MAR. 3, 1999 Page B7 BLACK HISTORY MONTH Black Genius C/ / / < / / / B y L illian W hitlow C ontributing W riter of the N orthwest A frican A merican W riters W orkshop Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty o f tides, Just like hope springing high, Still I'll rise. Maya Angelou, author poet, playw right, stage and screen perform er, director, and former nightclub singer, was bom Marguerite Johnson in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended public schools in Arkansas and Cali fornia, and later studied dance with M artha G raham and dram a w ith Frank Silvera. Dr. Angelou has written four au tobiographical works that depict se quential periods o f her early life. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” 1970 tells about Marguerite Johnson and her brother Bailey growing up in segregated Stamps, Arkansas, also Missouri and California. Her second book about her life, “ G a th e r To gether In My N am e" 1976 describes Maya’s stage debut, concluding with her return from the international tour o f Porgy and Bess. “The Heart O f Woman” 1981 has a more mature Maya becoming more comfortable with her creativity and her successes. When Marguerite was bom her brother, Bailey called her Maya. When she was three and Bailey was four, they were put on a train and sent to Stamps, Arkansas, wearing tags on their wrists w hich instructed “To Whom It May Concern” that they were Marguerite and Bailey Johnson, Jr., from Long Beach, California, en route to Stamps, Arkansas, c/o Mrs. Annie Henderson. Their parents had shipped them to his mother, Mrs. Henderson in Arkansas. In Stamps, Arkansas, they lived happily w ith th e ir grandm other, whom they called Momma, and her son, Uncle Willie, who was cripple, but a proud and sensitive man. He taught Marguerite and Bailey their time tables and assisted them with their other studies. Early in the century, their grand m o th er had sold lunches to the saw m en in the lum beryard (east Stamps) and the seedmen at the cot ton gin (west Stamps). From being a mobile lunch counter, she set up a stand between the east Stamps and west Stamps. After a few years she had a store built in the heart o f the Negro area. Over the years, it became the center o f activities in town. The formal name o f the store was the Wm. Johnson General Merchandise Store. It was a store where people could pur chase basic needs as well as food. Their grandmother taught them wis dom and insisted on perfect discipline: “Thou shall not be dirty” and “Thou shall not be impudent" where the two com m andm ents o f G randm other Henderson upon which hung their to tal salvation. Each night in the bitterest winter Maya and her brother Bailey were forced to wash faces, arms, necks, legs and feet before going to bed. She used to add, with a smirk that unprofane people can’t control when venturing into profanity, “and wash as far as pos sible, then wash possible.” Grandmother Henderson was con cerned about their souls. On Sunday mornings, she served breakfast that was to satisfy them from 9:30 AM to on the ham had turned w hite on the tom a toes. When the Rev erend fin ally said, “A m en,” M aya and Bailey had lost their appetites. A fte r b re a k fa st, they went to Sunday School and morning services where Rev erend Thom as took his te x t from Deuteronomy at the Christian Methodist E piscopal C hurch. The laws were so ab solute, so clearly set down, that if a person wanted to avoid hell and brimstone and be ing roasted forever in the devil’s fire, all one had to do was memo rize D eu tero n o m y and follow its teach ing, word for word. “1 would wiggle a bit in church,” Maya said. “ B ut each tim e I lo oked o v e r at Momma, she seemed to threaten, ‘M ove and I’ll tear you up,’ so obedient to the un voiced com m and, I W hen M aya reached seven and B ailey w as eight, th e ir fa th e r cam e without warning. He arrived in front o f the store in a clean 3 PM. She fried thick, pink slabs of home-curbed ham and poured the gray car. Bailey said it was a De Soto. grease over sliced red tomatoes. Eggs Their father was tall and handsome. over easy, fried potatoes and onions, G ran d m o th er H enderson cried, yellow hominy and crisp perch fried "Bailey, my baby. Great God, Bailey." so hard that they could even chew the And Uncle Willie stuttered, “Bu-Buh- bones, fins and all. Her cathead bis Bailey." My brother said, “Hot dog cuits were at least three inches in di and damn. It's him. It’s our daddy.” And Maya's seven your old world ameter and two inches thick. Their pastor, Reverend Thomas humptv-dumptied, never to be put joined them for breakfast every Sun back together again. After their father was in Stamps day morning before service. He was always asked to bless the table. They three weeks, he took them, against all stood around the table; Uncle their silent protest, to St. Louis. Mis Bailey leaned on the table as Rever souri to their mother where they were end Thom as began the blessing: introduced to thin-sliced ham. jelly “Blessed Father, we thank you this beans and peanuts mixed, and lettuce morning . and on and on and on un on sandwich bread. In Stamps, lettuce til they stopped listening. As the Rev was used only to make a bed for po erend droned on and on, the food got tato salad or slaw, and peanuts were cold. The eggs had withdrawn from brought in raw from the field and the edge o f the platter, and the grease roasted in the bottom o f the oven on A Rock, A River, A Thee Hosts to species long since departed. Marked the mastodon, The dinosaur, who left dried tokens Your arm ed struggles f o r profit Have left collars o f waste upon M y shore. currents o f debris upon my breast. Yet, today I call you to my riverside, O f their sojourn here On our planet floor. Any broad alarm o f their hastening doom Is lost in the gloom o f dust and ages. I f you w ill study war no more. But today, the Rock cries out to us. clearly, Tree and the Rock were one. Before cynicism was a bloody scar across vour brow And when you y et knew you still knew forcefully, Come, you may stand upon my Back and face you r distant destiny, But seek no haven in m y shadow, I will give you no hiding place down here. The rock cries out to us today. You may stand upon me. But do not hide you r face. Across the w all o f the world, A River sings a beautiful song. It says, Come, rest here by my side. Each o f you, a bordered country. Delicate and strangely made proud. Yet thrusting perpetually under siege. Come, cla d in peace, And I w ill sing the songs The Creator gave to me when I and the nothing The River sang and sings on. for two lesbian prostitutes. When she was twenty-two, she married Tosh Angelou, a white former sailor. She left him after two and a half years and became a professional dancer. She was cast in Porgy and Bess and other musicals. With her en durance, things began to look up. Dr. Maya Angelou is fluent in six languages. She is the recipient o f more than thirty Honorary Degrees and dozens o f civic and literary awards. She is currently the Reynold’s Professor o f American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston- Salem, North Carolina. She accepted this lifetime appointment in 1981. In 1993, Dr. Angelou delivered a poem at the Inauguration of President Clinton. Her poem, On The Pulse of M orning was the second to be deliv ered at an inauguration, following Robert Frost’s poem for President Kennedy in 1961. In 1995, she deliv ered her poem A Brave and Startling T ruth at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. Dr. Maya Angelou is currently at work on the final volume o f her auto biographical series which chronicles her life during the second half o f the 1960’s and culminates with the pub lication o f 1 Know W hy The Caged Bird Sings. Most recently, she made her fea ture film directorial debut as director after he was released. M aya th ought her voice had o f “Down In The Delta” which was caused someone to die, so she stopped written by 43 year old advertising ex ecu tiv e M yron G oble, a w hite talking, temporarily. At age sixteen, she had an un southerner from Georgia. “Down In planned pregnancy and gave birth to The Delta” opened in the U.S. the her son, Guy. “The greatest gift I’ve aters on Christmas Day. she said. He changed her life in so Angelou’s life-long struggle that one many ways. “When he was small,” she person rising above seemingly insur said, “I knew more than he did. I ex mountable obstacles can truly make pected to be his teacher. So, because a difference. o f him I educated myself. When he I'm a black ocean, leaping an d wide, was four, I taught him to read. But Welling a n d sw elling ! bear in th e tide then he’d ask questions and I didn’t have the answers, so 1 started my life Leaving behind nights o f terror an d fe a r long love affairs with libraries... I’ve 1 rise learned an awful lot because o f Guy." Life wasn’t easy for Maya during Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise those times. In addition to teaching her Bringing the gift that m y ancestors gave, son, she also had to support him. She couldn’t get a job as a telephone op / am the dream an d the hop o f the slave. erator. The Women’s Army Corp Ser I rise vice (WACS) turned her down because I rise the California Labor School where she I rise. had taken dance classes was tainted with the rumor of communism. She S pecial thanks to J oe F ranklin , became a cook and a nightclub wait C hairperson for N orthwest A frican ress and, for a short time, “madam ’ A merican W riters W orkshop cold wintery nights. Maya and" Bailey lived with their mother who lived with her mother, their Grandmother Baxter who was a quadroon or an octoroon, or any case, she was nearly white. She was raised by a German family in Cairo, Illinois, and had come to ST. Louis at the turn o f the century to study nursing. While she was working at Homer G. Phillips Hospital she met and married Grand father Baxter. Their marriage was a happy marriage. Their mother, Maya thought, was too beautiful to be a mother. Their mother moved out o f her parent’s home into her own with her children. Her boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, moved in with them or they had moved in with him. Mr. Freeman raped Maya when she was eight years old. He told her if she told anyone, he would kill Bailey. She loved Bailey more than anything, so she promised not to tell. Finally, she confided in Bailey and he told their mother. Mr. Freeman had made advances toward her before the rape, but at the trial when she was asked if that was the first time he had touched her, she said, yes. He was given one year and one day in jail, but he never got a chance to do his time. His lawyer got him released that afternoon. He was found dead on the lot behind the slaughterhouse the day Come to me, Here beside the River. Plant yourself beside the River. Women, children, men. Take it into the palms o f your hands. M old it into the shape o f you r most Private need. Sculpt it into The image o f your most public self. Each o f you, descendent ofsom e passed- Lift up you r hearts. Each new hour holds new chances On traveler, has been p aid for. You, who gave me m y first name, you. Pawnee. Apache, Seneca, you, Cherokee Nation, who rested with me. then For a new beginning. Do not be wedded forever To fear, yoked eternally To brutishness. They hear the first and last o f every Tree Speak to humankind today. Forced on bloody feet. Left m e to the employment o f Other seekers - desperate f o r gain. Starving f o r gold. There is a true yearning to respond to The singing River and the wise Rock, So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew. The African, the Native American, the Sioux, The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Shiek The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher, The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher. You, the Turk the Arab, the Swede, The German, the Eskimo, the Scot, The Italian, the Hungarian, the Pole, You the Ahanti the Yoruba. the Kru. bought, Sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare. Praying for a dream Lift up y o u r eyes Upon the day breaking f o r you. Give birth again To the dream. They hear. They all hear The speaking o f the Tree. The horizon leans forward. Offering you space To place new steps o f change. Here, on the pulse o f this fin e day. Here, on the pulse o f this new d a y You m ay have the grace to look up an d out And into you r sister's eye. And into you r brother k face, Your country. And sav sim ply SSS? Good morning- V i « U H I ■.. r -x*” "