Under the baobab: After marching, working, organizing, a new America is within sight

My grandmother was a domestic worker who cleaned rich white people’s houses. Everybody in our household had to work. On school holidays Granny took me to work with her at one of the mansions in Hyde Park.

Once, I remember, a bunch of pre-teen kids treated her with a casualness bordering on disrespect, chastising her, even calling her by her first name. I had never heard anyone — at home, or church, or anywhere in my community — ever call my elder grandmother by her first name. I recall she stared at the floor, smiled and addressed these kids, who were my age, as “Miss,” or “Mr.,”or “Master.” It was humiliating for her and one of the most degrading moments of my young life.

On the way home, tearfully, I asked Granny why she had allowed those brats to disrespect her. She explained that it was “just the way things were.” We had to behave that way in order to survive. But, she added, it wasn’t always going to be this way. “One day, there will come a time. ... Until then we need to keep our eyes focused on the prize while marching toward freedom and equality.”

At the time I didn’t understand. A few years later at Rayner’s Funeral home, viewing the mutilated corpse of 14 year-old Emmett Till in his coffin, I understood what she meant. Race hatred unleashed from the hearts of racists can kill. When a Black person stands up, Black people could be cut down.

That same year, Rosa Parks, thinking of Emmett, refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery. A young minister named Martin Luther King taught her and other members of the community how to boycott and march. Later, Mahalia Jackson prompted King to tell a quarter million people that he had a dream of an America that celebrated everybody’s dignity. Later yet, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm chipped at a glass ceiling by placing her name in nomination for president. Hilary Clinton put millions of cracks in that ceiling by winning the popular vote.

And now, as we keep on marching, and working, and organizing, the day Granny dreamed of may have come. She and millions of others will be able to lift our gazes from the floor, replacing the smile which we masked on to hide our feeling with a smile which radiates from an inner joy, kindled by the struggle of our ancestors and fanned by the toil of our progeny. Standing on their shoulders we can see a new America, a better America, dawning over the horizon.

Around town

Penn State President Neeli Benapudi held the annual President’s Club reception. Significant donors heard from students about some of the results of their generosity. Coach Carolyn Krieger kicked off the women’s basketball season at the annual picnic, which introduced five first year players. PSU’s Department of Sociology and Criminology held a Criminal Justice, Policy and Intelligence Career Expo in the HUB. Organized by coordinator Joy Vincent-Killian, the expo provided an opportunity for over 500 students to network with over 60 federal, state, and local agencies for internships, jobs and career opportunities.

The Schreyer Honors College hosted Prof. Eddie Glaude Jr. for the Dilemmas in Democracy lecture, “Race and Democracy: America is Always Changing, But America Never Changes.” Glaude is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished Professor at Princeton University and well-known political consultant for MSNBC. His scintillating presentation was co-sponsored by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy. Communications specialist Jenna Spinelle led a lively Q&A after the lecture.

Jo’s beloved aunt and mentor, Beverly, joined the ancestors. After graduating with a mathematics degree, Aunt Bev was one of the few women who worked for NASA, writing computer programs for the astronauts during Project Mercury. She is survived by her husband, Bob, and seven children.