Carefully Choosing Labels

In 1996, New York Times reporter Nina Bernstein wrote a story about a hidden chapter in jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald's life, when she was confined for more than a year in a juvenile reformatory as a teenager. Ms. Fitzgerald was reluctant to talk about this part of her life and when she died that same year, much of the story died with her.

But some details are known: Ms. Fitzgerald's stepfather abused her after her mother's death in 1937. An aunt living in Harlem gave 15-year-old Ella shelter, but the girl dropped out of school to make money. After she was found "running numbers," authorities sent her to the Colored Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, New York. The crowded orphanage sent "overflow" children to the state reform school. Ella was one of these.

Sometimes sent to the school simply for running away or truancy, the school's 88 black girls were segregated into two brick "cottages" and disciplined with beatings, solitary confinement with only bread and water to eat, and shackling. The school's English teacher remembered Ms. Fitzgerald as a good student: "I can even visualize her handwriting - she was a perfectionist." The teacher noted that the school had a good music program and was known for its choir, but Ella's voice never graced its concerts. The choir was all white. "We didn't know what we were looking at," the teacher said. "We didn't know that she would be the future Ella Fitzgerald."

Still under 18, Ella was paroled to Chick Webb's band, and less than a year later she won a talent contest at Harlem's Apollo Theater. The school's last superintendent, Thomas Tunney, asked, "How many Ellas are there? She turned out to be absolutely one of a kind. But all of the other children were human beings, too. In that sense, they are all Ellas."

Nina Bernstein ended her article with this question: "If she was almost lost to us, how many like her have been?"

Has a label like "juvenile delinquent" ever been applied to you? Did the label help others see you better or understand you more deeply? Why or why not?

The words we use to describe children have far-reaching impact. Speaking words and labels over children is the same as writing on the slate of their souls. Uplifting labels, such as "smart" and "kind" help children to see the positive aspects of themselves. Negative ones often cause children to live up to expectations.

Many of the children we work with as CASA volunteers have been labeled by their parents and other adults. It's our duty to look very closely at the children we work with and to understand that their precious souls are needy for kind words of encouragement.

You may be working with an "Ella."