Constantine Jackson-Kerengton

She was everything that a black woman didn't want to be.  She was taller than most men.  She was darker than most colored.  Her lips were thicker, her hips were fuller and her feet were immeasurable.  She was her mother's shame and her father's spitting image.  Her sisters were small, petite, lighter and more favorable than Constantine.  Her mother was always trying to explain Constantine.  While here sisters were praised for being pretty, Constantine was praised for being smart, or witty, or inventive, but not pretty.  Her mother tried to sell her to men who would rather run from her.  They laughed at her.  They called her names and praised her sisters.  There was no place for a six foot woman.  Constantine, took up all the space that a woman was given.  Unfortunately, she was forced to borrow space from the men.  They hated it.  She looked them in the eye.  She made them uncomfortable.  She matched their strength and she was smarter.  To punish her for her towering power, they ignored her.  They did not open the door for her.  They did not carry her groceries or help her over puddles.  They did not take her to dances or on dates for that matter.  They came to her door and asked to meet her sisters.  They treated her like a man.  When she left for college life in Decatur, Illinois, everyone understood.  Constantine was going the only way that she could.  She would have to learn to take care of herself because the chances are, there would be no love and no children.  How surprised she was to see a man, six feet two, with green eyes, who wanted to carry her groceries.  She was sure that he was just wanting to know who her sisters were, but that wasn't the case.  He said that she looked like his father, but not in a bad way.  She did not look like a man, but she had the features of his father.  She wanted to ignore him, but he bought her steak dinners from the Beach House, he asked her to the church social and he opened the door.  That was enough.  Milliken could give her an education, but not a legacy.  It was enough.  She left and got married to Norman Kerengton.  They got a small apartment in Longview and within months, she was pregnant.