That’s how Judy Watts, the executive director of Agenda for Children, described Alma Watkins, who lost her life to cancer this week. I couldn’t agree more. I was saddened to read about her death when I read Lolis Elie’s column in today’s Times Picayune.
Mama Alma — that’s how everyone knew her as — was a teacher in the New Orleans Public School system, but I knew her from her work after she retired from NOPS, but not from teaching. Mama Alma and the Umoja Committee, a group she founded in 1988, aspired to let African American children know that their lives had value. Every year, Mama Alma and the committee would put together the Celebration of the African American Child, which is still held every spring in Congo Square.
I have a very strong memory from spring ’05 (and it’s hard to recall much in 2005 before the levees failed) of my daughter Claire, then all of 16-months-old, standing in a prayer circle with many other kids in Congo Square on a bright sunny morning, just before the start of the celebration. Standing directly behind the kids in our own circle are us parents and other adults, symbolizing that we will always support and love our children: we have your back.
