THIS IS AMERICA - November 18, 2002: National Visionary Leadership Project
By Cynthia Kirk
VOICE ONE:
An organization in Washington, D-C, is teaching young people about black history in an interesting way. The
National Visionary Leadership Project tells history in the words of those who lived it. I’m Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. The National Visionary Leadership Project is our report today on the VOA Special
English program, This is America.
((THEME)
)
VOICE ONE:
The National Visionary Leadership Project tells about the lives and celebrates the success of older influential
African Americans. They share their life stories on video recordings that help bring history to life. Organizers say
the project offers much more than can be learned from simply a voice recording or words in a book.
In oral histories, people tell about their lives. These are one of the oldest forms used to document events and
provide an important link to our knowledge of the past.
VOICE TWO:
The National Visionary Leadership Project includes the voices of famous people, such as poet Maya Angelou. It
also includes other influential but less known community leaders. Many of these African Americans have never
told their stories. The project calls these important people “visionaries.” Their voices will serve as a cultural
record for young African Americans.
Some of these people are known in the United States and around the world. Others
are known mainly in their local communities. All the visionaries are seventy years
old or older. They are from business, the arts, law, politics, and education.
Camille Cosby started the National Visionary Leadership Project. She is an educator
and wife of television comedian Bill Cosby. She says it is important for people to
tell these stories in their own words, instead of having other people tell them. She
says this will protect the truth of their histories.
VOICE ONE:
Mizz Cosby says she became interested in living histories when she produced a play and a movie. They were
based on a book about the lives of two African American sisters who were one-hundred years old. Mizz Cosby
said she learned how valuable it is for older people to be honored in American culture. She says many young
Americans do not communicate with older people. She says she loved to sit and talk with her grandparents when
she was a child. Camille Cosby says now she is sitting down and talking with people who have influenced her
life.
Mizz Cosby provided the one-and-one-half-million dollar yearly budget for the project. Other organizations also
support the project. They include the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African
American History and Culture.
The organizers hope to complete video recordings of sixty people every year for five years. The videotaped
interviews are on the organization’s Internet Web site, w-w-w dot visionaryproject dot com. That is w-w-w dot
v-i-s-i-o-n-a-r-y-p-r-o-j-e-c-t dot com. Mizz Cosby says although all of the visionaries are black, the histories
they tell are meant to be heard by all people. She says their stories are part of American history.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
The organizers of the project interviewed most of the visionaries. They also asked thirty students from
historically black colleges to talk to interesting older people in their own communities. The organizers wanted the
people to be honest and open about their lives.
For example, politician Shirley Chisholm talks about her difficulties when she entered politics. She says her
greatest opposition came from men.
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM: “They gave me a hard time – because they said one thing about Shirley Chisholm:
‘She is too darn outspoken
–
and she is always raising questions
–
she never keeps quiet.’
”
VOICE ONE:
Some of the visionaries told little-known facts about themselves. For example, political activist Andrew Young
says he was a bad student. Yet he became a congressman, the American Ambassador to the United Nations and
the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.
ANDREW YOUNG: “I didn’t do well in school and I didn’t get along with teachers
–
I was always talking
back and asking questions – challenging authority – all of those things that contributed to my leadership ability
made me a bad student.
”
VOICE TWO:
One of the most celebrated visionaries is Maya Angelou. Mizz Angelou is an
internationally praised poet, writer and educator. She travels around the world
speaking and reading her poetry. Her books about her life and poetry collections are
widely read and continue to influence many people. She has received many awards
for her work. Mizz Angelou tells why it is important for children to know their past.
MAYA ANGELOU: “It is very clear .he, she, who does not learn from his or her
history is doomed to repeat it; and repeat it and repeat it, ad nauseum.this is why
this project -- why I said yes.absolutely yes, yes.I am a very good fountain of information. Humility says
someone was here before me and I am here and I have something to do. I too have my responsibilities. And there
will be someone coming behind me who I must prepare the way for.
”
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
Lee Archer is one of the famous Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black fighter pilots who
fought during World War Two in the United States Army Air Corps. Their success helped lead to the decision by
President Harry Truman in nineteen-forty-eight to end racial separation in the military.
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen began in nineteen-forty-one, when the United States Army was racially
separated. Blacks were barred from the Army Air Corps and other special units. Pressure and legal action from
civil rights groups forced the War Department to train blacks as officers and pilots in the Army Air Corps.
VOICE TWO:
Their training began after Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama. Eleanor
Roosevelt was the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. She met flight trainer Charles “Chief” Anderson
there. She asked him, “Can Negroes really fly airplanes?” He said, “Yes. Would you like to take an airplane
ride?” Missus Roosevelt accepted.
Her security officials ordered her not to go on the plane. But she went anyway. The security officials told the
president, but he said there was nothing he could do to stop her. Tuskegee Airman Lee Archer says Missus
Roosevelt’s flight changed history.
LEE ARCHER: “She informed her husband that there is a possibility that you made a mistake – that African
Americans can fly. And then he ordered the chief of the Army Air Corps and the chief of the Army to have a
program in which they would select a group of young black men to see if they could learn to fly. And so she
informed him that if you do this, you could garner the colored vote.
”
Many of the Tuskegee Airmen later became judges, politicians, religious leaders, educators and community
leaders. They also began programs to help young people do well in school and get them interested in flying.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee have been actors, activists and husband-and-wife for more than fifty years. They have
worked together on many projects for the stage, movies, television and radio. They have been praised for their
work together and as individuals.
Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were close friends with many of America’s great
leaders and thinkers, including Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior. They also
were leading activists during the civil rights period. Through it all, Ossie Davis says
they never made work more important than family.
OSSIE DAVIS AND RUBY DEE:
“
... We were smart enough always whenever
possible to take the family with us wherever we went, so they would never have to
wonder what mommy and daddy were doing out there.they went with us. I worked
in Mexico, the whole family came; I did another film in Rome, the whole family
came; Ruby went to Hollywood to do ‘Raisin in the Sun,
’
the movie, whole
family moved out.
”
Ruby Dee says she strongly supports efforts for children to hear the stories of older people. She says it is
important that children learn how much they have experienced.
VOICE TWO:
Reporter Renee Poussaint is the executive director of the National Visionary Leadership Project. She says so
much important information about African Americans is not included in American history. She says young
people learn valuable lessons when they listen to the generations that came before them.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our audio engineer was Jim Harmon. I’m Mary
Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. Join us next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special
English program, THIS IS AMERICA.
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