“Every story that we tell or hear has a purpose and helps us keep our lives knitted together,”(Franklin and Dowdy, page 122) this statement is incredibly true especially in the black community. As a black woman I grew up around storytelling at its finest. My grandparents would tell me stories about the Jim Crow & lynching era, Civil Rights movement, and the Counter Culture movement. I appreciate this oral tradition because it helped me to become a part of a walking history book and shape the future of my education. “Storytelling” an excerpt in Joanne Dowdy’s, Readers of the Quilt, shows the importance of oral tradition and helps us understand the miniscule details of the art. In education, we become very successful because of our background and the stories that have been told. Stories that are not only knowledgeable in history, but allowing us to become greater literate beings. The stories that we are told allow our imagination to run rampid and the creativity in our writing to become more apparent. Storytelling connects us to the generations before us specifically as women. Before we were able to tell our own stories, the black man told our story for us. “Who can better reconstruct the life story of an African American woman than another African American woman,” is a perfect quote that explains the worth our voice as storytellers (Franklin and Dowdy, page 130). 
Oral tradition of blacks also plays a significant part in medicine. Banks-Wallace conducted research in which storytelling could help them figure out why black women have certain “health-related behaviors”. I believe in this because when one is telling a story about her ancestors it could be easily shown why they make certain health choices. Storytelling keeps African American people together as one. It also helps the community stay vibrant and thriving.
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