Name is Zethalyn Elaine Coleman
Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina at Womack Medical Center on Fort Bragg on February 18 1958.
Grew up in fayetteville but frequently visit extended family which was centered in Montgomery Alabama.
Experienced a lot of racism growing, more in Alabama than in North Carolina
Father went to fight in Vietnam and she was raised by her mother for five years, from the ages of 6-11.
Father came back and suffered mental trauma from the war
While her father was away, 2 others in the family went to fight in the war from Alabama and the family fell apart.
Family was fighting each other and became impatient and aggravated with each other because it lacked the dominant males, who went to fight.
Uncle was killed a year after father came back from Vietnam, by a white man. The white man's daughter was saying that her uncles daughter(cousin) was verbally abusive to her. White man went to her uncles house and her uncle fought the man after he became verbally abusive. The white man then left after being beat up and went home to get his gun and came back and shot her uncle to death. He left behind his 5 kids to be raised by their mother.
This helped the family come together.
While in grade school was a straight A student and continued to be a straight A student through high school. Went to a predominantely black high school.
While in high school she remembered a time where a white man called her father a "nigger" outside of his house, and says her father told her to go into the house, and she watched him fight the man through the window.
Went on to NC State University and was in a culture shock. Predominantly white school in which blacks had to work extra hard just to get by.
Recalls one professor that she had whom she believed to be a biggot, and she missed 2 classes in a row due to an asthma attack, and he told her that she should just drop his class because she would NOT pass for a fact. She saw this as inspiration and a challenge to the man as him looking down on her a simple black girl that was out of her league. She remained in the class, and studied and studied. He tried his best to get her to drop the course but she stuck with it and got a B+ in the class. Remembered getting her grade and went to the professor at the end of the course and told him thank you for making her prove him wrong and remembers his surprised reaction to this day.
Insist that times have really evolved for the better and will keep evolving.
Her biggest fear was that her 2 sons would end up in jail due to the 1 in every 3 black males going to jail statistic.
There ya go..condense it or add to it as you choose.
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