My Mama’s Red Shoes design is dedicated to my mother, a strong woman who spoke her mind and did not bite her tongue, and who demanded respect from her fellow man. My Mama’s Red Shoes design is also dedicated to the long back-breaking hours with sun beaming down of mothers as they labor in fields or work in factories under unsafe conditions, wanting their children to have a better life.
My Mama’s Red Shoes is dedicated to the many mothers who worked long hours, earned less than minimum wage cleaning toilets, cooking, cleaning, or doing laundry at someone else’s house in order to ensure her children had food, shelter and a warm bed to sleep in.
My Mama’s Red Shoes represents the hope for a better tomorrow, and a reminder to never let others define your station in life. It’s a reminder that all families deserve fair and equal treatment, the pursuit of happiness, liberty and justice for all, and the opportunity to grow and prosper in this country called America.
My mother was born in May of 1934. She was one of eight children: 6 boys and 2 girls. She was 16 when she married my father, who was 28-years-old and fresh off a tour of duty in the United State Army. Their union was blessed with five children.
After marriage, my parents were share-croppers and moved from farm to farm. One day my mother told my father that she was not going to live and work another day on a farm and have no money to show for her labor at the end of the farm year. She stated she wanted her own house with land and she wanted the house and land as soon as possible.
My Mama’s Red Shoes represents my mother having the courage to demand a better life, including owning property and land to leave to her children upon her death.
Within a year my mother got a job at a factory along with my father. They saved enough money together to buy a house and five acres of land. As of this day the land and the house are still in the family.
My mother’s next project was to learn how to drive a car. My father refused to teach her how to drive, so one day she put all five children in my father’s car and drove around in a big opened field until she mastered the skill of driving a standard shift. The more one told my mother that she could not do something, the more my mother wanted to prove that she could, especially when someone to block her from achieving her goal.
My Mama’s Red Shoes represents a life where woman will not be subject to any form of abuse. My father was a week-end alcoholic. He once had the notion that he was going to beat my mother, and that was a grave mistake. She let him know as his wife that he had no right to hit her, and she would not take his abuse. She fought back. Her rules were set in stone that night, and they were never broken.
My Mama’s Red Shoes reminds me of my mother, who wanted her children to get an education and even go to college. She was denied the opportunity to get an education because of the segregation of schools in the south, but she would make sure her children would get an education. Four of the children completed high school, and two of the children received college degrees. Since then some grandchildren have completed college and had excellent careers in the Federal Government and medical field.
My Mama’s Red Shoes represents a mother who wanted her own business. She owned a small trailer park before her death. There was nothing or anybody that blocked her dream to be successful.
My Mama’s Red Shoes reminds me of every woman’s right to vote in a free country and to have a say in the election process. It reminds me that every woman can affect decisions regarding education and medical care for families, as a member of the larger community.
My mother died in 2006. The My Mama’s Red Shoes design is a testimonial to her, and a reminder that you can achieve whatever goal that you set for yourself, and that no one can block your blessings or your dreams.
I honor my mother. I am so glad that she was my mother and that she taught me to dream big and let no one steal my dreams or self-worth.
Liz Daniel Emporium 