{"id":1591,"date":"2018-03-01T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=1591"},"modified":"2018-03-13T11:01:19","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T15:01:19","slug":"joyce-stokes-jones-and-michele-jones-galvin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=1591","title":{"rendered":"Joyce Stokes Jones and Michele Jones Galvin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting to Know Aunt Harriet <\/em><\/h1>\n

By Lorna Oppedisano | Photography by Alice G. Patterson<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When Michele Jones Galvin was in the fourth grade, she was assigned a history project. She was to present a report on an important individual who was greatly admired. The choice of who to feature was up to her.<\/p>\n

She went home and told her mother, Joyce Stokes Jones, about the assignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, why don\u2019t you pick Aunt Harriet?\u201d her mother suggested.<\/p>\n

Michele grabbed an encyclopedia and flipped it open to the page containing a passage about Harriet Tubman, fondly known to the family as Aunt Harriet. Michele and Joyce are great-great grand niece and great grand niece, respectively, of the famous abolitionist.<\/p>\n

Much to Michele\u2019s dismay, there were only about 10 sentences about Aunt Harriet, accompanied by a small photo.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow am I going to make this very exciting?\u201d she asked herself.<\/p>\n

In the end, Michele chose to research and present on Sidney Poitier for the project instead, since there was a myriad of information available on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen it hit me,\u201d Michele said. \u201cAnd, then, I learned that I should never have squandered that opportunity to share with my classmates and my teacher about the relationship with Aunt Harriet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meeting Aunt Harriet<\/h4>\n

Though she realized the importance of being related to Aunt Harriet and her distant relative\u2019s historical significance in her \u201cfourth grade mind,\u201d Michele remembered, to her, it was more \u201cMom\u2019s project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joyce learned she was related to Harriet Tubman when she was about 7 or 8 years old.<\/p>\n

Young Joyce went to story hour at Booker T. Washington Community Center, and the storyteller began the session by saying, \u201cWe\u2019re going to talk about this wonderful woman named Harriet Tubman,\u201d Joyce recalled.<\/p>\n

When Joyce returned home later that day, she told her mother about the stories, to which her mother replied, \u201cThat was your aunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, at that time, I was a little girl and didn\u2019t realize how famous she was,\u201d Joyce said.<\/p>\n

Years later, in 1968, Joyce wrote the \u201cBlack Heritage,\u201d a weekly column for the Syracuse Herald Journal that highlighted noteworthy African-American figures in American history. She also produced a children\u2019s segment on African-American heritage for Channel 9 the same year. In 1972, Joyce produced and directed shows for WCNY on issues in the African-American community.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, in the 1970s, Joyce began to research Aunt Harriet, to expand her own knowledge of the famed abolitionist, and bring that knowledge to her family and the general public. She wanted to delve deeper, and expand beyond those 10 sentences Michele found in the encyclopedia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to put our history in the public,\u201d Joyce said.<\/p>\n

While she did frequent the Onondaga Historical Association, a lot of the research was done outside of the Central New York area. Her travels brought her to places like Annapolis, Cambridge and Bucktown, Md., just to name a few. Along the way, she conducted presentations of her discoveries to communities, congregations and student groups.<\/p>\n

The pieces began to be documented with the 1985 documentary Joyce produced, called \u201cA Conversation with a Living Relative of Harriet Tubman.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than a nurse<\/h4>\n

Joyce\u2019s research revealed Aunt Harriet to be much more of a courageous and dynamic figure than that 10-sentence encyclopedia entry might have led readers to believe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it comes across as, \u2018Oh, she was a nurse and a scout and a spy,\u2019\u201d Michele said. \u201cWell, she was \u2014 but scout and spy should come first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michele explained her mother\u2019s findings. While Aunt Harriet did, in fact, know a lot about herbs and healing, she was actually asked to join because of her ability to go behind enemy lines in the South and bring slaves North and into service as Union soldiers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, that was the amazing part, I think \u2014 the Civil War piece,\u201d Michele said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t so much the nursing, which I think can lead you to believe something other than what she was there to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aunt Harriet really had feared nothing, Michele added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s why we\u2019re here today,\u201d Joyce said, \u201cbecause she brought our people out, our family out. Can you believe that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting it all together<\/h4>\n

In late 1999, Joyce decided it was time to compile the years of research, presentations and writings into a book. Michele offered to help edit.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it\u2019s all done,\u201d Michele recalled thinking, \u201cand I\u2019ll just help her edit it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as they began to delve into the writings and place the pieces of creative nonfiction in place, Michele and Joyce realized it would be more of an undertaking than either of them had first imagined.<\/p>\n

To achieve the story they\u2019d envisioned, \u201cwe had to spend a little more time on putting more meat on the bones,\u201d Michele explained.<\/p>\n

Each Sunday, and in their spare time, Michele would interview Joyce at their dining room table, in order to make the \u201ccreative thread\u201d they needed, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should see it,\u201d Michele said, in regards to Joyce\u2019s collection on Aunt Harriet. \u201cIn her alcove, there are file cabinets just jammed with paper and bookcases just jammed with books, and all the different things that she was able to pull together over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little by little, the story came together. The process even included a trip to Africa in 2007, to further investigate Aunt\u00a0Harriet\u2019s grandmother, Modesty, who was thought to have been of the Ashanti people from Ghana.<\/p>\n

People told Joyce she had Ashanti features, she recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201c[To me, they said,] \u2018But you look like where the beautiful women come from in the northern tribes,\u2019\u201d Michele recalled with a laugh. \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019ll take that!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, in 2013, the duo entered the final steps of publishing. Coincidentally, it was the 100-year anniversary of Aunt Harriet\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just came together \u2014 like the stars aligned \u2014 and we were able to tell her story from our perspective, from our family perspective,\u201d Michele said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that is the first book that comes from family,\u201d Joyce added.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and only,\u201d Michele said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More than just \u201cMom\u2019s work\u201d<\/h4>\n

Since the book, entitled \u201cBeyond the Underground, Harriet Tubman: A Heroine in My Family,\u201d was published on Nov. 17, 2013, the authors have done nearly 50 present-ations, including book talks and book signings.<\/p>\n

The Central New York community has been very welcoming of their project, Michele said.<\/p>\n

The experience of working with her mother on Joyce\u2019s life\u2019s work made quite an impact on her, Michele said. Michele, of course, knew she was related to the historical figure. But while she was growing up, she\u2019d always considered the story of Aunt Harriet to be \u201cMom\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until 1999 that she really realized, \u201cWow, this is amazing,\u201d Michele said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you actually do the work, you really get to know [Aunt Harriet], and you really get to feel her,\u201d Michele said. \u201cSo, it really was much later when I really got it. Since then, it\u2019s just been such an honor to be able to talk about my mom\u2019s work and her research.\u201d SWM<\/em><\/p>\n

For more information on \u201cBeyond the Underground, Harriet Tubman: A Heroine in My Family\u201d and its authors, visit mosesofherpeople.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting to Know Aunt Harriet By Lorna Oppedisano | Photography by Alice G. Patterson\u00a0 When Michele Jones Galvin was in the fourth grade, she was assigned a history project. She was to present a report on an important individual who was greatly admired. The choice of who to feature was up to her. She went…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[146,562,561,133,549,560,548],"class_list":["post-1591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-alice-g-patterson","tag-harriet-tubman","tag-joyce-stokes-jones","tag-lorna-oppedisano","tag-march-2018","tag-michele-jones-galvin","tag-the-womens-history-empowerment-edition"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/michele-jones-galvin-joyce-stoke-jones-syracuse-woman-mag-0008-1.jpg?fit=5200%2C3470&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1288,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=1288","url_meta":{"origin":1591,"position":0},"title":"Annie Taylor","author":"Staff","date":"December 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Designing Your Passion By Lorna Oppedisano | Photography by Alice G. Patterson When Annie Taylor planned her wedding, Pinterest-inspired, do-it-yourself festivities were not the norm. But Annie wanted her own creative, unique wedding invitations. So, returning home every evening from her job at Stonewall Kitchen\u2019s in-house design department, she\u2019d set\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Featured"","block_context":{"text":"Featured","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?cat=99"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Annie-Taylor-0009.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Annie-Taylor-0009.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Annie-Taylor-0009.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Annie-Taylor-0009.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Annie-Taylor-0009.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1537,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=1537","url_meta":{"origin":1591,"position":1},"title":"Nancy Aureli","author":"Staff","date":"February 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Creating Community Resources\u00a0 By Lorna Oppedisano | Photography by Alice G. 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