Black Family Pledge
Black Family Pledge
by Dr. Maya Angelou
by Dr. Maya Angelou
BECAUSE we
have forgotten our ancestors.
our children no longer give us honor.
BECAUSE we
have lost the path our ancestors cleared.
kneeling in perilous undergrowth.
our children cannot find their way.
BECAUSE we
have banished the God of our ancestors.
our children cannot pray.
BECAUSE
the old wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our hearing.
our children cannot hear us crying.
BECAUSE we
have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering.
our befuddled children give birth to children they neither want nor understand.
BECAUSE we
have forgotten how to love, the adversary is within our
Gates, and hold us up to the mirror of the world, shouting,
"Regard the loveless."
Therefore we
pledge' to bind ourselves to one another. to embrace our
lowliest. to keep company with our loneliest. to educate our illiterate,
to feed our starving, to clothe our ragged, to do all good things,
knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and
sisters.
We ARE our brothers and sisters.
IN HONOR
of those who toiled and implored God with golden tongues,
and in gratitude to the same God who brought us out of hopeless
desolation,
we make this pledge
have forgotten our ancestors.
our children no longer give us honor.
BECAUSE we
have lost the path our ancestors cleared.
kneeling in perilous undergrowth.
our children cannot find their way.
BECAUSE we
have banished the God of our ancestors.
our children cannot pray.
BECAUSE
the old wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our hearing.
our children cannot hear us crying.
BECAUSE we
have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering.
our befuddled children give birth to children they neither want nor understand.
BECAUSE we
have forgotten how to love, the adversary is within our
Gates, and hold us up to the mirror of the world, shouting,
"Regard the loveless."
Therefore we
pledge' to bind ourselves to one another. to embrace our
lowliest. to keep company with our loneliest. to educate our illiterate,
to feed our starving, to clothe our ragged, to do all good things,
knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and
sisters.
We ARE our brothers and sisters.
IN HONOR
of those who toiled and implored God with golden tongues,
and in gratitude to the same God who brought us out of hopeless
desolation,
we make this pledge