#thank you isable!!

[yxngbxkkie]

butterflies (h.h)

so, the song butterflies by isable larosa is absolutely wonderful, and her whole new album gives me hyunjin vibes. that's where this fic comes into play! i hope you guys like it! 💖

feedback is appreciated 🥰

college au, non-idol au, artist!hyune

You sit in your usual corner at the campus coffee shop, your laptop open in front of you. You're normally immersed in your schoolwork, but today you can't seem to focus. You tap your fingers against the table, glancing toward your now empty mug.

You low-key wish that the place had self-order kiosks, to save you from talking to the barista. You release a puff of air and glance around the shop.

"There are not too many people, but enough," you say to yourself with a frown.

Just get up and do it, Y/N. You think to yourself, trying not to think of the anxiety that's bubbling up in your stomach. You shuffle to the end of the booth you're sitting in before grabbing your empty cup.

You slowly walk up to the counter and set the ceramic mug on it. The barista that's standing on the other side of the counter looks up at you before smiling.

"Hi, Y/N. Would you like another hot chocolate?" The blonde asks in a friendly tone, shocking you a bit.

He knows my name?

"Y-Yeah, please," you stumble over your words, providing an awkward smile.

Your eyes shift down to his name tag, silently reading it. Felix. You pull your wallet out of your pocket before paying.

"Here's your receipt if you need it. I'll bring it over when it's ready," Felix tells you as you grab the flimsy piece of paper.

"Thank you," you whisper. You turn to head back to your table when you run into someone. "S-Sorry!"

You look up at the person you ran into and your breath hitches in your throat. His free hand rests on your arm, keeping you from falling backward.

"It's okay. I should've been paying more attention," he laughs while dropping his hand from your arm.

You clasp your hands together and nod your head. "I-I should've as well. If you'll excuse me," you dip your head and quickly walk back to your table.

Once you make it back to your booth, you toss your head back against the headrest. You place a hand on your heart and take deep breaths, hoping it'll calm down quickly.

Felix places your mug on the table, capturing your attention. "Here's your drink," he mentions softly, a smile on his lips.

"Thanks again, Felix," you manage to stay without stuttering, feeling a bit accomplished. Your gaze moves to the man you bumped into, noticing that he's drawing. "Who is that?"

The blonde looks over his shoulder before turning back to face you, the smile on his lips widening. "That's Hyunjin. He's an art student and a friend of mine," Felix informs you.

You repeat his name quietly, keeping your eyes on the dark-haired man. Hyunjin lifts his head and his eyes meet yours. You panic slightly and divert your gaze, bringing your attention back to Felix.

"He's pretty nice if you're interested in talking to him," he mentions with a smirk.

"N-No, that's fine," you dismiss the idea, waving your hands a bit. "I just - I haven't really seen him around before."

Felix lowers himself into the seat across the table before resting his chin against the palm of his hand. "Yeah, I told him to come. Well, I've mentioned to him that'd he like the place. He's always looking for inspiration for his drawings," he explains to you, waving his hand as he speaks.

"You're so nice," you mumble with furrowed brows.

"I have a friend who's similar to you," Felix says with a shrug. "Plus, you seem sweet."

Your cheeks blush and you drop your gaze to your lap. You grab a hold of your drink and take a small sip. You look towards Hyunjin again to see his cat-like eyes already on you.

He smiles at you before going back to his sketchbook. "I have to get back to work, but I think you should go say hi," Felix winks at you before going back behind the counter.

Me? Say hi to someone? Especially when that someone looks like him? You think to yourself while stroking the ceramic mug.

You don't take up Felix's advice and try to continue your schoolwork. You put your headphones back on before putting on a playlist that'll hopefully help you focus.

Hyunjin watches you from across the shop, tapping his pencil against the sketchbook. "I tried to get her to come to talk to you," Felix's voice snaps him from his daze, turning to face the blonde.

"She keeps to herself a lot, huh?" He asks his younger friend, adjusting his seating position. He tucks one foot under his leg before looking back down at the sketch he's working on.

"Yeah. She's like Jisung. She has a lot of anxiety," Felix tells him while setting the iced americano in front of him. "She's nice though. Even though she doesn't say a lot. You can tell through her actions."

"She's really pretty," Hyunjin hums, bringing his gaze back to you.

Felix clamps a hand onto his shoulder. "You should go talk to her," he tells him, gently squeezing his shoulder while doing so.

"Yeah, maybe when I finish this," Hyunjin glances up at Felix before looking down at the sketch of you. "I'm almost done."

"Get 'em, tiger!"

-

You're walking your usual route to the coffee shop when someone calls your name. You stop in your tracks before looking over your shoulder.

Hyunjin quickly makes his way to you, his backpack flinging in different directions. His smile is bright as he skids to a stop. "Hey, Y/N, right?" He asks as you stare at him in disbelief.

You quickly look around, wondering if he actually meant you. "Y-You mean me?" You ask him after finding no one else around.

"Yeah, you, hi," he greets with a chuckle.

"H-Hi," you stutter, feeling nervous.

"Are you going to the coffee shop?" Hyunjin questions as the two of you start walking again. You nod your head in response, hugging your laptop case to your chest. "I'm also heading there. Would you mind if I sat with you?"

What is happening? You think to yourself, finding yourself nodding to his question.

"I have something to give to you when we get there," Hyunjin mentions, causing you to lift your head.

"You do?"

He nods his head, smiling down at you. "I've seen you around campus and I've been meaning to talk to you, but every time I get the chance you are gone," he bashfully admits, bringing his free hand to the back of his neck.

Your heart pounds in your chest, and you halt your steps. "Is this a joke?" You ask him with furrowed brows.

"N-No, absolutely not," he stammers, holding a hand out to you. "I'm being a hundred percent serious. Here -"

You watch as Hyunjin quickly opens his bag, shuffling through it before pulling out his sketchbook. Your gaze shifts from the thick book to his face, noticing his lip tucked between his teeth.

He opens it up before showing you one of his drawings. A gasp comes from your lips as the drawing he's showing you is of you. Your cheeks blush as you take the sketchbook into your hands.

"You drew me?" You ask in a whisper, looking over at him through your lashes.

"Yeah," Hyunjin nods his head, combing his fingers through his hair. "I think you're really pretty."

Your heart flutters in your chest as your stomach does a couple of flips. "Can I keep it?" You ask quietly.

"Absolutely, yes, of course. I-I want you to have it," he mentions while reaching for the book, carefully tearing the finished portrait.

You thank him quietly and place it in your computer case, keeping it safe. "So, do you really think I'm pretty?" You question him as the two of you continue walking toward the coffee shop.

Hyunjin's cheeks are flushed when you look up at him. "Yeah, of course, I do. I wasn't lying," he mumbles, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Your stomach continues to do flips as you drop your left hand. His hand gently brushes against yours, causing your cheeks to blush.

"You make me nervous," you exclaim with a shy laugh. "But, at the same time, I wanna hold your hand."

The boy beside you grins before grabbing a hold of your left hand. "I'll be bold for you," he chuckles while stroking the back of your hand with his thumb.

You shyly smile at the ground and gently squeeze his hand in yours. Hyunjin lifts your conjoined hands before placing a soft kiss on the back of it, making your heart flutter.

"Would you want to go out to dinner sometime?" He asks you, his gaze moving to look at you.

"Y-Yeah, that sounds fun," you whisper loud enough for him to hear, the blush on your cheeks darkening.

"It's a date, then!"

-

tagging: @thewxntersoldier @reddesert-healourblues @spacegirlstuff @foxinnie8 @moon0fthenight

[asukalangleysoryuus]

Tomorrow my world changes forever. I get to actually meet other people like me, and see them in reality. I haven't done so since high school, so it's been eleven years since I've frequently interacted with actual people like me, and not online randos. I'm so excited and eager to see what happens. Best part is, we don't use social media, it's all outside the net activities. Thank god for that, I need a break from it. It's a godsend. A sign that He is watching out for me, that He cares for me when it feels like no one else does. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Father, for giving me this opportunity. This wonderful chance.

I will do my best to do as well as I can. Admittedly I've been a bit hesitant about interacting in my hometown, but maybe this will go better than I thought it would. Unlike how people on here pretend to be d/isabled, these guys are the real deal. And probably they'll be way better than the fakes and losers on here.

I'm just so tired of the net. I want to deactivate my accounts and leave forever. I just want to.

I'll see how I feel tomorrow, it'll be a nice, heavensent break.

[rhaigal]

Rhaegal was now fully turned to face Isablle. He was glad that she was here, but at the same time, he didn't want her to see him in such a vulnerable state. He should have told her to leave but it would be impolite and the soup smelled just too good.

"Thank you," Rhaegal offered her a smile as she brought it over. Sitting up with effort, Rhaegal began to eat. "Mmm, this is good."

"Thank you for.. being here," Rhaegal added after a moment.

open: Rhaegal is recovering from an injury. Can be set in main GOT verse or modern.

"Mm, smells like soup."

[acilles]

46, 56, 61

  46: Who is your favorite Disney villain?

 maleficent

56: What color are your eyes?

brown i wish they were grey though

   61: If you could live in any era, which would it be and why?

the dinosaurs era and i really want to see some dinosaurs

send me numbers!!

[thejadednight]

Ok I think im doing this right, it's Feels (from EV of course) I haven't been here in a while but its nice to be back, sorry for not being active here haha. So uh Hi Lune, hi Jaden, hi Jay! I haven't formally met Eric, Isable, Grey, or Drake yet, but hi! And I haven't met Topaz, Crow, Eliza, Sam, or Artemis, but also Hi! Also Heeeeey Dream, you look quite dreamy today!~ (even thought i can't see you-) So uh I guess mainly.. how is everyone? (-Feels even though i already said that-)

* Lune did a small wave and smiled as she ran* Hello Feels Heya feels  Hello!!! * Jay waved his hand quickly from side to side as a greeting. He seems excited * * Crow and Eliza looked to one another * Oh we are just Lune, Jaden, and Jay’s parents.  *Crow sliced through a vine and continued to walk away.. He isn't that talkative * * Sam floated by Dream and chuckled * Well!! it’s good you don't know me! Hehehhehe! part of the fun! * Artemis sat near a cliff watching Lune and Figment’s struggle * Hello nice to meet you * Dream sat in the ruins of the light field that had collapsed on top of her * Why thank you Some of them don't remember partly because of the rewrite.. Hahahaha it's GOOD to see you again*Eclipse Lune waved and chuckled. they were now near their brothers* 

[its-all-ineffable]

Shadowhunters 1x01, ‘Review’(insulting it while raving about how good the books and movie are)

So, you know....where do I start?

Lets start with Clary. First annoyance - she’s supposed to be fifteen, turning sixteen! But Netflix and Freeform were like, “Oh no, we can’t have teenagers making out, we must age everyone up! Sixteen year olds cannot be involved in making out!” I just...ugh! Why would you do that? The top that ‘Dot’ gives her as well, like, I wouldn’t give any 18 year old that top! I know they go out clubbing, but I would not give Clary that top. Plus, it’s not here style! She wears t-shirts, jeans, combat trousers, and sneakers. She does not do see through tops! Or heels, which she ALWAYS seems to wear in the series! Also, her hair is orange, not ginger. ORANGE. Wrong colour guys!

Right, Pandemonium. It’s an all ages club in the book. ALL AGES. That means that 15 year old Clary and 16 year old Simon can get in there, along with 16 year old Jace and Isabelle and 17 year old Alec. In the first chapter, it says “It was a long wait to get into the all-ages club”. C’mon guys! Also, that confrontation with the demon! In the book, it’s very different, with Isabelle seducing a boy with blue hair into a storeroom where Alec, Jace and Izzy interrogate him. Clary follows. The film follows this narrative better, with Isabelle seducing a male-presenting demon to here, and it being killed. Also, Isabelle’s costume in the film is more like the one described in the book, and much nicer. 

The whole bit where Clary comes home to her mother after the Club scene is completely wrong! Her and Simon go to Eric’s poetry reading (this is flipped in the film, they go to the poetry reading then Pandemonium), then she ends up confronting Jace outside Java Jones (which does happen in the film), and getting a phone call from her mother to not come home. She does so, and finds the place destroyed, which is when a demon attacks her. She uses the sensor she steals from Jace to kill it, and he comes to ‘rescue’ her. She never gets a chance to tell Jocelyn about what happened at the club. Also, Pandemonium is not Magnus’ club. Magnus doesn’t even appear until they go to his party to confront him about the block on Clary’s memory! I know they have to change certain things, but I hate the way they screwed this up!

Luke as well - I love Isiah Mustafa’s portrayal of him, and I think he’s a very good actor, but his character is so different it’s almost unrecognisable. He’s a kind bookseller, who encourages Jocelyn to tell Clary the truth, and gets angry with her when she doesn’t. 

‘Dot’ is completely wrong too. Madame Dorethea is the Fray’s elderly neighbour, who lives in the downstairs apartment in the old Brownstone house they live in that’s converted.  She is a physic and abrasive towards all, barely appearing for most of the novel. She does have a portal in her apartment, but we only discover this near the end of the book. She is NOT a warlock, but the adoptive daughter of one.

Isabelle - OH MY GOD, ISABELLE. I love Emeraude and her acting, but Isabelle is NOT NICE. She dislikes Clary a lot in the first book, and Clary dislikes her. They have conflicting personalities, and Isabelle is unhappy with the fact that she is not the centre of attention of all the boys (bar Alec). She is not kind to Clary at all at first, and actively discourages the idea that Jace is her brother. She says “Jace? My brother? No. Whatever gave you that idea?”. This is a drastic change in the series, where Isabelle refers to Jace as her brother a lot. Also, the clothes she leaves Clary when she wakes up from the demon attack are a red shirt and black trousers. Not a tight leather dress! Also - “ ‘You might want to clean up a little. You smell.’ Clary glared at her. ‘Thanks a lot.’” - they don’t like each other.

Also, because Luke is not a cop in the book, it takes longer for Clary to overhear him saying he doesn’t care - it’s when she and Jace return to her apartment to pick up spare clothes, have tea and a tarot card reading with Madame Dorethea and find Simon hiding in Luke’s bushes. That’s where Simon comes back into it. Not finding Clary in an abandoned church. So the order throws me completely. At least in the film they kind of tried to keep major events major, and in some semblance of the order they’re in in the book.

The Institute is all wrong - Hodge, Jace, Alec and Isablle live there, and Max, Maryse and Robert do when they’re not away in Idris, but there are not loads of other people around. And the tech? What? Who decided that the Shadowhunters are basically super spies? Why? Just why?

Maureen, Simon’s bandmate, is, in the books, a friend of a cousin of Simon’s bandmate Eric, who goes to all their gigs and has a big crush on him. And she’s 14!! I understand they wanted to change things, but what the fuck? And she’s not even mentioned in the City Of Bones novel! She comes into it in the 4th book, and only as a side character! I’m not saying that I don’t like Maureen as a character in the series, because I do, but it confused the hell out of me when I first watched the show, and it creeps me out because every time I hear the character’s name, I remember that she’s a 14 year old girl in the book.

And I can’t even talk about Jace. He needs a post of his own. I think Dominic Sherwood is a great actor, and I liked him in other things, like Vampire Academy, but I just....you know what, I’ll make a post for Jace. I can’t cope with that rabbit hole right now.

At least we have Matthew Daddario, perfectly capturing Alec’s salty, bitter attitude. He is annoyed that Jace has already taken so many risks for Clary, thinks she’s an unimportant mundane who’s more trouble than she’s worth. Truthfully, when I first watched this show, Alec was the only reason I decided to keep watching. His character was the most true to the original version of himself, and while I love the movie (and most of the actors in it), the Alec never went over well. Alec is abrasive and unkind at first, but he’s not a complete dick, and he’s not someone who would try and physically strangle Clary like he does in the movie. So, kudos to Matthew Daddario for being the only one allowed to play his character as he was written, and doing it well. 

And Alberto did a great job at portraying Simon as a kind, nerdy friend who’s hopelessly in love with Clary. I’m just a sucker for Robert Sheehan, which is why I prefer movie Simon just a tinsy tiny bit more. But both Simon’s are excellent, and portray the essence of the character super well!

Before people get triggered over all this though - I like this show. I respect the actors. I’m also aware that it’s and adaptation, and that adaptations, no matter how faithful they are, change the source material to fit themselves. I get that. The film did it. The difference is, the film did most of it well. The show...doesn’t. It tries, but it just feels clunky in a lot of places and I hate it. It gets better as it goes into later series - I think the writers get better, and the actors clearly feel more comfortable in their characters, but it still does a lot of things that irritate me and I wanted to point them out. But the actors try their best, and god bless Alberto Rosende and Matthew Daddario for being the gems they are. 

I always say that if we could have the film, and replace the Alec and the Magnus from it with the ones for the show, that it would be my idea of a perfect adaptation. And it would, in my mind. But people have different opinions, and I respect that. I also like a lot of the characters from the show, like Isabelle and Luke, I just feel conflicted because they are SO different from their original iterations, and I like the characters Cassandra Clare presented me with in the books. 

Please don’t be insulted by this, these are my opinions, I just wanted to share them. Yours are probably different. Feel free to share them with me. And Jace...I can’t even with the show’s Jace. I just...jesus.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant/review. Hope you...enjoyed it? I don’t know.

[transrightsjimin]

Abt your intestines post- id say call a doctor if any problems stay for more than 5 days-a week. You dont have to go into detail on the phone you can just ask to see a gastro or a primary care. Ik it can be anxiety inducing and awkward but telling someone can lead to help. I hope everything is okay and that youll get through this 💌💌

thank you!! 😭💕💕💕

ive been having this problem for weeks / months now, but not every day and usually when i have a physica complaint i get accustomed to it so fast that i dont realize it’s actually a problem. i’m just worried bc chronic intestine illnesses run through both sides of my family and my mom even got a lot of disabilities as a result of the medication she took for it and so illness upon isability piled up.

anyway, i cant tell much on the phone anyway since i would talk to the doctor’s assistant when making an appointment so i would need to be brief etc. its more comfortable to discuss it irl at an appointment anyway. thank u so much for your concerns anon :’(

[notbemoved-blog]

Appreciation - Meredith C. Anding, Jr. (1941 – 2021) and the Tougaloo Nine

Upon first meeting, many a visitor may have been tempted to consider Meredith Coleman Anding, Jr., a reticent, almost opaque, man. Soft spoken, terse yet amiable, sphinxlike, enigmatic. Instead, he was the epitome of John Wayne’s character in The Quiet Man—with a preternatural calm on the surface, but with a fierce, almost primal determination to get what was his due: freedom and the respect that came with it. For this, he will be remembered down through the ages.

For it is Meredith Anding’s name, thanks to its alphabetical primacy, that leads the list of quiet Mississippi freedom fighters that we now know as the Tougaloo Nine. These courageous (and, by their own later admission, a bit naive) college students from nearby Tougaloo College, “stepped into history” (as Tougaloo’s former President Beverly Hogan often said of them) on Monday morning, March 27, 1961, when they calmly entered the Whites-only municipal library in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. It was the first student-led civil rights demonstration in the state, all the more remarkable because it was carried off in the Magnolia State’s capital city, under the noses of the most powerful White supremacist politicians, police force, and spy agency in the country and in an environment of intense racial segregation that had been hardening ever since the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. 

Meredith  Anding’s Tougaloo Nine mug shot on 3/27/1961. [Courtesy Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH)]

Secretly assisted and urged on by the NAACP’s “Man in Mississippi,” Medgar Evers, Anding and his cohort created shock waves of horror throughout the White community by the simple act of entering a library, selecting books from the shelves, and calmly sitting down to read. Their actions made a mockery of Jackson’s Mayor, Allen C. Thompson, who as President of the American Municipal Association had gone on a nationwide tour to tout his city’s racial amity despite its harsh segregationist strictures.

For their crime, Anding and his four male and four female colleagues were arrested for “Breach of Peace”—a newly coined law in many Southern states that allowed police to intervene if individuals were creating a situation that put someone’s peace of mind in jeopardy. When the police first arrived, they tried to persuade the students to leave on their own volition, hoping to avoid a showdown in court. But Meredith and his fellow Tougalooans ignored the pleas of the cops. Once told they were under arrest, however, all of them stood and began to march out to the waiting police cars, ignoring the police and the rowdy crowd that had gathered to sneer and shout racial epithets at them. 

All Tougaloo Nine participants posed for a celebratory photo once safely back on campus. Pictured from l-r: Joseph Jackson, Geraldine Edwards, James (Sam) Bradford, Evelyn Pierce, Albert Lassiter, Ethel Sawyer, Meredith Anding, Janice Jackson, Alfred Cook. [Signed photo courtesy of MDAH]

This coordinated action ensured that the group would not be charged with resisting arrest and instead their case would be appealed by the NAACP all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, testing the validity of such “breach of peace” statutes.  Although the case was thrown out on a technicality, nevertheless, the Tougaloo Nine, Meredith Anding among them, would forever stand in dramatic opposition to the false narrative of White Mississippi perpetrated by Thompson and others that “all of our nigras are happy.” Two months later, the Freedom Rides would come to Mississippi and the state would become ground zero for the Movement for Black Equality.

Meredith C. Anding, Jr., was born in 1941 in the small enclave of Myles, Mississippi, about 40 miles southwest of Jackson. The first-born of the Adings lived among extended family for a few years, where he was dubbed with the nickname “Junior Man.” His parents moved to the state capital when Meredith was just five years old. He attended a variety of segregated schools in Jackson, including Adams Economy—a small church school—Sally Reynolds Elementary, and Isable Middle School, and graduated from Jim Hill High School in 1958. Anding attended Jackson State College, not far from his family’s home, for one year and then transferred to Tougaloo in the fall of 1959 to begin his sophomore year.

Meredith’s civil rights bona fides were something of a family affair. Though his mother Nellie was unassuming and reserved—a trait the quiet Junior Man adopted—her sister, Meredith’s aunt A.M.E. Logan, was a forceful personality who involved herself in every conceivable method of citizen activism throughout the 1950s and 1960s. When the Jackson Branch of the NAACP reconstituted itself in the late 1950s after a long period of dormancy, Logan served as the elected secretary of the group and went door to door, even while pregnant, to drum up new members for what was considered by most White Mississippians as a radical Communist agitation group. Later she served as the chapter’s hospitality chair, welcoming various dignitaries—including the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.—to her home. Anding, who lived nearby, was present at many early Mississippi civil rights gatherings.

Meredith Anding pointing to his image in a floor-to-ceiling mural of the Tougaloo Nine leaving the Jackson Municipal Library with police escort. The mural was installed in the Bennie G. Thompson Academic and Civil Rights Research Center on Tougaloo College Campus. [Photo: M.J. O’Brien]

It was Anding’s father, impressed with his sister-in-law’s activism, who signed young Meredith and his sister up for membership in the newly forming West Jackson Youth Council, the youth arm of the NAACP. The group would meet at the Masonic Temple on Lynch Street in the conference room adjacent to the office of Mississippi’s civil rights leader. “Medgar would come over and talk to us every meeting when he was around,” Anding recalled in an oral history interview. As for his own budding role, Anding saw his participation “as kind of a duty,” he said. “I felt obligated to go to meetings and to participate because most of the kids my age weren’t willing to.”

The young activist benefitted from his closeness with both his aunt and with Evers. On several occasions he was chosen to represent the West Jackson Youth Council at gatherings of NAACP youth from throughout the South. It was at these sessions that he became aware of the possibilities that real activism held. “Most other kids from other states had already participated in some kind of protest activities,” he recalled. “It was there that we started thinking, ‘OK, we really have to do something as Mississippians.’”

Indeed, upon returning from one of these week-long sessions, Anding and his cousin, A.M.E.’s son Willis Logan—serving as president of the Youth Council—decided in the summer of 1960 that some form of protest needed to occur in Jackson. They headed over to the Jackson Zoo and sat on a bench reserved for Whites only. The police were called, but nothing came of the infraction. The youth were just scolded and told to go home. The incident didn’t even make it into the newspapers. But Meredith had had his first taste of dissent against the established segregationist order—and his first scrape with the police, as well. Thus, he was not intimidated when the call came to participate the following March in the library sit-in.

Many of the Tougaloo Nine returned in August 2017 to Jackson for the unveiling of the Mississippi Freedom Trail marker commemorating their historic “read-in.” Pictured L-R: Beverly Hogan, then-President of Tougaloo College; Meredith Anding; Alfred Cook; Geralding Edwards Hollis; Ethel Sawyer Adolphe; Janice Jackson; Albert Lassiter; and James Bradford. (Gentleman at far right, unidentified.) [Anding family photo]

Like his other eight colleagues, Anding endured more than 30 hours in jail after his arrest for the library protest, including an arduous interrogation by detectives intent on pinning the lawless “read-in” on Medgar Evers. Despite repeated and harsh questioning, neither Anding nor his accomplices ever gave up any information that might incriminate their leader. Anding’s steely reserve and inbred confidence was something of a shock to the White detectives.  “Your mother would be ashamed of you!” the cops admonished him. “No, she wouldn’t,” Anding calmly volleyed.  “Why not?” they persisted. “Because my father pays taxes and I have a right to go to the library.”

Because of his participation in Mississippi’s first student-led civil rights demonstration, Anding lost his funding for college, which was being provided by a local church group, and was forced to suspend his education. Undeterred, he moved to Chicago for a year, then volunteered to serve in the Air Force security force. After four years, mostly spent in Turkey, Anding returned to Tougaloo and completed his Bachelor of Science degree with a specialty in Mathematics. He also gained acceptance into graduate school at the State University of New York at Buffalo for an advanced degree in Math. He met his wife Maurice while in grad school and the two forged a lifelong partnership. They stayed in Buffalo and made careers teaching mathematics and designing teaching protocols to help youth learn higher mathematics principles.

For their efforts, each of the Tougaloo Nine were awarded keys to the City of Jackson on October 14, 2006, 45 years after their historic nonviolent protest. [Key in Meredith Anding Collection]

Meredith Anding died on Friday, January 8, of complications from leukemia. Maurice survives him, as does the Andings’ son Armaan and several grandchildren. Their son Gordon, who had cerebral palsey, died in 2018.

In summing up his breakthrough activism, the example of which would lead many more of Mississippi’s young Blacks to challenge the segregationist system, Anding was, as usual, understated but eloquent. “We were the first to show resistance,” Anding said about the legacy of the Tougaloo Nine. “We were the pace setters. We seized a moment of time that had arrived for the state of Mississippi to move forward.”

Author M.J. O’Brien and Meredith Anding outside of the Anding’s home along the Niagara River in Grand Island, New York. Just like Anding, the seemingly quiet river disguises a powerful undercurrent below the surface. About 10 miles downriver, the placid Niagara River becomes Niagara Falls. 

M. J. O’Brien is the author of the award-winning “We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth’s Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired.” He is currently at work on a book-length narrative study of the Tougaloo Nine and their legacy.

[big-office-furballs]

Dear isablle, It's been a long time, big sis. How's it been? I've been kind of lonely since we've last seen each other. I've been showing the nice folk from all over the various houses from other towns and worlds. I know the mayor's been busy with that fighting tournament between warriors, beasts and robots, but could we hang out and feed eachother again like we were kids? I just passed the 1400 pound mark and want to compare bellies. Write back soon From your equally as fat twin, Digby.

Dear Digby, I've been doing great! Things have been calming Dow, and most of the villagers have been gaining a lot of weight thanks to that cafeteria the mayor put in before he went for the smash tournaments. I myself have passed the 1,500 mark just recently, and I would love to compare bellies! Why don't you come by my place? We can compare bellies and stuff ourselves silly! ~Isabelle

[rachelfedora-blog]

@rachelfedora @fullsail about today's #mail. It just got real. By God's #grace in 69-days the very thing dozens of people told me that I could never do, will happen. #Thank you to all who have supported me, #prayed for me, and #walked with me along this #journey. Like my girl #DamitaChandler #sings, "There's No Looking Back"! God is a #miracle #worker!!! 🎓🎞🎬 #Master's #Film #Production #Double-Degree #FullSail #Cap&Gown #Dual #Scholarship #Recipient #LetTheirNOsFuelYou #2017 #My #Best #Life #MyBestYear #Dreams #DoComeTrueWhenYou #Believe #ItsMy #Season #WalkingInMy #Purpose #Filmmaker #Glory2God #Humble #Grateful #Thankful #Elevated #Growth #IWentHigher #Leapof #Faith #God #IsAble