I am so impressed by the exportation of hope, from America, to the hope ravaged country of South Africa. It is unimaginable, that in so short a time we have grown to a point where we are exporting an impression of respectful and respectable Black womanhood. The carrying of an African American First lady and daughters and mother, to the apartheid shadowed nation, is something that was unimaginable when I was a child. It was only a dream to me. A very longed for dream, but a dream, none the less.
The example of Melba Moore paying homage to the mother and queen of soul, as she did, in the introduction to her most famous and beautiful rendition of "Lean on Me" is the message that I would have carried to South Africa, today, were I given the privilege of speaking to the ladies. Honor your mother, by hitting that note and holding that note and doing "it", as Melba did. She called it crumbs from the queens table. They were crumbs, meaning that this was the b side of the "45" and she made it a single! Let us do what our mothers do. Let us honor what they had to endure and carry it to the next level. Let us take what they endured on the b side of the 45 and take it to a single, Not throwing out their memory, but accepting the "crumbs from the queens' tables".
