Carmen Weeks' high school yearbook.
Notes: Umi's mother graduated from George Washington High School in 1944, during the final years of World War II. The closing message that opens the yearbook speaks to the magnitude of that moment, and of war and peace. I wonder what the author who wrote the message would say about this nation's quest for peace, considering all the wars, from Korea and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, it has mounted since 1944 (not to mention all the non-wars of US imperial machinations). The author also lauds the school for non-discriminatory practices, which is interesting to juxtapose to the fact that at the very time of its writing, Black men like Carmen's then-future husband were fighting in a segregated military, and her daughter, Umi, would go on to integrate her junior high school nearly 20 years later.
