Carrie Allen McCray: a Special Celebration
Recently I was asked to participate in a special celebration for a writer I have long admired. Roselyn Y. Cole, known to many as "Rize," invited me to a "do," as we say in the South, for poet and novelist Carrie Allen McCray. I was delighted to read Ms. McCray's poetry instead of my own.
Ms. McCray's memoir, Freedom's Child, is, in my opinion, one of the most important books of the century, particularly where Southern Literature is concerned. Her book details a foray into her family history, and the discovery of a white ancestor, a man who was an officer in the Confederate army. The book is more than a memoir, as it pulls together accounts of writers like James Weldon Johnson and paints a family history against two centuries of social history.
Before Freedom's Child, Ms. McCray had enjoyed success as a poet. Her chapbook, Piece of Time, has been anthologized in Chicory Blue Press's The Crimson Edge, and Ms. McCray's poetry has been read on National Public Radio. Her memoir is rapidly becoming part of school curriculums across the nation. Ms. McCray says she only took herself seriously as a writer at the age of seventy-three.
Following is a reprint of the program handed out at Ms. McCray's celebration. The program was held at the Richland County Public Library in Columbia, South Carolina, on June 29, 2000. Sara Linder, with Library Services, and Quincy Pugh, the Library's Film and Sound Manager, assisted with the festivities.
The audience was treated to music by the Reverend John Osborne, of Second Calvary Baptist church in Columbia, and his wife, Cheryl. With a single electric guitar, and one of the most incredible voices I have ever heard, the Reverend Osborne played and Mrs. Osborne sang blues and gospel as though they'd invented both genres. Their music made a splendid event all the more exciting, because it was pure art, and as close to poetry as music can get. When I hear music such as we heard that evening, I wonder why popular music settles for so much less, because their performance tops anything I've heard on television or radio. The Osbornes are a class act.
A Celebration of the Life and Works of Carrie Allen McCray
June 29, 2000
Richland County Public Library
Columbia, South Carolina
Ms. Carrie Allen McCray
Born October 4, 1913 in Lynchburg, Virginia, Carrie Allen McCray was the ninth of ten children. She is a retired New York social worker and was Professor of Social Work and Sociology at Talladega College in Alabama. She now lives and writes in Columbia, South Carolina.
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