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
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