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Part 1

• Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir written in verse by American author Jacqueline Woodson.

• Part 1 of the collection of poems is entitled “I am Born.”

• The first poem of Part 1 is titled “February 12, 1963.” In it, Jacqueline Woodson describes the day of her birth at the University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

• 1963 was a year in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, where all across the South, people were pushing for rights for black Americans.

• In the poem “Second Daughter’s Second Day on Earth,” Jacqueline describes her parents, Mary Ann Irby, aged 22, and Jack Austin Woodson, aged 25, both black.

• Martin Luther King, Jr., is preparing for a march on Washington; John F. Kennedy is president.

• For Jacqueline, her firsts are symbolic of her readiness to change the world, whether they are like Ruby’s or like Rosa’s.

• In the poem “A Girl Named Jack,” Jack insists...

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