My Ancestral Voices

During the Jim Crowe Era in Alabama, African-American children were told by their parents andteachers that they had to be ten times better than theirwhite counterparts, just to stay even. Striving to be tentimes better became the standard of behavior for Dr. JoiceChristine Bailey Lewis who achieved success with tentimes fewer resources and against ten times greater odds. What sustained her during the most diffi cult times wasthe evidence that her people had survived the hardshipsfaced during two periods of slavery: the enslavement ofAfricans and the era of Sharecropping. Raised on a sharecropping farm and havingno money to go to college, Dr. Lewis, nevertheless found a way to achieve adoctoral degree and experience success as an educator.