Early Life
Ginger was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the fourth son and next-to-last child of an affluent Southern family that moved to Indiana (Debs' home state) while he was very young, and was shortly thereafter plunged into abject poverty by the Great Depression. After four years "squatting" in a series of unoccupied houses in Greencastle while their eldest son attended DePauw college, the Ginger family settled in Indianapolis, still in extremely difficult circumstances. These experiences deeply influenced Ray Ginger's political convictions and much of his historical work: in later life he frequently recounted his childhood humiliation when sent to collect the bag of flour that was the only form of public welfare available, and also the intense personal rage that dominated his youth.
Read more about this topic: Ray Ginger
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man’s training begins, its probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, goddamn it, my life has value.’ So I want you to get up now, I want all of you to get up out of your
chairs. I want you to get up right now, and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.’”
—Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981)