My Mother Had a Dream : African-American Women Share Their Mother's Words of Wisdom Book

Smart, sassy, inspirational, and outrageous, the homespun wit and hard-earned wisdom collected here touch on the gifts of heritage, faith, pride, perseverance, community, and achievement, passed on with love from mother to daughter. Margaret Walker Alexander recalls, "The black woman has deep wells of spiritual strength. She doesn't know how she's going to feed her family in the morning, but she prays, and in the morning, out of thin air, she makes breakfast." Actress Marla Gibbs cites this advice: "If you hold your hand closed, nothing can get out, but nothing can get in either." Pearl Bailey's mother counseled, "Remember something always. I want you to live in the best place you can afford, eat well, and if there is anything left, send some to Mama." And Charlayne Woodard remembers her grandmother's caution that if a nice young man just happens to be offering you a pedestal, "I want you to climb up on it, and take a nap for me!" Witty and moving, powerful and touching, the more than 500 excerpts gathered in this volume represent the collective wisdom of dozens of African-American women past and present, from Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells Barnett, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Rosa Parks to Dorothy Dandridge, Alfre Woodard, Audre Lorde, Julia Boyd, Alice Walker, and many, many more.