She was a giant; a world renowned artist, educator, historian, mentor, poet, activist; a hero. Learn about her. In natural hair relatedness my mother told me Dr Burroughs was wearing a TWA in the 40's honey! How bad did she have to be to be walking around in a TWA 20 years before the black pride/civil rights era?!! She wasn't even trying to make a statement, she was just fully self possessed. I know yall know it takes a bad black woman even in the new millenium to walk in her own image but to do it then...ponder that alone.
"What Shall I Tell My Children Who are Black?"
By Dr. Margaret Burroughs
What shall I tell my children who are black
Of what it means to be a captive in this dark skin?
What shall I tell my dear one, fruit of my womb,
of how beautiful they are when everywhere they turn
they are faced with abhorrence of everything that is black.
The night is black and so is the boogyman.
Villains are black with black hearts.
A black cow gives no milk. A black hen lays no eggs.
Storm clouds, black, black is evil
and evil is black and devil's food is black...
What shall I tell my dear ones raised in a white world
A place where white has been made to represent
all that is good and pure and fine and decent,
where clouds are white and dolls, and heaven
surely is a white, white place with angels
robed in white, and cotton candy and ice cream
and milk and ruffled Sunday dresses
and dream houses and long sleek cadilacs
and Angel's food is white... all, all... white.
What can I say therefore, when my child
Comes home in tears because a playmate
Has called him black, big lipped, flatnosed and nappy headed?
What will he think when I dry his tears and whisper,
"Yes, that's true. But no less beautiful and dear."
How shall I lift up his head, get him to square
his shoulders, look his adversaries in the eye,
confident in the knowledge of his worth.
Serene under his sable skin and proud of his own beauty?
What can I do to give him strength
That he may come through life's adversities
As a whole human being unwarped and human in a world
Of biased laws and inhuman practices, that he might
Survive. And survive he must! For who knows?
Perhaps this black child here bears the genius
To discover the cure for... cancer
Or to chart the course for exploration of the universe.
So, he must survive for the the good of all humanity.
He must and will survive.
I have drunk deeply of late from the fountain
of my black culture, sat at the knee of and learned
from mother Africa, discovered the truth of my heritage.
The truth, so often obscured and omitted.
And I find I have much to say to my black children.
I will lift up their heads in proud blackness
with the story of their fathers and their father's fathers.
And I shall take them into a way back time
of kings and queens who ruled the Nile,
and measured the stars and discovered the laws of mathematics.
I will tell them of a black people upon whose backs have been built
the wealth of three continents.
I will tell him this and more.
And knowledge of his heritage shall be his weapon and his armor;
It will make him strong enough to win any battle he may face.
And since this story is so often obscured,
I must sacrifice to find it for my children,
even as I sacrifice to feed, clothe and shelter them.
So this I will do for them if I love them.
None will do it for me.
I must find the truth of heritage for myself and pass it on to them.
In years to come, I believe because I have armed them with the truth,
my children and their children's children will venerate me.
For it is the truth that will make us free!
Dr Burroughs reading her Poem "What Will Your Legacy Be?"
What Will Your Legacy Be?
Legacy? Legacy?
Do you know what the word “Legacy” means?
Well, if you don’t know, let me tell you what the dictionary says it means.
Legacy: property or money left to someone by a will; something handed down from those who have gone before; a legacy of honor, our legacy, of freedom.
In this poem, I’m not referring to material things like property or money, either of honor or of freedom.
I am referring to what a person has done with this life that God has given to him or her.
Yes, I want to know what will your legacy be? This is a question that I would like to put to each and every one of you?
What will your legacy be?
When you have finally cast off these mortal coils?
When you have crossed the great divide?
What will your legacy be?
When you can no longer run life’s race.
When you no longer have a place; when you have at last completed the circle round and when an escape is no longer to be found.
What will your legacy be?
When you walk into the unknown all by yourself and alone,
What will your legacy be?
Stop for a moment and listen to me and answer this question if you can.
What will your legacy be?
When you must cross that great divide into an area from which none can hide. When you, alone, with no one by your side with no friend to lead you or to hold your hand?
What will your legacy be?
What deeds have you done in your lifetime which will be left for you to be remembered by?
Will it be just a gray decaying tombstone standing alone in a cemetery or will it be, as it should be some act, some service or some deed that will insure that you will be remembered on and into the eternity of life’s game?
I ask you. What will your legacy be?
Will it be the fact that you helped somebody along the way, during the time while you were here on earth?
What will your legacy be?
Will it be similar to the legacies left to our generation by people like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Ida B. Wells, Mary Bethune and so many others who made of their lives a bridge for us to cross over on and whose lives were an inspiration for us of today to make of our lives bridges for future generations to cross over on?
What will your legacy be?
Legacy! Legacy!
Let us stop for a moment and recall some of our people who left their lives as legacies to us, and who always will be honored and remembered. They were people like:
Harriet Tubman: her legacy was the work that she did on the underground railroad in which she brought hundreds of our ancestors out of the bonds of slavery; and,
Frederick Douglass: his legacy was the work that he did to help abolish slavery; and, fought against the evil of black men being lynched in this country; and,
Mary McLeod Bethune: her legacy was that she worked for the education of our youth by starting on faith, a small school which grew to be a great university; and
Dr. Martin Luther King’s Jr.: his legacy was that he devoted his life to fighting for full equality for our people; and,
Sojourner Truth: her legacy was her fight for the liberation of and full equality for all women in our country; and,
John Brown: his legacy was that he sacrificed his life for an end to slavery and for freedom of our people; and,
Bessie Coleman: her legacy was that she became the first woman in America, black or white, to acquire a pilot’s license; and,
Paul Robeson: his legacy was that he was a renaissance man. He was a concert and folk singer, an athlete and a linguist and that he fought for the liberation of all oppressed people all over in the world; and poets,
Langston Hughes and Margaret Walker: their legacies were the many inspirational poems that they wrote which expressed the soul of our people; and
Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois: his legacy was his life long struggle for the liberation of our people in his actions, his speeches and his writings; and,
Dr. Carter G. Woodson: his legacy was the fact that he early brought to the attention of the world the numerous and significant contributions of people of Africa and African descent to the attention of the world; and,
Booker T. Washington: his legacy was the fact that he worked for the education of our people when he founded and opened Tuskegee Institute in Alabama; and,
George Washington Carver: his legacy was his significant and important accomplishments in the field of science; and,
Jean Baptiste Point DuSable: his legacy was the fact he, a black man, was the first person to settle in the area that became Chicago and grew into a great trading center from the little post that DuSable of African blood started over 100 years ago; and, last but not least,
Charles Gordon Burroughs: his legacy was the first black history museum in the world which he as co-founder started in his living room at 3806 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
This act inspired many who were interested in the recognition and preservation of black history to the point that today there are over 100 black history museums in our country.
These are just a few as you well know.
There are many, many others who like these, left, though their contributions in their lifetime, their legacies as bridges for us to cross over on. So, I ask you, what will you leave as your legacy, as a bridge for those now and those coming on to cross over on. What will your legacy be?
I ask you, what will your legacy be? Do you know? How you thought about it? Do you have an answer? What will you leave as your legacy? If you have no answer, if at this point, you cannot say: Hearken! Listen to me! This is the moment. This is the prime moment for you to think and to get to work and identify what you will leave as your legacy for you to be remembered by. You are here. You are still here, alive and quick and you have time. You have time on your side. You have time to begin even now so get busy and do something to help somebody. To improve the conditions of life for people now and for those who come after. To build institutions to educate and broaden the minds for people now and for those who came after and to make your life a contribution that will be your legacy. Do this and your name will be remembered from now on and into eternity.
What will your legacy be? Hopefully, it will not be just a gray and decaying tombstone.
Think now! Act now! To insure that your legacy will be a positive contribution to humanity and you will be remembered, yes you will be remembered, on and on and in eternity as God wills it.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)