"Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise."
^A few of the last lines from Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. The image above that I took at the African American History Museum made me wonder... Are we the dream and the hope of the slave? I do not feel completely free, black people are still treated as less than, and the criminal justice system operates as modern day slavery. I can't imagine that this is what they hoped for. But then I thought for a little longer...maybe this would be the dream. We are not where we need to be with the system very much so still stacked against us. But I imagine the slave to wish, hope, and pray they could live on their own as I do. I imagine they wished to be free from a life they had no control over. I imagine that they did not fathom that there would be museums made in their legacy. A little girl whose kinky hair, that is now emulated by white people [yet still not fully accepted] under a quote by a world renowned black poet.
It's complicated.
But still we rise...
Happy Birthday Maya Angelou!!!