Michele Norris
  • TheRaceCard
    • The Race Card Project™- Minneapolis
  • About Michele
    • NPR Listening Booth
    • Contact
    • Keep the Conversation Going
    • Michele’s Grace Notes Blog
    • Press
    • Resources
  • Events
    • California State University, Sacramento State One Book Program
    • The Book Tour, A Pictorial
  • About the Book
    • Images from the Book
    • Praise
    • Excerpt
    • Reading Group Guide
    • Further Reading
  • News

Michele Norris On Race, And ‘The Grace Of Silence’- Morning Edition

September 20, 2010

Listen to the full story here>

Michele Norris, co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered, can still picture her father vividly: Belvin Norris Jr. walked a little unevenly, with a touch of syncopation. She never thought much of the very slight limp until 2008 — long after her father’s death — when her uncle made a shocking, off-hand comment.

“I was having breakfast with my Uncle Joe,” Norris …

Read Full Article →

Susie Reber Orr, My Dad

My dad

Michele, I heard your interview on Morning Edition this morning and it so wonder what my dad meant recently when he said he would take something he knew about my mother….to his grave. He passed away in July and I can’t possibly imagine what he “took to his grave” about her.

But, his story is pretty amazing. A definite depression era story about going from deep poverty

…
Read Full Article →

Michele’s Essay for Powell’s

I pore over old family photos at this point in my life with only passing interest in the clothes. Instead, I hunger to understand the expressions my elders are wearing. I want to know what they were thinking. How did they see themselves? What did they want the world to see in them? Who were they? Is that smile a bit forced?
Read Full Article →

Washington Post Reviews The Grace of Silence.

"She blends the story of her childhood -- and her quest to fill in its gaps -- with a wider view of Southern race relations immediately following World War II, a period often overshadowed by history's focus on the Martin Luther King era of the 1960s."
Read Full Article →

“Capture the Conversation,” your stories…

At some point all of us face the question: How well do we really know the people who raised us?
Or, how well do we really understand our racial legacy or our family history?

I bet that some of the people sitting around your family table have incredible stories to tell, especially the elders. What do you know about their service in the military? Maybe they survived the Dust Bowl, …

Read Full Article →

Secrets

I set out to write a book exploring America’s hidden conversation about race but changed course when I started listening to the hidden conversation in my own family. I was shocked to learn that my father was shot in the leg by White policers in Birmingham, Alabama after returning from WWII. Read more>
Read Full Article →

Family

My parents were postal workers who took pride in simple things. Their home. Their garden. The sunny optimism they passed on to their children. I thought I knew my parents so well. I was wrong. Read more >
Read Full Article →

Excerpt

My father was one of those people who are most comfort able at the fringes, away from the action center stage. He did not need or crave attention. Instead, he was driven by the need to reassure others that everything was going to be all right. Belvin Norris Jr. was a fixer. An eternal optimist to the core. You could see it in his smile. Read more >
Read Full Article →

The Conversation

Norris discovers family secrets because elders in her family started divulging stories in the wake of Barack Obama's election, what were conversations about race like during the 2008 election? Read more>
Read Full Article →

Silence

But my mother also had a secret. She never spoke about the years her mother worked as an itinerant Aunt Jemima, traveling to small towns conducting pancake demonstrations, dressed in a hoop skirt and apron with a bandana on her head..... Silence, I learned, had its rewards....and its costs. Read more >
Read Full Article →
  • ← Previous Entries
  • Next Entries →
  • Categories

    • Grace Notes Blog
    • Minneapolis, MN
    • News
    • The Race Card Project
    • Your Stories
  • Archives

    • June 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • November 2012
    • June 2012
    • May 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • March 2011
    • January 2011
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
  • Calendar

    April 2026
    M T W T F S S
     12345
    6789101112
    13141516171819
    20212223242526
    27282930  
    « Jun    
  • Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries (RSS)
  • Michele’s Grace Notes Blog
  • TheRaceCard
  • Michele Norris: Author of The Grace of Silence
  • Pre Order
  • About Michele New
  • About Michele
  • Resources
  • Events
  • About the Book