTER MOTHERS, AUNTS AND COUSINS

GIVEAWAYS

(2) $5 Amazon Gift Cards

(5) Tickets into RRBC’s WC&BE Raffle for (7) $100 Amazon Gift Card Gift Baskets 

Please leave a comment below, and don’t forget to visit the other blog tours. Thank you so much for stopping by today.

BLOG POST

Joyce Winifred Harris-Burkes: HOW I REMEMBER MY MAMA

Excerpt …

Before she met and married my dad, she worked at a naval base in Alameda County, California. She used to screw rivets into the engines of airplanes. She had to be physically placed inside the engine area to screw on the rivets. Remember “Rosie the Riveter?”  Well, during the World War II era, that was my mama.  For those of you who are too young to remember Rosie the Riveter, I have included the piece below, taken from an online Inside History Newsletter. It explains the black side of “Rosie…”

Rosie the Riveter—the steely-eyed World War II heroine with her red bandana, blue coveralls and flexed bicep—stands as one of America’s most indelible military images. Positioned under the maxim, “We Can Do It,” the “Rosie” image has come to broadly represent the steadfast American working woman, and more specifically, the millions of female laborers who kept the factories and offices of the U.S. defense industries humming.

What the iconic “Rosie” image doesn’t convey is the diversity of that work force—specifically the more than half-million “Black Rosies” who worked alongside their white counterparts in the war effort. Coming from throughout the United States, these “Black Rosies” worked tirelessly—in shipyards and factories, along railroads, inside administrative offices and elsewhere—to fight both the foreign enemy of authoritarianism abroad, and the familiar enemy of racism at home. For decades, they received little historical recognition or acknowledgement.

Imagine my surprise that my mama was part of that working force of women around the country, filling jobs until the men came home from the war. My father was in the Navy and was stationed at the same Naval Air Base where they met. I am proud to know that both my parents were a part of history.

BOOK BLURB:

Mama could tell a joke. Next thing you know, you are rolling on the floor from one of them. She loved to play the lottery and religiously purchased tickets every chance she got. If you fail to buy her tickets when she asks you, she will tell you that was the winning number … “If you had done what I asked, I would have won.” It was classic!

She was just as passionate about her faith and could quote passages from the bible all day long, which she did. She was a good mother and made huge sacrifices for her children.

She was the woman who wanted to be an actress but never got the chance. She was the woman who worked at a naval air base in Alameda County, California, screwing rivets in wings of airplanes. They were called “Rosie the Riveter” during World War II.

She was the constant in our lives.

This is how I remember my mama!

BOOK TRAILER:

AUTHOR BIO: SHIRLEY HARRIS-SLAUGHTER

Shirley Harris-Slaughter is the author of Our Lady of Victory, the Saga of an African-American Catholic Community, which was written to address a need to preserve Catholic history in her local community. She mentored four freshman girls at the local middle school. She is active in her church and Rave Reviews Book Club, a virtual book club community where she has added another biography and fiction to her repertoire. She is married to Langston and is a Michigan Native.

And now, Slaughter has written a memoir about her mother, Joyce Winifred Harris-Burkes: How I Remember My Mama. It talks about memories regarding her life, and her works. The theme is about how the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Slaughter is an activist just like her mother.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Twitter:  @sharrislaughter

Facebook:  Shirley Slaughter

Amazon Author Central Page

Websites:

Shirley Harris-Slaughter

Remember Our Lady of Victory

 AMAZON BOOK PURCHASE LINKS:

Joyce Winifred Harris-Burkes: HOW I REMEMBER MY MAMA

Our Lady of Victory, the Saga of an African-American Catholic Community

Ronald L. Powell: Missing in Action

Crazy! Hot! And Living On The Edge!!

Newspaper Chronicles

A CITIZEN’S GROUP IN ACTION: Saving a Train Station