Too often we focus on history as being something large and impersonal, sweeping tides of change and important dates.

And while those milestones are important, it’s also vital to connect them to real, personal stories.

We should remember that those “pioneers” were real people who had carefree moments in the sun and took silly pictures.

Here are my grandparents in the 1950s. They’d been married about a year. My grandmother had recently graduated from Wiley College, the historically black, liberal arts college in Texas.

Wiley was instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement. Students launched the first sit-ins in Texas in the rotunda of the Old Harrison County Courthouse to protest segregation in public facilities.

My favorite of my grandmother’s contributions to civil rights? She said, “We used to steal the colored only signs from buildings and then go to the bridge and throw them in the river!” It’s amazing to think about how my family’s story is so wrapped up in America’s history. ~ shared by @notaaliyah