My name is Kennedy Glover, and I’m 16 years old. I moved with my younger brother, and my mother from England to find better opportunities on March 4th, 1878. When we got off the big, crowded boat, I felt nervous seeing so many different people. We had to wait in line for a long time, and I saw families being separated. Finally, we answered the guard's questions and were allowed to move together.

England

What countries are you guys from?

When we left the crowded area, we could finally breathe and think clearly. We walked to our new home, which looked different than I expected. The streets were messy and smelled awful, making me feel sick. Inside, our new place was small and crowded, with no bathroom. It was a big change from our old home, and I felt disappointed.

After living there for a few weeks, I noticed people treated me differently. When I went to some stores, I felt unwelcome, like everyone was watching me. One time, the store owner wouldn’t take my money, I waited for her to take it out of my hand, but eventually just sat it on the counter. Once I did that, she decided to continue our transaction. A young African American man overheard our conversation and helped solve my confusion. He told me the owner didn’t want to touch me because of my skin color. This made me feel sad and unsure about what was happening.

After the store incident, I felt lost and confused. I had heard about this happening to others but never thought it would happen to me. I had decided to put this behind me because tomorrow was my first day of work. The next day, my mom and brother wished me good luck on my first day on the job. My job was conveniently around the corner from my house so I didn't have to walk far. On my way there, I saw a crowd of females shouting and protesting for equal pay with men. I was very overwhelmed and didn't know what to do. Even though they told me not to go in, I kept my head down and walked past them.

When I walked into the sewing shop, my boss, a tall white man, greeted me warmly. I had worked in a sewing factory in England, so I knew what to do. He showed me around and introduced me to my coworkers. They were very kind and made me feel welcome. The day went by quickly because everyone was so nice. When I left work, people were still protesting, but it had seemed to get worse. There were police officers who were detaining and arresting the women. Fear overtook my body and caused me to run home so I could get away as soon as possible.

When I got home, I told my mom and brother about the protests. They had read about it in the newspapers but weren’t sure it was real. My brother thought we should join the protest because it was important. At first, my mom and I were unsure, but we decided to join in and help support the women.

We should join this!

The next morning, we woke up early to join the protest. There were people of all ages and races fighting for everyone's rights. They wanted to stop not just unfair treatment of women but all kinds of discrimination. Some people were upset by our protest and thought we were wrong. They believed we didn't understand what we were doing.

We protested for many weeks. More and more people joined us each day. We put up lots of papers and posters around town. People started to notice and listen to us. They wanted to help solve our problems.

Not just women, but also white people were protesting. This showed that everyone was coming together to fix the problem. We could see the progress we made. Everyone felt proud of what we achieved. We were excited to see what would happen next.