Kimestry

What is the furthest you've ever walked? You missed the last bus or train so you had to walk two miles? Twelve? Imagine walking from Mississippi to California. Imagine doing so behind three hundred wagons, choking on dust all the way. Oh yes, and you're a slave. This is the story of Biddy Mason, a woman who transformed her life from slave to landowner. Along the way, she fed the less fortunate and established the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles in her living room. In the Bunker Hill area of downtown Los Angeles, there is a Biddy Mason Monument. It is nestled behind several stores and fast food restaurants, so you could easily miss it if you didn't know it was there. Much like the history of Blacks in Los Angeles, you have to desire to find it. Saturday, I spent the day on a yellow school bus, not the short one, on the Black Heritage Tour sponsored by the Consolidated Realty Board of Los Angeles and Our Authors Study Club. Los Angeles is my birth plac