The Forbidden Fountain Reflecting on the past, empowering our future. This is the saying on the back of all my family reunion shirts. With every passing year, the saying remains the same. I never understood the significance of the words until my grandma told me stories about her experiences as an African American growing up in the Southern United States. My grandma was born in 1945 in Memphis, Tennessee. While listening to her talk, I hear her subtle, Southern accent and realize that I often forget that she is not from the same world that I am. While I have spent my whole life in California, a culturally and racially diverse environment, my grandma grew up in the severely segregated South. By hearing my grandmother’s story of her past, I
