Maya Angelou holds forth -- eloquently and poetically -- on Barack Obama's win

In an inspired booking move, guests on CBS' "The Early Show" this morning included Maya Angelou, the famed autobiographer ("I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"), poet and civil rights activist.

For a brief but interesting video review of American civil rights history in politics and popular culture, plus the actual Angelou interview, click on the Read more line below.

Reflecting on Barack Obama's victorious presidential campaign, Angelou had this to tell host Harry Smith:

I'm so proud and filled, I can hardly talk without weeping. I'm so filled with pride for my country. What do you say? We are growing up. My God, I'm so grateful.... I mean, look at our souls, look at our hearts. We have elected a black man to talk for us, to speak for us. We, blacks, whites, Asians, Spanish-speaking, Native Americans, we have done it. Fat, thin, pretty, plain, gay, straight, we have done it. My Lord, I am an American, baby.

Asked Smith: "Why this man?"

She replied:

Because he's intelligent, Harry. I don't mean intellectually clever. I mean intelligent. I mean what used to be called a mother wit. He has common sense, which is, I'm sorry to say, most uncommon. Because he knows that together....

...we can be somebody. You see? 

And he is inclusive as opposed to exclusive. I know that he knows he is the president of every black person, every white person, he's the president of the bigots and he must remember that.

Ultimately, this exchange occurred, which speaks for itself:

SMITH: Of your many great poems, the poem that I have been thinking about, since I knew that I was going to talk to you today was 'I Rise.' Could you, would you give us some of it this morning?

ANGELOU: It begins, 'You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, you may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I'll rise. Out of the huts of history's shame I rise up from a past rooted in pain I rise. I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise into daybreak miraculously clear I rise. Bringing the hopes that my ancestors gave, I am the hope and the dream of the slave.' And so, Harry Smith, we all rise.

SMITH: And I rise.

ANGELOU: Yes, we do.

SMITH: I rise.

ANGELOU: Yes, we do.

SMITH: And I rise. Dr. Maya Angelou, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

ANGELOU: Mr. Harry Smith, thank you very much for having me.

And we thank the CBS publicity department for giving us the heads up on a televised moment we are sorry we missed -- it was a long night -- but are glad to pass it along.

-- Don Frederick

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Photo credit: Associated Press

Comments

[J. Alfred]

Ms. Angelou's words are right on. I imagine many have been inspired to commemorate this historic event with poetry. Here's what popped in my head this morning when I woke:

The people's Hope last night in mass prevailed.
With the winds of Change at his back, he sailed
To victory over the ol' mav'rick.
Both have rebuffed partisan politic,
'Cause the people claim they tire of divide.
Perhaps the past could have reached across wide
Aisles in the spirit of compromise?
But our victor inspires like the sunrise!
He bridges greater gulfs, from east to west;
Or so we hope. Today begins the test.

[Mark Matassa]

Don, thanks for this. Here's a direct link to the CBS video interview with Angelou.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4574386n

[vinny@gmail.com]

Here's the problem with the pride and race thing... and first I'll say that I'd be the first in line to vote for a true African-American who had the values and had a solid well articulated plan for fixing what GW took 8 years to screw up - but so far we haven't really heard of a solid well articulated plan - the best we can listen to are some speeches of Michelle Obama talking about changing or re-building everything in America. So much lofty air.

But here's the problem for our neighbors of color: Is this really the right representative of their ethnic group? Will he really after four years do his people proud? Its not enough just to say, "looky here, we've elected a President" ... it has to be a man who'll bring honor and accomplishment to all Americans. His record has yet to be written.

It could be like buying a Ford Pinto and being all happy because "you have a car" versus working a little longer and buying a Lexus and saying, "look at what we drive".

Only time will tell. I hope for all that he turns out to be someone of pride in accomplishments that all Americans can point to in history -

Last thought, his "roots" are Sub-Saharan Islamic and are not the shared roots of multi-generational African-Americans who's families came through the civil rights movement and extend back to slavery. He's well heeled and certainly doesn't share the African-American experience of so many in this country.

[frieda]

then why did she endorsed Hillary ...

[ln]

at vinny@gmail.com,
for once Obama do not has ties in the sub saharian part of africa. Luo do not share the same bloodline as the rest of the subsaharian cousins.

just like Italians do not look like Germans yet they are white.

you are just as ignorant as Sarah Paleen on this matter.
alos Maya angelou is not representing the entire black population , she speaks for herself and she is entitled to do so.
she endorsed Hillary Clinton

[A moment for reflection]

I am sad to see some wanting to dismiss Maya Angelou's sentiments. Whether you love Obama or hate him, you must take a moment out from politics to understand what the fact of his election means. Not only what it means to those who have seen worse times, but what it means to young children who look like him. It means it is possible!! I have seen footage of 12-year-old african-american boys chocking up as they try to tell a camera that suddenly they actually believe, for the first time believe, they could do anything.

You must understand the psychological effect of two hundred years of exclusion--of white male domination. You have witnessed a day that was a long time in the making. Obama is human like all others, but the historic nature of his election is not like any other election. Putting all politics aside, it is change we all should be proud of.

[Stephanie Ritcherson]

I just have to say that all people with African-Ancestry share in the pain and the emotional scarring from slavery and being treated as 3rd class human beings. Although you say that Obama is of Sub-saharian roots, he has still experienced the same prejudices as his other darker-skinned, west-African cousins, right here in America. Until you have walked in a black person's skin, you can not speak of the experience of being black. When a person looks at him, they see a black man. Do you think they care if his roots are sub-saharian, west-african, carribean, etc.? He is trying to erase those thoughts of anyone being discriminated against no matter their color, ethinic group, religion. etc Can we not just be joyous that an indifferent person won the election and he represents us all?????

[Friday025]

Please stop with the "then why did she endorse Hillary Clinton" comments. What does that matter? Endorsing Hillary Clinton does not discredit or negate Dr. Angelou's sentiments and the overwhelming sense of pride she feels. I too supported Hillary Clinton during the primaries, I'm also a women of color. I am just as overjoyed and beside myself that Barack Obama is actually our President-elect. Sometimes folks, we can be so binary in our thinking that we lose sight of the point, which is: we are in the midst of profound transformation. This country is finally at the brink of shifting the paradigm. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are part of that movement, because they did something nearly never done before in american politics, they involved many americans into the political process who typically were not apart of it.