"I am who I am today in part because of a speech I heard in fifth grade at Matthew A. Henson Elementary School in Baltimore. It was 1970, and the auditorium was full of little Black boys and girls, fidgeting, waiting for the speaker to begin. "I am somebody," a voice boomed from the stage, shaking us to attention. I have never forgotten that day when the Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke life into me, eventually inspiring me to go to college."
"But then came the "I Am Somebody" speech from Jackson, who died Tuesday at 84. My aspirations to be a writer were motivated by Jackson's call-and-response keynote. "Say it after me," Jackson coaxed us. "I am somebody!" The hundreds of little voices shouting those words still stick with me. I yelled it at the top of my voice. "I may be poor, but I am somebody," Jackson said. "I must be respected, protected, never rejected." That hit home."
"I was a weepy child, craving the love of parents who abandoned me. I grew up watching my grandmother drive from one bar to another on Fridays, searching for my grandfather before he drank away his paycheck. My mother drifted in and out of my life, breaking one promise after another. The first time I recall seeing my father was in a prison visiting room."
A childhood shaped by poverty and parental abandonment led to living with a grandmother who provided safety but discouraged big ambitions. A 1970 elementary-school assembly by Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered the phrase "I am somebody," prompting a powerful call-and-response that awakened confidence and inspired aspirations for college and writing. The speech countered feelings of rejection and validated dignity despite welfare and hardship. Memories of searching for an alcoholic grandfather, a drifting mother, and a father seen first in a prison visiting room underscore the obstacles overcome through newly affirmed self-worth and determination.
Read at The Washington Post
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