Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 17, 1993 TAG: 9309170211
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELINDA F. EMERSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Giovanni said she was honored by the invitation to the occasion, which is jointly sponsored by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association and Black Women United for Action.
In her poem, Giovanni reflects on Africans who became American slaves.
The poem also speaks of the hope black Americans have had for the United States.
"We lay a wreath at a slave memorial," Giovanni said. "This is the highest accolade of the nation. . . . To acknowledge these people is to acknowledge the American dream. That's been the one thing everybody wants to take away from the slaves, but it was the slaves who, in fact, made America."
Giovanni said the event is important because it acknowledges that these people are a part of the United States and that the United States participated in slavery.
Giovanni compared the event to laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
President Clinton has been invited to attend the wreath-laying.
Giovanni hopes Clinton will attend, "to come and say, `Yes, these people are significant.' "
The ceremony has special significance for Giovanni because one of her grandmothers was part of the original group, Black Women United, and once attended a tea for the group held by Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House. "So whenever I hear from Black Women United for Action, . . . my answer is always, `Yes' - we clear the calendar."
Giovanni's mother, visiting from San Francisco, will be at the ceremony with her.
The memorial project began because Frank Matthews, legal counsel to the Fairfax County NAACP, objected that the Mount Vernon Ladies Association had not properly marked the slaves' burial site.
The memorial, designed in 1983 by a team of students from Howard University, is the only one dedicated to the virtues that sustained those living in bondage. "Faith," "Hope" and "Love" are inscribed on the steps leading up to the memorial.
Melinda Emerson is a senior at Virginia Tech and is taking a poetry course from Nikki Giovanni.
by CNB