What will your legacy be?

>Archive - PWW Print Edition Archive - 2007 Editions - Feb. 3, 2007


 

What will your legacy be?


Legacy? Legacy?

Do you know what the word “Legacy”

means? Well, if you don’t know, let me tell

you what the dictionary says it means.

Legacy: property or money left to someone

by a will; something handed down from

those who have gone before; a legacy of

honor, our legacy, of freedom.

In this poem, I’m not referring to material

things like property or money, either of

honor or of freedom. I am referring to what

a person has done with this life that God

has given to him or her.

Yes, I want to know what will your legacy

be? This is a question that I would like to

put to each and every one of you?

What will your legacy be?

When you have finally cast off these mortal coils?

When you have crossed the great divide?

What will your legacy be?

When you can no longer run life’s race.

When you no longer have a place; when you

have at last completed the circle round and

when an escape is no longer to be found.

What will your legacy be?

When you walk into the unknown all by

yourself and alone,

What will your legacy be?

Stop for a moment and listen to me and

answer this question if you can.

What will your legacy be?

When you must cross that great divide into

an area from which none can hide. When

you, alone, with no one by your side with no

friend to lead you or to hold your hand?

What will your legacy be?

What deeds have you done in your lifetime

which will be left for you to be remembered by?

Will it be just a gray decaying tombstone

standing alone in a cemetery or will it be, as it

should be some act, some service or some deed

that will insure that you will be remembered on

and into the eternity of life’s game?

I ask you. What will your legacy be?

Will it be the fact that you helped somebody

along the way, during the time while you were

here on earth?

What will your legacy be?

Will it be similar to the legacies left to our

generation by people like Harriet Tubman,

Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, John

Brown, Ida B. Wells, Mary Bethune and so

many others who made of their lives a bridge

for us to cross over on and whose lives were an

inspiration for us of today to make of our lives

bridges for future generations to cross over on?


What will your legacy be?


Legacy! Legacy!


Let us stop for a moment and recall some of

our people who left their lives as legacies to

us, and who always will be honored and

remembered.

They were people like:

Harriet Tubman: her legacy was the work

that she did on the underground railroad in

which she brought hundreds of our ancestors

out of the bonds of slavery; and,

Frederick Douglass: his legacy was the work

that he did to help abolish slavery; and,

fought against the evil of black men being

lynched in this country; and, Mary McLeod

Bethune: her legacy was that she worked

for the education of our youth by starting on

faith, a small school which grew to be a

great university; and Dr. Martin Luther

King’s Jr.: his legacy was that he devoted

his life to fighting for full equality for our

people; and, Sojourner Truth: her legacy

was her fight for the liberation of and full

equality for all women in our country; and,

John Brown: his legacy was that he

sacrificed his life for an end to slavery and

for freedom of our people; and, Bessie

Coleman: her legacy was that she became

the first woman in America, black or white,

to acquire a pilot’s license; and, Paul

Robeson: his legacy was that he was a

renaissance man. He was a concert and folk

singer, an athlete and a linguist and that he

fought for the liberation of all oppressed

people all over in the world; and poets,

Langston Hughes and Margaret Walker:

their legacies were the many inspirational

poems that they wrote which expressed the

soul of our people; and Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois:

his legacy was his life long struggle for the

liberation of our people in his actions,

his speeches and his writings; and, Dr. Carter

G. Woodson: his legacy was the fact that he

early brought to the attention of the world

the numerous and significant contributions

of people of Africa and African descent to

the attention of the world; and,

Booker T. Washington: his legacy was the

fact that he worked for the education of our

people when he founded and opened

Tuskegee Institute in Alabama; and,

George Washington Carver: his legacy was his

significant and important accomplishments

in the field of science; and,

Jean Baptiste Point DuSable: his legacy

was the fact he, a black man, was the first

person to settle in the area that became

Chicago and grew into a great trading

center from the little post that DuSable of

African blood started over 100 years ago;

and, last but not least,

Charles Gordon Burroughs: his legacy

was the first black history museum in the

world which he as co-founder started in his

living room at 3806 South Michigan Avenue

in Chicago.

This act inspired many who were interested

in the recognition and preservation of black

history to the point that today there are

over 100 black history museums in our country.

These are just a few as you well know.

There are many, many others who like

these, left, though their contributions in

their lifetime, their legacies as bridges for

us to cross over on. So, I ask you, what will

you leave as your legacy, as a bridge for

those now and those coming on to cross

over on. What will your legacy be?


I ask you, what will your legacy be? Do you

know? How you thought about it? Do you

have an answer? What will you leave as

your legacy? If you have no answer, if at

this point, you cannot say: Hearken! Listen

to me! This is the moment. This is the prime

moment for you to think and to get to work

and identify what you will leave as your

legacy for you to be remembered by. You

are here. You are still here, alive and quick

and you have time. You have time on your

side. You have time to begin even now so

get busy and do something to help somebody.

To improve the conditions of life for people

now and for those who come after. To build

institutions to educate and broaden the

minds for people now and for those who

came after and to make your life a

contribution that will be your legacy. Do

this and your name will be remembered

from now on and into eternity.

What will your legacy be? Hopefully, it will

not be just a gray and decaying tombstone.


Think now! Act now! To insure that your

legacy will be a positive contribution to

humanity and you will be remembered, yes

you will be remembered, on and on and in

eternity as God wills it.


About Dr. Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs

Internationally prominent as an artist, educator and writer, Margaret Burroughs is renowned as the founder, along with her late husband, Charles, of the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago. Opened as a modest display in the couple’s South Side house in 1961 as the Ebony Museum of African American History, the collected artifacts expressed Burroughs’ commitment to exploring and sharing the cultural heritage of African Americans.

Born on Nov. 1, 1917, in St. Rose Parish, La., Margaret Burroughs graduated from Chicago Teachers’ College in 1937 and then received an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1948. During the ’40s she taught art in Chicago elementary schools, and published her first children’s book, “Jasper, the Drummin’ Boy.”

In 1967, she and Dudley Randall edited an anthology called “For Malcolm: Poems on the Life and Death of Malcolm X” and published several volumes of her own poetry.

Burroughs’ art works have been exhibited internationally.

In her biography of Burroughs, writer Marion Tumbleweed Beach describes this vibrant, gifted woman as an “African American and citizen of the world … a universal woman with golden fingers that capture time, human passions and record the landmarks of the triumphs, foibles, and calamities of the African American people. These golden fingers can sketch, chisel, tie, brush, carve, mold, or write while she sits visiting with friends, attending meetings in a corporate board room, on an airplane, train, or even on the back of a camel. She has a high level of controlled energy that enables her to create quality art while making it all look so easy to do.”

Although Burroughs has worked in sculpture, painting and many other art forms throughout her career, it is her exceptional skill as a printmaker that has earned her a place within the history of art. For many years, she worked with linoleum block prints to create images evocative of African American culture.

Burroughs’ work has been featured in exclusive shows at the Corcoran Art Galleries in Washington, D.C., and at the Studio Museum in New York. She has served as art director for the Negro Hall of Fame and has illustrated many books. She did her own illustrations for her celebrated poem “What Shall I Tell My Children Who are Black?”

In 1975 she received the President’s Humanitarian Award and in 1977 was named one of Chicago’s Most Influential Women by the Chicago Defender. February 1, 1986, was proclaimed “Dr. Margaret Burroughs Day” in Chicago by Mayor Harold Washington. Today, she remains active in the institutions that she created in her lifetime.

At 90, she recently visited Venezuela, in part to witness the Bolivarian Revolution and its impact on Afro-Venezuelans.

Burroughs, who wrote the poem “What will your legacy be?” for all young people to consider the dignity and contributions African Americans have given to humanity — and to consider their own contribution to society — is available for speaking engagements.

“I wish my art to speak not only for my people but for all humanity … my subject matter is social commentary and seeks to improve the condition of life for all people,” Dr. Burroughs once said.

For information on arranging a speaking engagement with Burroughs call Ms. Alexis Armfield at (312) 742-4737.

Sources: Chicago Public Library, Historymakers.com, Dr. Margaret Burroughs.

Photomontages by PWW graphic artist Marguerite Wright.