Letters to Missy Violet Read Online Free

bashful. Then Miss Battle said in a real sweet voice (and we kids couldn’t believe it was Miss Battle speaking), “Ruby, would you like to assist me with the first-graders at recess?” And Ruby Dean said, “Yes, ma’am,” with a big ol’ sunshine smile on her face. That day everybody went home happy.
When I told Mama about the little girl and Ruby Dean, Mama said Ruby Dean showed true Christian charity and she hoped Miss Battle had learned something from Ruby Dean’s kindness.
I found something out about Miss Battle that makes me think she’s not so bad after all. She keeps little packages of fruit and nuts and sweet bread in her desk drawer to give to the children who don’t have any food to bring from home. She thinks nobody sees her slipping it to them at recess time when all the kids are running and playing and making noise. When lunchtime rolls around the children pull out their snacks like it came from home. I guess Miss Battle doesn’t want them to feel bad about being poor.
When I told mama about it she said most everybody in Richmond County is poor, colored and white alike, except for people like the Cantwells and the Kestenbaums and the Delacroixes, who came up from New Orleans some years ago. And one or two well-to-do negroes. But she said some are poorer than others and its very kind of Miss Battle to look out for those children and for me to keep my mouth shut about it.
I still don’t understand Miss Battle—after she does good she goes right back to being mean. I guess that’s all the news about school for now. Say hello to your brother for me.
From your best helper girl,
Viney
    Â 
September 20, 1929
Dear Viney,
I hope this letter finds you and the family doing well. I was sorry to hear about your new teacher leaving so soon. Maybe she will return to Richmond County someday. Miss Battle is a fine teacher too. She is stern but that is because she wants you children to learn so bad, not because she is mean. I have known Irene Battle for a long, long time. She comes from a fine family of quality negroes who were house servants for the Landy family. People who taught their slaves how to read and write, something uncommon and against the law in those days.
Yes, Miss Battle was born in bondage same as I was, and we were both still young children when freedom came. And since most all the Landy slaves knew how to read and write already when they were freed, many of them were put to use by the Freedmen’s Bureau as instructors, helping others learn to read and write.
So you see, Viney, Miss Battle knows how important education really is, and she’s been teaching for a very long time. Please give her my regards. I hope you will still like school. Schooling is very important, so learn how to read well, Viney. The world is changing all the time.
Give a special hello to Charles for me. Tell him to write another letter and let me know how he is doing in school. Don’t you two fight. And don’t you forget to memorize your roots and herbs so you won’t forget all I taught you this summer. Remember the game we used to play when we’d come in from the woods?
Give all the family my love. Tell your daddy to stay off that foot as much as he can. And again I thank him for looking after Duke and the cow. Hope to hear from you again soon. Be a good girl and say your prayers.
Yours very truly,
Missy Violet

Miss Battle and the Sharecroppers
    Not long after Missy Violet wrote to me about Miss Battle, some of the sharecropper farmers came to school with Mister Waters and ganged up on Miss Battle. They were upset because Miss Battle has been giving us a lot of homework, a lot of reading and writing. She says we must get ready for the essay contest. The sharecropper farmers say so much homework keeps their children from getting their chores done on the farm.
    Mister Waters did most of the talking. He got real loud again, just like he did with Miss Glover. But