Blog archive
October 2024
Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024
Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024
Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024
September 2024
Connecting with Village Connections
09/30/2024
Betty Kilby, A Family History
09/27/2024
Reflection on Life
09/20/2024
Expanding the Possibilities
09/19/2024
Need a Ride? No Problem!
09/17/2024
Security When Aging (Especially If You Are Single)
09/17/2024
The Bridge Begins at Thanksgiving
09/17/2024
The Power of Collective Service: Putting the Village First
09/17/2024
Tino Melchor - A Mentor for Young Teens in the Making
09/17/2024
Village Party Bus Delivers FUN
09/17/2024
We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know: That’s Why We Have Educational Programs
09/17/2024
On Rereading Tolle by Ed Rinderle
09/10/2024
Autumn Leaves
09/09/2024
August 2024
1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024
1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024
First Anniversary
08/19/2024
Alexandra Leaving by Leonard Cohen
08/16/2024
Muse des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden
08/16/2024
The God Abandons Antony by Constantinos P. Cavafy
08/16/2024
Ch – Ch – Ch –Changes
08/15/2024
Cultural Activities Team offers an ‘embarrassment of riches’
08/15/2024
Engaging in Pasadena Village
08/15/2024
Future Housing Options
08/15/2024
Message from the President
08/15/2024
There Are Authors Among Us
08/15/2024
Villagers Welcome New Members at the Tournament Park Picnic
08/15/2024
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
08/14/2024
A narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickinson
08/13/2024
Haikus
08/13/2024
One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
08/13/2024
Poem 20 by Pablo Neruda
08/13/2024
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
08/13/2024
Trees by Joyce Kilmer
08/13/2024
July 2024
Alma Stokes, The Struggle in Pasadena
07/25/2024
A Poetry Gathering: Liberating Experiences Available
07/19/2024
Civil Rights Movement Series
07/19/2024
Happy Hours in Pasadena: A Villager’s Perspective
07/19/2024
Pasadena Village and the National Dialogue on Villages and Healthy Aging Research
07/19/2024
President's Message
07/19/2024
The Kern River Rafting Caper
07/19/2024
The Village Artists Group creates creative camaraderie
07/19/2024
An Example of Inherent Racism
07/14/2024
Current, Upcoming Events
07/04/2024
June 2024
No Real Recourse For Discrimination
06/30/2024
A Personal Statement of Strength and Well-Being
06/25/2024
Juneteenth Reflections
06/24/2024
Reflections on 2023-2025
06/21/2024
Reactions and Reflections Re: Juneteenth
06/19/2024
As Our Organization Grows, Villagers Recall Personal Highlights
06/17/2024
From the Outgoing President
06/17/2024
Letter from the Incoming President: Beginning Our ‘Lagniappe’ Year
06/17/2024
The Editorial Team Looks Back: Creating the Voice of the Village
06/17/2024
This Year's Resource Fair was the Most Successful Ever
06/17/2024
Telling the Whole Story
06/12/2024
Nashville
06/10/2024
May 2024
Emergency Preparedness: Are You Ready?
05/28/2024
Farewell from the 2023/24 Social Work Interns
05/28/2024
Gina on the Horizon
05/28/2024
Mark Your Calendars for the Healthy Aging Research California Virtual Summit
05/28/2024
Meet Our New Development Associate
05/28/2024
Putting the Strategic Plan into Practice
05/28/2024
Washington Park: Pasadena’s Rediscovered Gem
05/28/2024
Introducing Civil Rights Discussions
05/22/2024
Rumor of Humor #2416
05/14/2024
Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024
Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024
Rumor of Humor #2418
05/14/2024
Springtime Visitors
05/07/2024
Freezing for a Good Cause – Credit, That Is
05/02/2024
No Discussion Meeting on May 3rd
05/02/2024
An Apparently Normal Person Author Presentation and Book-signing
05/01/2024
Flintridge Center: Pasadena Village’s Neighbor That Changes Lives
05/01/2024
Pasadena Celebrates Older Americans Month 2024
05/01/2024
The 2024 Pasadena Village Volunteer Appreciation Lunch
05/01/2024
Woman of the Year: Katy Townsend
05/01/2024
April 2024
Rumor of Humor #2410
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2411
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2412
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2413
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2414
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2415
04/28/2024
Rumor of Humor #2416
04/28/2024
Stimulated by "Caste"
04/22/2024
Tulsa reparations, Religion and Politics
04/09/2024
March 2024
Trumps War with Black Women
03/31/2024
Addressing The Needs of Older Adults Through Pasadena Village
03/25/2024
Coming Soon: More Resources for Older Americans, Online and in Person
03/25/2024
Community Building Locally and Nationally
03/25/2024
Preparing for the Future with Ready or Not
03/25/2024
Volunteering is at The Heart of the Village
03/25/2024
Women's Liberation: Then and Now
03/25/2024
Writing Memoirs Together
03/25/2024
Current Views on Current Events
03/20/2024
Unchained
03/18/2024
Rumr of Humor issue # 2409
03/10/2024
Blacks Portrayed by European Artists
03/03/2024
Rumor of Humor #2408
03/03/2024
February 2024
Caring for Ourselves and Each Other
02/27/2024
Doug Colliflower Honored
02/27/2024
Great Decisions Connects Us to the Worldwide Community
02/27/2024
Letter from the President
02/27/2024
Pasadena Village's Impact
02/27/2024
The Power of Touch
02/27/2024
Villages as a New Approach to Aging
02/27/2024
Addressing Gang Violence in Pasadena-Altadena
02/21/2024
Rumor of Humor Issue 2407
02/19/2024
Thank You For Caring.
02/12/2024
Rumor of Humor 2405
02/11/2024
Curve Balls
02/10/2024
Sylvan Lane
02/10/2024
Rumor of Humor 2404
02/09/2024
Larry Duplechan, Blacks in Film
02/03/2024
January 2024
Pasadena Village Joins Community Partners in Vaccination Campaign
01/29/2024
Rumor of Humor #2403
01/28/2024
Pasadena Village Joins Two Healthy Aging Resource Projects
01/25/2024
Decluttering: Do It Now
01/24/2024
Village Volunteers Contribute to the Huntington Magic
01/24/2024
Villagers Creating Community
01/24/2024
Villagers Reflect on Black History Month
01/24/2024
Walk With Ease, 2024
01/24/2024
Wide Ranging Discussion on Current Issues
01/22/2024
Wide Ranging Discussion on Current Issues
01/22/2024
Rumor of Humor # 2402
01/21/2024
Rumor of Humor # 2401
01/15/2024
Re- Entry Programs, a Personal Experience
01/08/2024
COUSINS - A STORY OF REDEMPTION
By Blog MasterPosted: 05/25/2021
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In May, 2021, Pasadena Village’s 1619 Project Discussion Group arranged for two special guests, Dr. Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin and Phoebe Kilby to introduce their book, “Cousins” in a Zoom presentation. A rapt audience of members and guests listened as they described a Black family and a White family, descended from the same slave holder, and how these two women met one another, bonded with each other, and decided to share their story.
It all started when Phoebe Kilby was in college, at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisburg, Virginia, and became involved with a program called “Coming to the Table” sponsored by the Center for Peace and Reconciliation. Coming to the Table takes the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. and seeks to bring together people of different racial backgrounds to explore racial injustice and to work towards reconciliation.
Although Phoebe grew up in Baltimore, her family was deeply rooted in Virginia dating back to pre-Revolutionary War days. She knew they owned a farm, but she never imagined that her family may have been slave owners. However, when she was at college she noticed articles in the local newspaper about people with the last name of “Kilby” who were Black and active in the civil rights movement. She began looking at census records and legal documents and discovered, first, that in 1840 her great, great grandfather was listed in the census as owning two slaves. Further research left her with the strong feeling that Betty Kilby Baldwin was a descendant of one of those slaves and that they were related.
With encouragement from the folks at “Coming to the Table” she reached out to Betty with her findings and, with some trepidation, asked if they could meet.
At this point in the presentation, Betty Kilby Baldwin took over the narration. Betty knew she was descended from slaves and always suspected she had relatives who were of mixed race. She and Phoebe arranged to meet and afterwards Betty declared, “She walked in with no sign of fear, doing the very thing I had done so often when I walked into a new situation. I knew then, she’s just like me, only in a different color.”
As it turns out Betty had played an important and traumatizing role in the battle for integration in the 1950’s. As Betty tells it, “My father owned land at one time, but he lacked the ability to make the case to keep it. He always believed that he lost his land because he wasn’t educated.” Therefore, in 1958, Betty Kirby became one of the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit to integrate the Warren County High School in Front Royal, Virginia. To try to avoid integration, Virginia actually closed its public schools for a year. But in 1959 Betty Baldwin and 20 other Black students walked through a hostile crowd to begin their high school years.
Betty’s high school years, and those of other Black students who were the “foot soldiers” in the battle to integrate schools on a daily basis, were full of stress and trauma. Not one white student reached out to befriend her. On the school campus one day she was trapped in a room and raped. And yet – Betty was eventually able to go from “being terrorized to saying, Hello Cousin.” She did it by listening to her father who likened hating to taking poison. She determined that no one was going to stop her from achieving what she wanted. And with that in mind she realized that, while she couldn’t do anything to undo what had happened to her, people like Phoebe also couldn’t undo what their ancestors had done. “It’s up to us,” said Betty, to make things better.
After Phoebe and Betty met, they continued their dialogue towards reconciliation. Phoebe and Betty, along with members of Betty’s family, worked successfully to have a historical marker erected outside of the Warren County High School to honor and memorialize the courage and the sacrifices made by the young students who integrated the Virginia school system.
But Phoebe wanted to do more. “My family, as slave owners, committed atrocities. Even though I never enslaved anyone, my family did. How could I begin to make reparations for what families like Betty’s endured?” Phoebe saw how important education was to Betty and her family. So, in 2014, she established the Kilby Family Scholarship fund that provides scholarships for the descendants of the Kilby family. To date more than 15 scholarships have been awarded. Explained Phoebe, “We think of reparations as a national issue. But we can do things personally and at a community level to begin the process of healing.”
All proceeds from their book, “Cousins” go to the scholarship fund. Betty and Phoebe continue their work of justice and reconciliation, and the presentation affirmed the difference that each person can make to bring justice to our nation.
To view the video presentation, Click here