Free Chicken Soup for the African American Woman's Soul by Jack Canfield Page A

white child who lived on a farm in upstate New York.
    I began to read and research and network with other doll collectors and discovered that the dolls could retell history. Rag dolls, especially, have a story to tell. Their faces are unique and expressive. They speak to me, and their clothing tells a story, just by the workmanship and also the patterns and colors in the fabric. You can tell how old a doll is by close examination of the fabric. Knowing old patterns and colors is the key.
    I determine where each doll belongs chronologically in the history of the United States—at times a dark history.
    As a collector and an African American woman, I had to get past the negativity of the Jim Crow images of large lips, side-glancing eyes, pickaninny braids, and just plain mean characterizations. As I encounter these dolls, I remember that they represent an important time in our history, and I am so grateful that I can give them a home where they can tell their story, be heard and be loved— perhaps for the very first time.
    To slaves and poor African Americans, dolls were a luxury item; therefore I looked for dolls made out of things such as nuts (nut head dolls), cornhusks, rags, fabric scraps and bottles. I even found a tiny, old doll made out of a baby bottle nipple and two graceful dolls made out of tobacco leaves carrying pocketbooks made from chestnuts.
    More recent character dolls portray positive images to black children of our culture’s many successful people. My collection includes dolls of Diana Ross, Louis Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, Dr. George Washington Carver, Colin Powell, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Michael Jackson and my favorites—the Tuskegee Airmen. I also collected many African American sports figures and dolls made by African American doll artists.
    Before I knew it I was doing doll displays and lectures at libraries, schools and corporations. I used my dolls to profile the black experience in America from slavery to the present. I liked to encourage young collectors. I tell them to remember the two Rs, “reading and research,” and determine where you can place a doll in the history of the United States. I continue to share my collection and my stories about my dolls with young and old alike as I continue on this historic journey. Who would have ever thought that a simple visit to a tag sale would so completely change the course of my life?
    As I sit in my grandmother’s rocking chair holding my favorite one-hundred-year-old rag doll, I hear a voice that says, “Daughter, thank you for telling our story.”
    Emma Ransom Hayward

Ninety-Pound Powerhouse
    O ur scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
    Martin Luther King, Jr.
    As a young African American female growing up in the 1920s, I knew my grandmother had experienced many difficulties being a minority. I never realized the impact those experiences had on her life, until the summer of 2001 when she shared with me the woman she truly was. For years her health had been on the decline, but at times when the family feared she had neared the end, her determination would abound all obstacles in her path. It was amazing to watch this happen time and time again.
    During one of my visits to the nursing home in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, which she now called “home,” I had an opportunity to sit with her and talk about her life.
    I had been born in a small town in Arkansas myself, but had been raised mostly in the city. Therefore, I was a city girl at heart. However, I found visiting the country relaxing, and the hospitality people showed was amazing.
    Arkadelphia was sixteen miles north of my birth town, Gurdon. Driving down the interstate each day, toward the nursing home, I glanced around me looking at the homes and miles of greenery I passed along the way. The continual flow of hand waves reminded me I had departed the city.
    Later that afternoon as I relaxed on the bed