# This Little Light Of Mine: Addena’s Substack Newsletter. May 2026 ### Addena’s Substack Newsletter. May 2026 [Addena Sumter-Freitag](https://substack.com/@addena) May 31, 2026 3 6 Welcome back everyone. I hope May turned out as a great month for you all, and that you all found things to do that gave you pleasure and brought you joy and laughter. Thanks for reading This Little Light of Mine: Addena’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. For me this month, I (like I have done for a while now) consciously sought out people, co events, and happenings that “bring out the smiles”, stir up my creative juices, and are in direct contrast to all the negative political and societal incidents happening in the world all around us. I have to tell you that many of those negative things keep me awake at night. Those, along with wondering what crazy over the top antics the US President’s deciding he’s gonna pull in the middle of the night (as he casts his crazy-evil-spell- energy over the world) Sad part about that… I truly believe that all that negative energy adversely affects the whole Universe. **Ashes and Tears** I saw the Sun cry today It wept long White droplets of tears Into the Crimson sky And the Moon disappeared last night Dissolved And crumbled Before my very eyes (Its ashes covering a million stars) And I wonder why our Earth is tilting And tumbling And moaning And rumbling And splitting at the seams And I wonder Is there anything we can do to soothe it? © Addena Sumter-Freitag \*\*\* Look! The world has flipped upside down, and it seems like it’s spinning clockwise. It’s happening so fast that Everything seems like it’s backward. It’s dizzying, Disorienting, dazzling, Distressing, and oh so disturbing. The Present now mirrors the past. And it is this Truth That Is causing our Ancestor’s souls to writhe and grieve And wail in distress fearing their struggles and sacrifices may have all been in vain. \*\*\* Every morning, I wake up and fix a smile on my face (to trigger my neurotransmitters and trick my Amygdala into thinking, I am truly happy) and I try to keep that smile and let those positive feelings it stimulates surround me all day. Never fear though, for safety’s-sake I still keep my eyes wide open, and stay Woke, and I keep my Threat Detector Antennas up, ( I am not Pollyanna) … but My Smile is my first coping mechanism of each day. It usually does its job. Try it! 😊 \*\*\* In these last two weeks, various News Reporters keep referring to “the actions and decisions of The US Supreme Court”, (especially their recent decision and ruling that actually weakened “The Voting Rights Act.” Critics of this decision say that it effectively neutralized a hugely significant piece of voting rights legislation that was designed to ensure African-American representation in Congress. It turns out this decision marks a long painstaking campaign to roll back civil rights legislation by two of the courts Right Wing majority, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Samuel Alito. The ruling prevents the power of minority vote in largely Republican states by the way they draft electoral Maps. The ruling found that attempts to create a second electoral district in Louisiana would give African-American voters the chance to choose their own representative proportionate to the state’s population, which is about 1/3 black. The justices ruled that this was a form of unconstitutional gerrymandering. Can you believe that? Six of the judges voted to eliminate the bedrock principle that all people have equal access to the polls and representation in the Democratic Republic of the USA. The decision ensured that no law can protect against efforts to deny black voters and other marginalized groups a voice at the ballot box. It’s the same as it did in its decision against Affirmative Action. “So … just like the literacy testing and Poll taxes of the Jim Crow era, States are once again free to discriminate under the guise of neutrality.” Well, hearing that made me realize two things: One, I have to make sure I understand more about what the Jim Crow Era was and what were some of the specific ways it affected all the people, as well as find out about some of the ramifications that remained in its wake. Secondly, I had to learn more about the specifics that were written in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. ### Learning more about The Past: The Jim Crow Era in the U.S. was a period of systematic State Sponsored racial discrimination and discrimination. The system and all its laws and customs lasted from the late 1800’s until about 1965. This system primarily targeted African-Americans, but it discriminated against all ethnic groups: Mexicans, Indians, and Asians. Jim Crow laws enforced white supremacy and second-class citizenship for non-whites through strict laws, and violent social customs and actions taken against Black men, women and children, as well as other non-whites. I found it fascinating learning more about the Jim Crow Era: its origins and how these racist and repressive rules were considered “the norm”, while this period lasted, and what are some of the remnants of its system that still linger. I was reminded about the dangers of being Black in those times. There were violent reactions to Black people if they ventured into certain neighborhoods or a part of the city that was not welcoming of Black people. That was one of the reasons that a travel safety guide was published for Black travellers. This Safety Guide was a book called “The Negro Motorist Green book”. It was written by Victor Hugo Green. The book outlined places where Black travellers could stop and eat, where it was safe for you to go and try to buy gas on your trip, and where you could find lodgings and were allowed to go to the washrooms. Victor Hugo Green was a black man from New York. He and his family had planned a car road trip, but they realized for a black family that was pretty risky. For instance, if you went into the wrong area or the wrong establishment, it could prove to be fatal, so the purpose of the book was to provide a list of hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other public services establishments that were willing to serve Black people. The book became a traveller’s ’have to have’. Green published several editions of The Negro Motorist Green Book. In his first edition, he wrote this quote: ”There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication for then we can go wherever we please, and without embarrassment.” ### Jim Crow in Canada Officially, there were no ‘Jim Crow’ laws in Canada. However, being that I’m one of the 7th Generation children (from a Black Canadian family that goes back 10 Generations), I know personally and have learned from my family about segregation and racism in Canada. Sadly, I have experienced racial discrimination more times than I care to remember. Racial discrimination in Canada, or Canada’s Jim Crow Era existed for Blacks and Aboriginal people in most aspects of public life: in schools, in stores, and in most other public establishments, like bars and night clubs, swimming pools, recreational centres, and most importantly, in workplaces and in workplace hiring practices. Jim Crow practices affected Black men, and Aboriginal men most severely. They were only hired for the most menial jobs. Segregation existed legally in Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, but in other provinces it existed only informally. Racial segregation in those provinces mentioned above applied to Blacks, Aboriginals, Asians, and a few other ethnic groups and was enforced through laws, court decisions, and was embedded in social norms. Canada also had a closed immigration system that virtually barred all non-whites from immigrating until 1962. We actually had an Immigration Act with a section that prohibited entry of immigrants “belonging to any race that was deemed unsuited for the climate or requirements of Canada” or barred “any immigrants of a specified class, occupation or character”. In Canada, we had racially separate schools. In Ontario they were formally legislated in the 1850s, and the laws weren’t finally removed until 1965. However, it wasn’t until as late as 1983 in Nova Scotia, that the final segregated school was closed. Canada was also listed in the “Negro Motorist Green Book“ in 1966. Multiple locations in Canada were listed there. They included hotels, motels, and tourist homes in Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan that allowed Black patrons. There were also some hotels in Toronto, Niagara Falls and Quebec. Many of these hotels were known as railway hotels due to the prominence of Black railway porters who travelled these routes. It was some of these porters that provided Victor Hugo Green and his team with on the ground recommendations for Black travellers looking for hotel accommodations. I’ve included an excellent link I found. It is to The JimCrow Museum: visit, explore, check out the exhibits. It is fascinating! **https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/** ### The Voting Rights Issue I learned that The Voting Rights Act was enacted after “the Bloody Sunday March” in 1965, in Selma Alabama, where the world watched hundreds of Civil Rights Marchers, (led by John Lewis of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee) march for voting rights and at the end of the march be violently attacked and beaten by State Troopers and Sheriff’s deputies as they attempted to cross The Edmund Pettus Bridge to demand those Voting Rights. The Act was designed to enforce (by law) the voting rights (guaranteed in the 14th and 15th amendment of the constitution). In the Act, it outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states. It banned the use of literacy tests for Black people and banned similar devices and Taxes that disenfranchised racial minorities. The Act also required Federal Oversight to see there were no Federal irregularities and no voter intimidation at voting locations. ### Looking at The Present I guess what makes me the saddest about these present times, is knowing what this action by The US Supreme Court Ruling did. What it really revealed is that just like in the Jim Crow era, there is today a strong political will among (some) Republicans and some Conservative Party people, to incorporate that kind of Jim Crow Cruelty and Injustice in their platforms and practices. I truly believe it wasn’t that the Act was written that angered the people of the South, it was the Historical Impact this Act had (on the South in particular) that angered its people and politicians. They were angry because the Act resulted in hundreds of thousands of black people voting, and it allowed for minority representation at all levels of the government. The fact that The US Supreme Court’s ruling is allowing voter restrictions, eliminating the chance of Black And other Ethnic government representation, and implementing racial Redistricting takes us back to the past. It’s like it’s 1964 all over again, and if MAGA Republicans get their way, our world will be like the book and Sci-Fi movie, “1984 “, except all will take place in 2026 and beyond). ### What does our future look like? Can anyone say? I can’t. I only remind myself to summon The Ancestors and ask for their wisdom, and remind myself to remember… #### In Your Honour I won’t Break I have witnessed Lightning storms Seas of monsters Mothers of mothers Bent But not broken Smooth their feathers Blow at them Join the wonder © Addena Sumter-Freitag #### The “Race Game” The _ball of indignity_ was tossed across the field And the game began. Another hit Another foul Disqualified Dismissed to the bench Again Once you couldn’t play And now I’m barred from the game Is that it? Well I didn’t know I was playing And This game is not fair! © Addena Sumter-Freitag ♥️♥️ Thanks for reading This Little Light of Mine: Addena’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.