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Legacy?
Legacy?

Do you know what the word "Legacy"
means? Well, if you don't know, let me tell
you what the dictionary says it means.
Legacy: property or money left to some one
by a will; something handed down from
those who have gone before; a legacy of
honor; our legacy, of freedom.
In this poem, I'm not referring to material
things like property or money, either of
honor or freedom. I am referring to what
a person has done with this life that God
has given to him or her.
Yes, [?] want to know what will your legacy
be? This is a question that I would like to
put [?] each and everyone of you?
What will your legacy be?
When you have finally cast off these mortal
coils?
When you have crossed the great divide?
What will your legacy be?
When you can no longer run life's race.
When you no longer have a place; when you
havent last completed the circle round and
where an escape is no longer to be found.
What will your legacy be?
When you walk into the unknown all by
yourself and alone,
What will your legacy be?
Stop for a moment and listen to me and
answer this question if you can.
What will your legacy be?
When you must cross that great divide into
a [?] from which none can hide. When 
you, alone, with no one by your side with no 


friend to leady you or to hold your hand?
What will your legacy be?
What deeds have you done in your lifetime
which will be left for you to be remembered
by?
Will it be just a gray decaying tombstone
standing alone in a cemetery it will it be, as it
should be some act, some service or some deed
that will insure that you will be remembered on 
and into the eternity of life's game?
I ask you. What will your legacy be?
Will it be the fact that you helped somebody
along the way, during the time while you were
here on earth?
What will your legacy be?
Will it be similar to the legacies left to our
generation by people like Harriet Tubman,
Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, John
Brown, Ida B. Wells, Mary Bethune and so
many others who made of their lives a bridge
for us to cross over on and whose lives were an 
inspiration for us of today to make of our lives
bridges for future generations to cross over
on?
What will your legacy be?
Legacy! Legacy!
Let us stop for a moment and recall some of
our people who left their lives as legacies to
us, and who always will be honored and
remembered.
They were people like:
Harriet Tubman: her legacy was the work
that she did on the underground railroad in
which she brought hundreds of our ancestors
out of the bonds of slavery; and,
Frederick Douglas: his legacy was the work
that he did to help abolish slavery; and,
Ida B. Wells: her legacy was the fact that she
fought against the evil of black men being


lynched in this country; and, Mary Mcleod
Bethune: her legacy was that she worked
for the education of our youth by starting on
faith, a small school which grew to be a
great university; and, Dr.Martin Luther
King's Jr.: his legacy was that he devoted
his life to fighting for full equality for our
people; and, Sojourner Truth: her legacy
was her fight for the liberation of and full
equality for all women in our country; and,
John Brown: His legacy was that he
sacrificed his life for an end to slavery and
for freedom of our people; and, Bessie
Coleman: her legacy was that she became
the first woman in America, black or white,
to acquire a pilot's license; and, Paul
Robeson: his legacy was that he was a
renaissance man. He was a concert and folk
singer, an athlete and a linguists and that he
fought for the liberation of all oppressed
people all over in the world; and poets,
Langston Hughes and Margaret Walker:
their legacies were the many inspirational
poems that they wrote which expressed the 
soul of our people and Dr. W.E.B. DuBois.
His legacy was his life long struggle for the
liberation of our people in his actions his
speeches and his writings; and, Dr. Carter
G. Woodson: His legacy was the fact that he
early brought to the attention of the world.
The numerous and significant contributions
of people of Africa and African descent to
the attention of the world; and,
Booker T. Washington: his legacy was the
fact that he worked for the education of our
people when he founded and opened
Tuskegee Institute in Alabama; and,
George Washington Carver: his legacy his
significant and important accomplishments