In the cousin's Sunday night chat, I made the observation that I was spending my retirement "mad money" in acquiring a social/historical/library for you my beloved grandson. Once that library is in your hands, you may choose to keep or share (or toss) as you decide. My self-appointed job will be finished but before that time comes you are owed an explanation of how and why my (our) decision was made.
1954 was a pivotal year in my life. The Thurgood Marshall lead Supreme Court decreed that "separate but equal" school systems were neither equitable nor legal. For me personally, it was a 90% end to the tyrannical, alcohol fueled, rage driven "education" provided (at state expense no less) by my stepmother. I would start public school that fall. My future education would be the same as for any other school-age child in Fort Gay, West Virginia. The greater majority of my teachers gave 100% of their efforts to ALL of their students every day. I will never forget the English teacher who researched and and pointed out to me the poetry of Countee Cullen, a black poet born in Louisville, Kentucky!
The journey began..a journey that for me would last a lifetime. Betty Billups had reached out and fueled a search for relevance in a world that at the time featured few black faces (for me) that were not family. I was and am a voracious reader. I would find books and I would devour them. The names of black writers would multiply over the years...James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Walker, Toni Morrison, Alex Haley, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Claude McKay, Lorraine Hansberry, Henry Louis Gates,Jr. , James Weldon Johnson, and the list would grow and grow. I would expand that search for "my people" on and on and on. The thirst demanded...where had my people been...what were their life experiences, what had happened ?!!! Names would be added to the list of writers....Alexandre Dumas...Barack Obama...Kwame Ture...and many more. Majored in English (because I wrote) but never had a black history or black literature class in my life...but the thirst was always there. Will my library ever be complete? Absolutlely NOT....nor will I stop adding to it...not in my lifetime.
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