Wicked Local
The Rev. Barbara Simmons is a church pastor; Vedna Heywood is a trauma nurse - both Black women say they are reluctant teachers as well.
Sisters of the South, Simmons and Heywood made their way north to Massachusetts in vastly different eras, but both have encountered racism that they say they cannot ignore or let go unnoticed and unmentioned.
It can be a burden at times, like when they’re running errands or just going about their jobs, but Simmons and Heywood don’t hesitate to teach people the error of biased ways.
“No matter what occupation we’re in, we have to constantly teach in addition to the job we have to do. It’s just a constant, teaching all the time, and it kind of wears you down,” said Simmons, who has been pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Plymouth for 17 years.
Old Colony Memorial Person of 2020: Vedna Heywood
Emily Clark
Special to the OCM
Vedna Heywood was on a school bus with some friends near her home in Florida when two young men spat on them after verbally abusing the bus driver. She said she remembered their faces, how they called her and her friends the “n-word” and other expletives. The teenagers sat frozen, willing the incident to pass.
Her mother complained to the school, but nothing was done.
Two years later, the same two men hurled racial slurs and kicked her friend Luyen Phan Nguyen to death at a party in Coral Springs, Florida, because he was Vietnamese. The men were among five convicted of the brutal murder, which drew a crowd of onlookers who did nothing.