Summary

In “Naomi,” while wandering “the Taste of Minnesota, an annual celebration with live music in downtown Saint Paul,” with her children, Naomi was overcome by despair (119). Everyone regarded her with judgment and disdain. She had come to believe society saw “her and her children” as “‘undesirables’” (120). While walking over the Wabasha Street Bridge, she threw her two infants into the water and jumped in after them, shouting “‘Freedom’” (121).

Realizing what had happened, a “man on the riverbank” jumped in after Naomi and the children (121). Naomi and one of her sons survived. The other died. During an interrogation later, Naomi repeatedly said she “didn’t mean to hurt” her children (122). She was trying to save them from becoming social pariahs because of their ancestral past.

Naomi’s mother Florida raised Naomi and her siblings “in the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago” (123). The Homes “were among...