Lots of people make interesting connections by friending people on Facebook. Ann Adams found one of her Facebook friends, Antonia Valerie “Toni” Martinez, so fascinating that Ann wrote a book about Toni, Walking Through Fire, the Startling Story of an ‘Ordinary’ New Orleans Woman, available at Amazon books.
“I am politically aware enough to know white women usually shouldn’t write about Black women,” Ann said. “But I thought her story was staggering, and there was no one else to tell it. People told her all her life that someone should write her story. Most biographies are about famous people. I think it is really important that non-famous people who have made significant contributions get their stories told, as well. And she has made so many contributions. Toni has given, given, given.”
Ann grew up in New Orleans and has lived in Eureka Springs since 1978 where she had a private mental health counseling practice as an advanced nurse practitioner. She is about 17 years older than Toni and grew up in a very different culture. Ann was drawn to Toni initially because of her Facebook posts about African American history in New Orleans.
“When I first noticed Toni on Facebook, her posts were about old New Orleans,” Ann said. “I thought that was interesting. A lot were just fun things about food, but her posts were pointedly about African American history in New Orleans. I started learning things in New Orleans that I didn’t have a clue about.”
Conversations on Facebook led to long calls on the telephone and a mutual admiration of each other. When Toni started telling her life story, Ann was overwhelmed by this woman who experienced so much trauma as a child yet evolved into an incredible woman devoted to spreading African American history.
At birth, Toni was given away by her mother at a hospital in Chicago. Adoption papers were forged. Toni was never told she was adopted. When she was three years old, the adoptive mother started slicing on Toni.
“She left Toni for dead and went out and killed a white woman,” Ann said. “She was arrested for that murder. Toni was put into custody. Then she was shipped to that adoptive mother’s mother in New Orleans, who also abused Toni and tried to drown her.
“The couple who ended up getting Toni were an aunt and uncle. Jennie and Charlie adored her and took really good care of her. Jennie was, among other things, a voodoo practitioner. She died before Toni was an adult. Toni stayed with Charlie, and when she was a teenager, she got pregnant, and her abusive husband moved in with them. She eventually ran away from him, with her two kids, and went to a shelter.”
Toni was influenced a lot by Jennie, a follower of Marcus Garvey, whose goal was the unification and creation of a self-sufficient Black nation. Toni started researching different religions and philosophies and ended up becoming a Rastafarian. That’s when she started doing work with prisoners in Louisiana.
After writing to prisoners, she met another woman activist and started going to the prisons and the courts. She did that for 18 years. One of the most infamous prisons she visited was Angola in Louisiana, a plantation converted into a prison.
“From my understanding, after freedom was granted to slaves, the white authorities started looking for excuses to put Black people in prison to run that plantation,” Ann said. “They would arrest them even for loitering. The South, of course, wasn’t very happy about the liberation of slaves so they did everything they could to do to mess it up.”
Some of the men she worked with were violent. Toni’s advocacy greatly influenced them in converting to be becoming non-violent and moral. There are several testimonies in the book from the men who were influenced by her.
“It was amazingly helpful to them having someone show they cared about them and send them information while also serving as a go-between with their families,” Ann said. “She did all of this while she was working and raising her children. She had four biological children and took in two more. One of the jobs she ended up doing for many years was in security. She ended up being a dispatcher for a security company, which is what she’s still doing today.”
Flooded out in Hurricane Katrina, Toni was standing on an overpass surrounded by flooding with no shade and got severely sunburned. She had no food or water. She was infuriated at the number of news helicopters that flew to videotape their misery without providing any assistance. She shouted at them and gave them the finger.
“I can’t totally fault the news, though, as they exposed what was going on at the convention center where the people received no help for days and days,” Ann said. “Sitting here in Eureka with friends who had evacuated from New Orleans and watching this on television was horrifying. It was also horrifying to see most of the people in the convention center were Black because most white people were able to get out. There were all these buses the mayor could have used to get them out before the hurricane.”
Ann was intrigued that Toni, at age 58, knew nothing about her biological family. Toni had found out the woman she thought was her mother was not, and that her birth certificate had been forged. She had no idea if she had any family other than her children.
Ann had genetic testing done and they were laughing about her results that showed she was “a true mongrel” with many different races in her genetic history including Native American and West African.
“I told her she needed to do that genetic testing,” Ann said. “I said, ‘I’m sending you a kit from 23andme. You can throw it away if you want to.’ Toni sent in the testing and ended up learning that she was one of 11 children. They all knew there was a missing sister, but one sister was dogged about finding her and persisted throughout all the years. Toni was just overwhelmed at learning about all these siblings. She didn’t even know whether or not to believe it.”
The siblings started talking and connecting, and two different television stations in New Orleans covered the reunion when the family from Chicago came to visit. Ann was also present. There was feasting, much discussion of how much they are alike, and a t-shirt with the family tree.
“They all have high foreheads,” Ann said. “There are just so many commonalities. When they got together, they were all feeling at home with one another.”
Ann and two friends attended another reunion in Chicago. “I was just welcomed with open arms and love from all of these people,” Ann said.
Profits from sale of the book go to Toni, who is still working paycheck to paycheck.
This is such a great story. I have to get this book!
I have known Val, since childhood. Reading how hard her life was, is quite saddening. Reading how strong she is , is uplifting. I am so proud to know her…. Ann is a truly loving person, obviously living her life by the “Golden Rule”