Byker
2014-05-28 20:45:21 UTC
You may remember the brouhaha over Angelou's words enscribed in the Savannah
Slave Monument in 2002: "We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave
ships in each others' excrement and urine together." Another "famous" black
literary figure joins the ranks of her bruthas in scatological prose.
Excretory functions always seem to have a place in the works of black
authors. Example: Richard Wright ("Native Son") describes in his
autobiography, "Black Boy," a favorite niglet pastime in Memphis, c.1907:
"Of a summer morning, when my mother had gone to work, I would follow a
crowd of black children -- abandoned for the day by their working parents --
to the bottom of a sloping hill whose top held a long row of ramshackle,
wooden outdoor privies whose opened rear ends provided a raw and startling
view. We would crouch at the foot of the slope and look up -- a distance of
twenty-five feet or more -- at the secret and fantastic anatomies of black,
brown, yellow, and ivory men and women. For hours we would laugh, point,
whisper, joke, and identify our neighbors by the signs of their
physiological oddities, commenting upon the difficulty or projectile force
of their excretions. Finally some grownup would see us and drive us away
with disgusted shouts. Occasionally children of two or three years of age
would emerge from behind the hill with their faces smeared and their breath
reeking. A last a white policeman was stationed behind the privies to keep
the children away and our course in human anatomy was postponed." TNB!
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Angelou quote approved for slave monument
May 17, 2002 Posted: 2:13 PM EDT (1813 GMT)
SAVANNAH, Georgia (AP) -- Black leaders cleared an important hurdle in their
long-running effort to put up a slavery monument that has been at the center
of a heated dispute because of a graphic quote by writer Maya Angelou.
The Savannah City Council on Thursday unanimously approved an amended
inscription for the monument, a bronze statue of a black family with broken
chains at their feet that will stand near the site where the first slaves
came to Georgia.
Though city officials approved the statue last year, Mayor Floyd Adams and
others cringed at black leaders' insistence on using the Angelou quote.
It reads: "We were stolen, sold and bought together from the African
continent. We got on the slave ships together. We lay back to belly in the
holds of the slave ships in each others' excrement and urine together,
sometimes died together, and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together."
In a January letter to the monument's planning committee, Angelou proposed
an upbeat coda: "Today, we are standing up together, with faith and even
some joy ... "
Some city officials had worried that the original quote standing by itself
might be too graphic for public display on Savannah's cobblestone
riverfront, one of the most popular tourist spots in Savannah. Black leaders
say the stalemate over the quotation slowed their ability to raise money for
the monument, which will cost up to $750,000.
"It's extremely important because now those who have not been contributing
money and were worried the city might renege on the location know these
hurdles have been removed," said the Rev. Thurmond N. Tillman, one of the
monument's boosters.
Angelou, author of "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings," said last year she
understood why city officials were hesitant to approve her quotation.
"The picture of it, it's so horrible. And yet if we can see how horrible it
is, then we might treat each other a little nicer," she told The Associated
Press in February 2001.
City Alderman David Jones, who had previously asked for an uplifting
sentence to end the quote, praised Angelou "for taking her time out ... to
make the changes we asked for."
Angelou's letter offered the monument's organizers permission to use the
revised quote "under the condition that neither the quote nor my name be
used for any purpose other than to appear on the monument."
The passage has never appeared in published form, but Angelou has said that
she's used it often in lectures.
Black leaders plan to unveil the monument July 27.
Slave Monument in 2002: "We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave
ships in each others' excrement and urine together." Another "famous" black
literary figure joins the ranks of her bruthas in scatological prose.
Excretory functions always seem to have a place in the works of black
authors. Example: Richard Wright ("Native Son") describes in his
autobiography, "Black Boy," a favorite niglet pastime in Memphis, c.1907:
"Of a summer morning, when my mother had gone to work, I would follow a
crowd of black children -- abandoned for the day by their working parents --
to the bottom of a sloping hill whose top held a long row of ramshackle,
wooden outdoor privies whose opened rear ends provided a raw and startling
view. We would crouch at the foot of the slope and look up -- a distance of
twenty-five feet or more -- at the secret and fantastic anatomies of black,
brown, yellow, and ivory men and women. For hours we would laugh, point,
whisper, joke, and identify our neighbors by the signs of their
physiological oddities, commenting upon the difficulty or projectile force
of their excretions. Finally some grownup would see us and drive us away
with disgusted shouts. Occasionally children of two or three years of age
would emerge from behind the hill with their faces smeared and their breath
reeking. A last a white policeman was stationed behind the privies to keep
the children away and our course in human anatomy was postponed." TNB!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Angelou quote approved for slave monument
May 17, 2002 Posted: 2:13 PM EDT (1813 GMT)
SAVANNAH, Georgia (AP) -- Black leaders cleared an important hurdle in their
long-running effort to put up a slavery monument that has been at the center
of a heated dispute because of a graphic quote by writer Maya Angelou.
The Savannah City Council on Thursday unanimously approved an amended
inscription for the monument, a bronze statue of a black family with broken
chains at their feet that will stand near the site where the first slaves
came to Georgia.
Though city officials approved the statue last year, Mayor Floyd Adams and
others cringed at black leaders' insistence on using the Angelou quote.
It reads: "We were stolen, sold and bought together from the African
continent. We got on the slave ships together. We lay back to belly in the
holds of the slave ships in each others' excrement and urine together,
sometimes died together, and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together."
In a January letter to the monument's planning committee, Angelou proposed
an upbeat coda: "Today, we are standing up together, with faith and even
some joy ... "
Some city officials had worried that the original quote standing by itself
might be too graphic for public display on Savannah's cobblestone
riverfront, one of the most popular tourist spots in Savannah. Black leaders
say the stalemate over the quotation slowed their ability to raise money for
the monument, which will cost up to $750,000.
"It's extremely important because now those who have not been contributing
money and were worried the city might renege on the location know these
hurdles have been removed," said the Rev. Thurmond N. Tillman, one of the
monument's boosters.
Angelou, author of "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings," said last year she
understood why city officials were hesitant to approve her quotation.
"The picture of it, it's so horrible. And yet if we can see how horrible it
is, then we might treat each other a little nicer," she told The Associated
Press in February 2001.
City Alderman David Jones, who had previously asked for an uplifting
sentence to end the quote, praised Angelou "for taking her time out ... to
make the changes we asked for."
Angelou's letter offered the monument's organizers permission to use the
revised quote "under the condition that neither the quote nor my name be
used for any purpose other than to appear on the monument."
The passage has never appeared in published form, but Angelou has said that
she's used it often in lectures.
Black leaders plan to unveil the monument July 27.