A small group of Standing On Their Shoulders: A Celebration of African American Women Honorees and friends gathered at the historic Douglass Theater for a reunion lunch and to remember the ones who have passed away since the original program was begun in the early 1990s by Dr. Catherine Meeks as a part of the African American Studies Program at Mercer University. The original program brought the one hundred and one women together at Wesleyan College in 1999 for the celebration of the entire group who had been recognized over the past four years in small groups and then finally the Tubman Museum ‘s publication of a coffee table book consisting of short biographical sketches and photographs of all of the women in 2004 marked the conclusion of the first portion of the program. But, In 2018, a program was organized by Dr. Meeks with the urging and support of Mrs. Clara Chandler and fifteen additional women were honored at that time.
The luncheon sought to bring honorees from both classes together to reconnect and to offer strength and support through updating their journeys at this point and to remember the ones who have passed on. It was stunning to realize that eighty-one of the original class has died and one of the second group. The tribute given to each woman consisted of calling her name and placing a long stem pink carnation in a glorious crystal vase which was owned by one of the deceased honorees. As their names were called, the audience was invited to come up to the vase to place the carnation in the vase in memory of that person.
The story sharing around this seemed quite spontaneous, and was surely quite uplifting as each person came up to place the carnation in the vase, there would be a few brief remarks made about the person who was being remembered. It turned out to be a very special gift because the planners reported not having included this feature in the program. Everyone seemed to be inspired and uplifted by the many short comments that were made. There was laughter and sometimes tears in the audience’s responses.
Another major highlight of the program was the marvelous poem penned and presented by Londyn Rodgers, the young Teen Poet Laureate for Jack and Jill of America, Inc. She did a beautiful job of describing the journey from childhood to womanhood in her beautifully crafted poem, The Exchange. The poem reflected quite profoundly upon the life journeys of the women in the room and all of the honorees.
Dr. Meeks, spoke quite passionately about the impact of this longstanding work upon her and her two sons who were small children when she organized the first program almost forty years ago. She reflected upon the joy of getting to know the honorees and interacting with them as she collected their bios as well as experiencing the longevity of this initiative and the unexpected overall impact of it on her and others. Along with this, she expressed her deep gratitude for all of the assistance that she has gotten from the community, former students and friends in helping to make this program sustainable. She hopes to gather oral histories from the women who are remaining to enlarge the gift of their legacy to the community.
Many of the attendees at the luncheon were very expressive about how good it was to be present, and several said that they felt much better afterwards than when arriving because of the inspiration, joy and good spirit that was present.
