In Lessons From Down Under: Reflections on Meanings of Literacy and Knowledge From an African-American Female Growing Up in Rural Alabama

Bessie House-Soremekun approaches literacy in every angle in In Lessons From Down Under: Reflections on Meanings of Literacy and Knowledge From an African-American Female Growing Up in Rural Alabama. She introduces that one has to first be open-minded to different social circumstances to understand where different forms of literacy arises. She says this to get her audience more comfortable with the idea of knowing that literacy means more than the conventional reading and writing. Growing up in rural Alabama, House-Soremekun's literacy developed in several ways because of her surroundings. She writes about how there are written and unwritten rules that southerners abide by. For example, a written rule would be the "separate but equal" law. However there was an unwritten rule for the way white and black southerners interacted. House-Soremekum recalls events where her grandmother would address white people as Mr. and Mrs., but the whites never addressed her back with that same level of respect. This even occurred when her grandmother was much older than these white people. This was a normal part of literacy in the segregated south. The great oppression she witnessed of her people while growing up motivated her to reach the highest level of education she could. She was an excellent student all through school and eventually received her PhD in 1988. She is a true example of never giving up, especially when nothing seems to be in your favor.