Matriarch: A Memoir

Knowles remembers her childhood in Galveston, Texas. She often ran away from home to spend time with her eldest sister Selena, who was 27 when Knowles was born. Selena’s kids—Deanne, Linda, Leslie, Elouise, Elena, Tommie, Ronnie, and Johnny—were like Knowles’s siblings. Knowles was closest with Johnny. He “was obviously gay by the time he was three” (8) and Knowles loved being around him and often wanted to protect him. She remembers all the fun they’d have together, and with his siblings.

Knowles’s dad Lumis was a longshoreman. He worked hard, but he had an alcohol dependency. Sometimes Knowles got upset when Agnes ridiculed him for spending their money on alcohol. Agnes worked as a seamstress. Despite the two incomes, they always struggled financially.

Agnes taught her children many survival rules from a young age. During that era, Agnes was especially scared that her children would be attacked because they were Black. Knowles shares some instances where her brothers were attacked. Despite this violence, Knowles felt happy when she was young, especially when she was with Johnny.

Knowles recalls a summer Agnes made Flo take Knowles with her wherever she went. Agnes believed Knowles wouldn’t get into any trouble if Flo had to care for her younger sister. One time, Knowles sat at the front of the bus and Flo got angry with her. A white woman scolded Flo, convinced that Knowles was white and Flo was her Black babysitter. When Flo corrected her, the woman became angry. Despite these blatant racial divides, Galveston claimed they had no racial tension.

Knowles recalls the trips she and her family took to Weeks Island, Louisiana. This is where Lumis grew up and where her parents met. Whenever they went back, Agnes was visibly tense. Knowles later learned why her parents fled Weeks Island and still had a fraught relationship with the place.

In the 1800s, Weeks Island was a colony of enslaved persons run by David Weeks. After the Civil War, David’s son William took it over and enforced the Black Codes, compelling Black citizens to work in the salt mines. Over the years, this oppressive system remained largely unchanged. Lumis worked in the mines, too. One day, the mine exploded and he was stuck. His brothers went against their foreman’s orders and rescued Lumis. The foreman then fired all of them. Lumis ended up blinded in one eye and rendered deaf in one ear. When the brothers tried working with the union thereafter, they were attacked.

Lumis and Agnes fled to Galveston, where her sister Lydia lived. However, she, Lumis, and their children ended up at Agnes’s first husband Slack’s house. Slack was abusive and it had taken years for Agnes to leave the marriage. Now she was forced to return to the very house where she and Slack had lived. However, Slack was gracious. He and his new wife welcomed Agnes and Lumis.

As a child, Knowles didn’t understand this history. However, she often got into trouble on visits. One time she was upset because her cousins wouldn’t let her into a store while there was a white woman inside. Knowles was confused at the time, but now realizes how many rules she was learning to follow at a young age. This was only four years after Emmett Till’s murder.

Knowles recounts her experience starting kindergarten at Holy Rosary Catholic School. She was immediately targeted by Sister Fidelis. She beat Knowles and repeatedly told her she didn’t belong and wasn’t good enough. When Knowles begged Agnes to take her out of the school, Agnes refused. She was a devout Catholic and attended the Holy Rosary church. However, the church didn’t treat Agnes well: Agnes couldn’t even take communion because she was divorced.

The one time Knowles felt better about school was when Agnes made her a beautiful dress for their weekly Blessed Virgin Mary ceremony. At the last minute, Knowles had to give her classmate Linda the dress because Linda’s mom had died. Knowles was upset, but seeing how happy Linda was in the dress made her feel better.

The only person who understood Knowles’s school troubles was Johnny. He was bullied, too, because of his sexuality. Finally the family encouraged him to learn how to sew, arguing that if he could make people cool clothing he’d never get made fun of.

Around this time, the Civil Rights sit-ins movement began. Flo participated and Knowles insisted on going with her. They were almost apprehended by police, but Knowles made such a fuss that the cops let them go.

Meanwhile, nothing changed at school. However, Knowles didn’t let the nuns break her. Finally one day, she stood up to her parents and demanded that they let her attend public school instead.

When Knowles transferred to Booker T. Washington School, she insisted that everyone call her Tina. She quickly earned praise from her teacher Miss Olivier, who transferred Knowles to a higher-level class where she met her new friend, Vernell Jackson. Knowles describes the political climate the summer she finished her first year of public school. Things were changing at home, too. Some of Knowles’s siblings moved away. Then her brother Skip chose to attend the desegregated high school Ball High so he could play football.

Knowles recalls the night that Skip was almost killed. He went to a party and got drunk. His girlfriend sent him home in a cab, but he ended up on the neighbor Miss Patrick’s doorstep. Convinced he was a white man trying to break in, she called the police. When they arrived, she realized it was Skip. She begged them to let him go, but the cops arrested him and beat him up.

Knowles’s family struggled to recover from the incident. It reminded them of how they were seen because they were Black. Knowles holds that Black people continue to face this same violence, which is rooted in the history of American enslavement.