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I have drunk deeply of late from the fountain of my black culture. I have sat at the knee of and learned from Mother Africa. I have discovered the truth of my heritage, The truth which has been so often obscured and omitted, And I find that I have much to say to all of my black children. I will lift up their heads in proud blackness, With the story of their fathers' fathers. And I shall take them into a way back time, Of kings and queens who ruled the Nile and raised the pyramids, Who measured he stars and discovered the laws of mathematics, And who developed music, medicine and the law. Further, I will tell them of our ancestors, and industrious black people, Upon whose backs and labors have been built the wealth of, The continents of Europe, America, and Africa. I will tell them of the black kingdoms of antiquity, Which flourished at a time when the then known world, Was but a desert, and of the cultural centers, Of Kush, Timbuctoo, of Kano, Ghana, and Benin. I will tell my children this and more. And will make clear to them how and why, The oppressors deliberately depreciated Africa and everything Black, As a means of justifying the enslavement, Of our people and the rape of our ancestral land. I will acquaint them with the high moral qualities, Which our people inherited from their ancestors, And I will urge their emulation of them. I will tell them of a proud and creative people, Who were not always slaves and whose descendants, Are determined not to remain so. What shall I tell my children who are black? These are some of the things, Which I hope will help to strengthen them. Knowledge and awareness of their heritage, From the past will be their weapon and their armor, And will give them direction for the future. It will make them strong enough to cope with, The battles and struggles which they will have to face. And since this story has often been obscured, and omitted, I must sacrifice to find it for my children, Even as I now sacrifice to feed, clothe and shelter them. This I will do for them it I love them, No one else will do it for me. I must find the truth of heritage for myself, And pass it on to them, and in years to come, I believe because I have armed them with the truth, My children and their children's children, Will venerate me, For it is the truth that will make us free!