Central High School was where I first learned about the power of circumstances, about economics. I learned about what people of color were like through my neighborhood relationships, and also that there was racist hatred because there was a lynching in our neighborhood...I still have a recurring nightmare--the smell of burning flesh and a boy about my age whose father is trying to put this open pocketknife in his hand, pushing him, and telling him to go up [to the hanged man] and bring back part of his ear.

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About Tillie Olsen

Tillie Olsen was a 20th-century American writer. Tillie Lerner Olsen was an American writer who was associated with the political turmoil of the 1930s and the first generation of American feminists. Read more on Wikipedia →

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