Like One of the Family

by Alice Childress

  No, there was no airplanes at that time or motorcars either. The first thing she had to do was make some money, so she did domestic work the same as me and Miss Marge, only she worked a lot harder in laundry rooms and such.

  Harriet decided that she’d be a conductor on the Eastern line of the underground railroad. Oh my, that underground railroad was somethin’! Folks who went down to lead the slaves over the right paths was called “conductors”; folks who took them into their homes to rest and receive shelter from the law was called “stationmasters” and their homes was called “stations.”

  Harriet met a lot of these good people and she was so delighted to find out that there were so many good white folks called “Abolitionists.” … Bobby, before you ask me what that means, I will tell you. Abolitionists were people who thought slavery was wicked and thus made up their minds to do away with it as fast as they could…. Yes, Jimmy, there were plenty of colored ones, and they all worked together nicely so Harriet decided to join up with them. She became a “conductor” on the underground railroad.

  … No, children, I do not think that she knew Davy Crockett. Now let me go on with the story! Harriet was a conductor for ten years and never lost one of her passengers. Her name became so famous that everybody who loved her called her “Moses.” I won’t tell you what the other folks called her because you are little children and the less you hear of such, the better.

  Sometimes as she neared a slave plantation, she would sing spirituals to call the slaves to her and I like to think that she sang “Steal away home to Jesus” or “Swing low sweet chariot.”

  Now, Mabel, you are bein’ rude and a little bit sassy. I would expect that you’d behave better…. What do you mean by sayin’ “I don’t believe you?” I told you that it is not in the schoolbooks because bad folks don’t want us to know about all the great things our people did…. They don’t want us to know ’cause if we think that we did nothin’ at all, we will feel inferior and if we feel like we’re lower than other folk, then we will expect to be treated like we’re lower!

  No, Marshall, there’s no movin’ pictures been made about Miss Tubman. Mabel, if you tune up to cry just ’cause I scolded you, I’m gonna send you home…. Marge, you see how these children are bein’ kept in the dark? It’s a wonder they know anything at all. It makes me mad through and through. It ain’t right!

  Yes, Kenny, I’m goin’ to tell the rest of the story, but I’ll thank you children not to be almost callin’ me a outright liar! … You can ask questions, but don’t be holdin’ me up for scorn! Do you really believe that I would sit down and tell you a pack of lies? Do you think that I’m so sneaky and mean as to make fun of you and try to fool you?

  All right then! Harriet took so many slaves out of the South ’til they tacked up signs on the trees, offerin’ a big reward for her capture. Forty thousand dollars! … No, they never did catch her, although once she had a sleepin’ spell overtake her, and she fell asleep smack-dab underneath one of them signs…. No, nobody noticed her ’cause they was as uppity as you children and couldn’t believe that a woman sleepin’ under a tree could be the great “Moses.”

  Of course, you have all heard of the great John Brown…. Well, I’m glad to see that Janey is raisin’ her hand and is able to tell us something about him…. Janey, you can sit right down ’cause I can see that you don’t know very much about him…. Who told you that John Brown was crazy? … No, he wasn’t, he was a good man who wanted to do away with slavery! … All right, Jimmy, if you know a song about him, you may sing it…. Marge, do you hear that?—”John Brown’s baby had a cold upon its chest, so they rubbed it with camphorated oil!” … Children, John Brown was hanged, they took his life ’cause he helped to take us out of slavery! We oughta know all about him and love him dearly for what he did.

  Yes, Lincoln was a great man and signed those papers, but he didn’t just up and set slaves free! There was all kinds of great fightin’ goin’ on about slavery before that happened. Did any of you ever hear about Nat Turner? … Lord, Marge, do you see what I see? … Not a one of these children has heard a word about him, can’t a one of them raise their hand!

  … Yes, bless your little hearts, I will tell you a few more things about Miss Tubman, and I’m sorry to lose patience so easy. It sure ain’t your fault that you know nothin’ at all ’bout these things.

  One time when Harriet was in Troy, New York, she heard that the law was holdin’ a man who was an escaped slave in the courthouse and plannin’ to return him to his former master. Harriet called on all her friends in Troy, and they went down to the courthouse. Harriet got past the door guards by stoopin’ over and walkin’ like she was a decrepit old lady. When the officers started to lead the prisoner from the court, Harriet seized hold of him and called out to the crowd to help her and they did.

  … Marshall! Get down off Miss Marge’s couch, and stop pullin’ on Janey’s hair! … Stop playin’ like she’s the man I’m talkin’ about, or I’ll stop the story and you’ll never know what happened! That’s better!

  Well, that crowd got into the biggest fight and Harriet kept hold of that man while her friends beat off the people who were tryin’ to take him away…. Children, if you scream one more time! … Yes, they got him and put him in a wagon and drove him straight into Canada, where he was as free as a bird! … Oh, excuse me, was I hollerin’, too? …

  Yes, Janey, I guess you could say that she was like Joan of Arc. She did serve in the Civil War…. Sure, she was a soldier. She always worked in the Union Blue and was never without her rifle.

  … Jimmy, please do not pinch the other children because I’m now near the end of the story, and you will only have to sit still for a short spell longer.

  When Harriet was old and her work was almost over a lot of people showed respect and paid honor to her. Queen Victoria sent her a medal, a silk shawl and a letter invitin’ her to come to Great Britain because everybody there had such admiration for her. But she was too tired and old to go anywhere by the time she got it. Sad to relate, she spent her last, remainin’ years in poverty and want. One day she told somebody, “I liked apples when I was young and I said to myself: ‘Someday I’ll plant apples myself for other young folks to eat’; and I guess I did.”

  Now do you children know what she meant by that? … You are right, Jimmy…. She did mean that she had done things to make our lives better….

  What? … Why, of course, Mabel, you speak right up and say whatever is on your mind…. Well, thank you, I’m glad to know that you believe me…. How many of you would like to hear some more true stories some other time? … No, no, I can’t tell any more today, but it’s nice to know that you’re all so earnest about it…. No, Barbara, I don’t think you should change your name to Harriet, but you could read and study some about her when you go to the library ’cause you will find her name in some of those books even though she’s left out of the schoolbook….

  Marge, ain’t this enough to break your heart! … Of course, Marshall, there were great men, too, a lot of them, and next time I’ll tell you about Frederick Douglas who was braver than brave…. That’s right, Sylvia, he was true to life also…. Well, you just go right ahead and ask your teacher why he isn’t in your book, and if she tells you that he never happened, you come to me and I promise you this: I’ll go to school with this book and prove it to her and the whole class and also the principal, if need be! … Sure, we got a grand history!

  Now, children, you will kindly pick up all the popcorn off the rug, wipe all sticky hands and then thank Miss Marge for havin’ us in her house. Now, all together with Mildred, say, “Thank you, Miss Marge!” … You’re welcome, Jimmy, the ice cream and cake wasn’t so much. Aunt Mildred wishes she could give you a whole lot more ’cause you youngsters are starved in more ways than one….

  THE ABC’S OF LIFE AND LEARNING

  OH WELL, it’s all very fine for us grown-ups to worry and fret all kinds of ways about this desegregation business, but I wond
er what it feels like to be a little child goin’ to school and gettin’ right into the thick of things as it were.

  Marge, can you imagine a little seven-year-old colored child goin’ off to his first day at a school that’s just turnin’ democratic? It’s so hard to explain everything to the little ones so’s they will really understand what’s goin’ on. They must feel all the uneasiness that’s in the air and what with the parents bein’ worried and cautionin’ them about bein’ careful and not walkin’ down certain streets and comin’ directly home and things like that, their little hearts must be awful burdened and put upon.

  Is there any grown person that can put themselves in that child’s place without feelin’ angry and ashamed that this can be done to children? What does it do to a child when he sees adults throwin’ things at him and jeerin’ at him? How does it feel to walk in a classroom and have no one say a kind word? What does it feel like to sit in the back of the room all by yourself and try to study your lessons? What does it feel like to eat your lunch all alone and off to one side?

  What does it feel like to have to run part of the way home in order not to be beat up or even maybe killed? What does it feel like to have to wait for your mama or papa to call for you and take you home by the long, round-about way? Don’t you think these children are wonderin’ and thinkin’ some big, solemn thoughts?

  … Sure, I know there’s people who try to give this as the excuse not to have the schools mixed, but I don’t go along with that at all, and it seems that you can say the same thing for the children. These brave little people take their lives in hand and walk the pathways leadin’ to the schools all over the country. They want to learn, and they don’t want to keep goin’ to school buildin’s that get a second place break on the money deal!

  Oh, Marge, we got a lot to feel proud about! I wouldn’t take anything for livin’ right now in this day and time! I’m glad to my heart to see these brave children marchin’ to the schools throughout the land, claimin’ their rights and plowin’ ahead in the face of mobs and threats and all manner of ugliness. These colored boys and girls got their hands stretched out in friendship to the white boys and girls in this land. And you know one thing? They’re gonna clasp hands and walk together and get along and learn from each other and be peaceful and enjoy life in spite of these grown-ups tryin’ to spread malice and hate. And one of these days this land is gonna be truly beautiful. Yes mam, every square inch of it!

  SOMEHOW I’D LIKE TO THANK THEM

  EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE you read about something that really stays with you, something that makes you keep faith in people in spite of how the world is always at sixes and sevens in the midst of so much hatred and greediness and pure downright meanness. Sometimes what you read is just a few lines tucked away in some far corner of a magazine…. Yes, isn’t it strange that all the ugliness is spread across the front pages of the newspaper where you couldn’t miss it if you wanted to! When it comes to findin’ the good you have to look sharp between the ads and things in order to find it.

  This piece that I read was in a magazine and it told all about how some white women down in Capetown, South Africa had done a truly fine and beautiful thing. Just readin’ about it gave me a glowy feelin’ and although they are in a way-far-off place, I felt real close to them!

  Well, it happened like this. It seems that the lawmakers down in that part of the world are terrible hard and mean on the African people and any other colored people that might be around…. Yes, I know that Capetown is in Africa, but all the say-so is done by white folks. You know how they have been doin’ about keepin’ the Africans down and makin’ it against the law for them to do anything that any citizen should have a perfect right to do!

  Well, accordin’ to this piece I was readin’, it seems that they had kept most of the African people from votin’, but that they allowed a few colored folks to vote a little bit. Well, after them lawmakers studied over it for a while, they decided that even this was too much and they passed a law declarin’ that no colored could vote at all!

  The day they were passin’ the law in their courts, a lot of white women got together and marched before the courthouse with black mournin’ bands stretched across their dresses. They were doin’ this to show that they were mournin’ the death of justice!

  Some of the women went into the courtroom and sat down. And those black bands they were wearin’ upset the court so much that the lawmakers made them take them off…. Oh yes, they took them off, but then they went in their pocketbooks and each one of them took a black artificial flower out of her purse and pinned it on her dress. That upset them, too, but they didn’t try to make them take it off because it seems like a flower is supposed to be a decoration for ladies’ dresses.

  … Yes, I’d say it was just a small, orderly little way for them to show that all white people did not uphold those people in carry in’ out their meanness and cruelty! But what got me was how those women were treated in the streets! Do you know what they did to them?

  … Oh, yes, they did somethin’! A bunch of mean, devilish, ignorant white folks gathered in the streets and threw garbage and stones at those women! … You heard me! So, you see, it wasn’t safe for them to even quietly and peaceably show what was on their minds!

  Marge, that’s why a lot of white people don’t speak up when they see how ugly the darker peoples are treated…. Sure, they’re afraid they’ll be stoned to death or run out of town! That’s why I feel so respectful about what those women have done.

  It takes a lot of strength for a white person who has privileges to take a just stand for everybody’s right. He knows that the bad folks will not spare him just ’cause he is white! … No, indeed, he will treat them like dirt, take their jobs, threaten his life and even take it sometimes!

  But I think what is even more hurtful than that is the treatment they get from folks who are near to them like relatives and friends! They will give them a hard way to go, too, and shut them out of their homes and things like that! I imagine that a whole lot of white people do not go along with all this hatred and meanness that’s goin’ on, but they are scared stiff to speak out and maybe get garbage and stones thrown at them and perhaps lose their jobs and everything.

  … Well, you’re perfectly right! It does mean that they are not free either, or else they would be able to speak up as free citizens and say whatever happens to be on their minds without losin’ their lives about it!

  … Yes, I’m sorry that so many of them are frightened and hidin’ their heads in the sand…. No, I don’t think those white women that I mentioned were braver than anybody else. Who knows? Maybe they were kinda frightened when they did that. But I do believe that they were the kind of folks that would have felt more miserable if they hadn’t done something to let everybody know where they stood and what was in their hearts. It would have cost them too much to be quiet and still and not listen to the voice of truth that was whisperin’ to them. You know, Marge, some people have to do right even if it kills them!

  Yes, readin’ about that gave me a good feelin’. And wherever those women are tonight I wish them pleasant dreams and happy goin’ in all that they might ever do because I know that it will always be something that is fine and helpful to everybody.

  Marge, can’t you just see them standin’ up straight and proud, wearin’ those black flowers! … No, I would not call them ladies although I know exactly what you mean. I call them women. And I feel as proud of them as I do of my folks who are fightin’ to go to school and get all of their rights. There are a lot of good folks on this earth!

  MEN IN YOUR LIFE

  No, MARGE, I don’t think you have any more hard luck with men than anybody else. Neither do I go in for this downin’ of men all the time like they are so many strange bein’s or enemies. I think men are people the same as women and you will run into some bad characters in this life be they men or women!

  … Well, I’m in perfect agreement with that! A lot of men do think that they are just
the cock o’ the walk and oughta have the last word about everything! There are also a lot of them that look down on women and make fun of everything we say and do, I’m tellin’ you they really can rile me when they end up sayin’ something like, “Women! can’t live with ’em or without, bless their souls!” Of course, rilin’ is what they usually got in mind when they say those things.

  But, Marge, we women are also the first ones that get a crack at these men…. Well, I mean, ain’t we the ones that get to raise them from the time they are babies? While it’s true that a heap of women have drawn some sad pick of husbands, it is also true that they raise their sons to make somebody else a mighty poor kinda spouse!

  It is not a easy thing to raise a boy so’s that he’ll be as close to right as you can make him! It takes more than a bit of commonsense and a whole lot of tryin’. If I had a son, I would want him to be fair and square and good and worthwhile and at the same time not let anybody walk over him. Well, you know how Marie can hang-dog her husband around! … No, that is not at all necessary, and he shouldn’t allow it! I would raise a son of mine to think for himself and get a good feelin’ for the right and wrong of things! And I think a little application of the golden rule toward everybody oughta get him off to a good start! … Sure, everybody says they live by the golden rule, but how many people really and truly treat other folks like they’d like to be treated themselves? Not too many, you can be sure, ’cause everybody wants the tip-top best for themselves and then a little bit more!

  I stopped off to see Tessie the other day in order to go over her club minutes. You know, I would never have gone if I thought Clarence was gonna be home from work that day! He can make me so mad ’til it ain’t funny!

  That man can say and do some of the worst kinda things! In the first place, he is grumpy. Yes, always frownin’ up and mumblin’ under his breath about nothin’ in particular! … That alone would get me in a fistfight or a strait-jacket or both! I couldn’t stand somebody goin’, “mumble-mumble-make me sick-mumble-mumble-my dinner-mumble mumble-tired of this….” Yes, that’s the way he goes on all the time! And don’t let her have a visitor ’cause that’s when he’ll do it most!