Legendary Faces

the Novel

Legendary Faces

Black Legacy
by
Forest Hairston

Black Legacy was inherited from the blaring voices who wore the taut legendary faces. And even yet, we hear those voices, even where history has forgotten to spell their names. Yet they were there in the throes through all the historic madness. They were the slaves shackled and bonded, human people seeking freedom. They were the free abolitionists yelling out against the inhumane lunacy. Angry voices screaming and crying out with what adroit protest. Now then, the wailing wind still hold the older voices amidst these fazing younger years.

And all the stories told by the old griot will be retold by the children today, and still again tomorrow. Africa! . . . Captive slaves! America! Watery tears like a godly rainfall. Southern plantation slaves. The abolitionists Black and White speaking out at the Holy church and the small town hall. What now? What vile injustice against human people? What now? What American Civil War? The drab blue and the dull gray. The North and the South, the Shiloh blood and the Gettysburg gore. Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Josiah Henson, and still yet, the great Sojourner Truth. And now then. . . . Emancipation!

Legendary faces. . . . Emancipation. . . . Freedom at the last hour, at the early sullen dawn. Now then, amidst the wailing wind, spirit ran free, and only could it echo our black legacy. And still, the taut legendary faces live on and on. . . . they never die. Frederick Douglass, we hear his eloquent voice yet still. Barbara Jordan will ever live on, and she will ever speak for equality. Martin Luther King is still here through these fazing younger years. And Jesse Louis Jackson will fight on and on until it's his last breath. The legendary faces, they remain here for evermore.

The old griot passed it on. He has told the story from time through time, from Africa to America. And he will yet tell the story all through the tinctured rain. When I was a boy, I heard the old griot say. "Boy, at the end of God's tinctured rain, look for the rainbow."

Frederick Douglass

His Legendary Face
was here at the very
beginning of our
Black Emancipation.

Barbara C. Jordan

Her Legendary Face
stood against racism
in every speech
she spoke.

Martin Luther King Jr.

His Legendary Face
was here through our
human Civil Rights
and these fazing
younger years.

Jesse Louis Jackson

His Legendary Face remains here yet still. And so here, he has walked on this ambivalent stage
fighting on for our
Civil Rights.

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