What follows was written by Dr. Maya Angelou specifically for the National Council of Negro Women, founded in 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune. It was used in this instance as a part of The Black Family Reunion Cookbook - Recipes and Food Memories.
BLACK FAMILY REUNION PLEDGE by Dr. Maya Angelou
Because we have forgotten our ancestors, our children no longer give us honor.
Because we have lost the path our ancestors cleared, kneeling in perilous undergrowth, our children cannot find their way.
Because we have banished the God of our ancestors, our children cannot pray.
Because the old wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our hearing, our children cannot hear us crying.
Because we have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering, our befuddled children give birth to children they neither want nor understand.
Because we have forgotten how to love, the adversary is within our gates and holds us up to the mirror of the world, shouting, "Regard the loveless."
Therefore, we pledge to bind ourselves to one another:
To embrace our lowliest,
To keep company with our loneliest,
To educate our illiterate,
To feed our starving,
To clothe our ragged.
To do all good things, knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters. We are our brothers and sisters.
In honor of those who toiled and implored God with golden tongues, and in gratitude to the same God who brought us out of hopeless desolation.
We make this pledge.
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