One of my favorite poems, “Those Winter Sundays,” is by Robert Hayden. I can find no equal to his description of selfless parental responsibility and obligation as “love’s austere and lonely offices.” Hayden, himself, was raised in poverty by foster parents. He attended the City College of Detroit (now Wayne State University), going on to the University of Michigan, and rising to become an English Professor at Fisk University and the University of Michigan. In 1976, Hayden became the first African American appointed as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (now called the Poet Laureate). His life, extraordinary works, and remarkable achievements make him a worthy subject for appreciation during Black History Month, but Hayden’s own poems caution us against such an easy course of action. Time and time again, he tells us not to revere the successes of the past but, rather, to engage in the hard work of pushing forward in the present. This is what matters: these are “love’s austere and lonely offices” with which you repay the debt of the past.
In particular, Hayden writes powerfully about the meaning of the life and achievements of Frederick Douglass. In addition to being Black History Month, February is the month in which we honor the birthday of Frederick Douglass. Though his exact date of birth was unknown, he chose February 14 as his celebration day, and last week, Rochesterians gathered at his gravesite in Mount Hope Cemetery to recognize his 199th birthday. Hayden might differ with this celebration. He finds Douglass’s legacy not in a statue or a story but in the free lives that followed his enslaved one. He praises Douglass for his fight to give others liberty that they had been denied, something that is as “needful to man as air.”
Frederick Douglass
by Robert Hayden
When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues’ rhetoric,
not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,
but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives
fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.
As we celebrate Black History Month and recognize the accomplishments of so many who have gone before, I hope we will also look to the present. Each day, we have a chance to help the many sons and daughters of Frederick Douglass who fill our hallways, our offices, and our classrooms have a real opportunity to live out the dreams that he set in motion. In this commitment, we can do more than honor his legacy; we can continue it. My thanks to all who work every day to assure MCC fulfills the promise that each of our students brings to our College.
I encourage you to add to the reading list of your colleagues: what other authors would you recommend we read during Black History Month? Please share them here.
Anne M. Kress
President
02/22/2017 |