OUR ROLLING STONES GATHER MOSS

Our African American history may be the foremost in human history for daringly adventurous resilience and for its triumphal brilliance. Torn from family and homes in Africa and in America, we rebuke the proverb that "a rolling stone gathers no moss." We regenerate "moss" in motion wherever we are found or may land. "Moss" in music;moss in literature; moss in science and religion; moss in art, dance, and athletics; moss in education, law, medicine, and government; moss in inventions and practical applications; and more! These thoughts are evoked by a compliment paid to us by Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson of the 1st South Carolina USCT, when he said in his anthropological book, ARMY LIFE IN A BLACK REGIMENT (1870) that he had no need to read any fiction, including "Uncle Tom's Cabin," when his men's own stories of escape (including that of some of their wives) made that classic seem "tame." I completely agree! History is more gripping, more exciting than any myth, fable, or fiction contrived in man's mind. Our forefathers left thousands "slave narratives,"--7,000--many of which remain unread. Read these as history. Study them and our own history and re-calibrate yourself, your dreams, accordingly.