Nita Wiggins - Civil Rights Baby (2021 New Edition): My Story of Race, Sports, and Breaking Barriers in American Journalism

New Edition

Copyright 2021 by Nita Wiggins

Published by Listen to Others Publications

Listen to Others publishes content to promote empathy building based on the principle of Listen to Others as you would have them listen to you.

Original edition

Copyright 2019 by Nita Wiggins

Published by Casa-Express Paris in 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the author or publisher except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

This book reflects the authors recollections of experiences over time. Some names and characteristics have been changed, some events have been compressed, and some dialogue has been recreated.

Ordering Information:

Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by educators, associations, or corporations. For details, contact nita@nitawiggins.com.

Edited by J.M. Walker

Book design by Christy Day, Constellation Book Design

Publishing guidance by Martha Bullen, Bullen Publishing Services

Author photo on book cover by Wade Livingston

Author photo on About the Author page by Lucie Cervantes

Author baby photo by Hollywood Studio in Macon, Georgia

ISBN 978-1-7375805-0-8 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-7375805-1-5 (ebook)

I am guided by a desire to create empathy by showing the sameness of people at their most human level. The same journalistic integrity that I took into the job of telling the stories of other peoples lives I employed as the author of this book.

I do not intend this to be an Afrocentric perspective in competition with a Eurocentric perspective. Rather, I intend to deliver an honest, personal view at a time when womens stories and black womens stories are being recognized as a missing element in explaining a place or a time period. More than one year has passed since the abominable, videotaped police murder of George Floyd committed by then-officer Derek Michael Chauvin in Minneapolis in the U.S. It is nearly four years since Me Too statements exposed the crushing domination of (mostly) women by higher-placed men in the movie and television industries around the world. Civil Rights Baby inspires a necessary contemplation of the accompanying paradigm shifts.

A reader from Uganda says that this story mirrors what most of us women experience. For that reason, I repeatedly use the generic descriptor white male. Some readers may interpret that as a sign of resentment, but most readers would recognize the need to know the race and gender of the person who pulls the strings of power in different settings in this narrative. I use race descriptors for most people in my story (except sports figures, celebrities, scholars, doctors, and my family members).

In addition, I use race descriptors because the default race in my America is the white race. Most written narratives in our country do not identify a characters race when that character is white. That assumes white is the norm. The parallel in the internet age would be comparing what we call the white race to the Google search enginesomething so all-encompassing and ever-present that we must point out when it is not present. However, that premise is not accurate. Not all readers, American or otherwise, envision white as the default. So, other than the exceptions listed above, throughout this book I note when the person is white just as I do when the person is not white.