DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | May Tangen Christmas Letters, 1975-1982 | May's Tangen Tribune Christmas Greeting Page 1

Transcribe
Translate

May Tangen Christmas Letters, 1975-1982

May's Tangen Tribune Christmas Greeting Page 1

MAY'S TANGEN TRIBUNE 
1978-1979

GREETING YOU AND SENDING YOU THE LETTER I PROMISED

EXPLAINING WHY 

I came back to the north to live when throughout my years among Mississippi blacks (1967-1968) I had meant to live there the rest of my days.

WHY, IN THE FIRST PLACE,

had I gone there? It was to be a giving of myself to live among God's people as God would have Christians do, being at one with them, adopting them as my people, as Ruth said, " Thy people shall be my people" (Their God was already my God), living in their neighborhoods, prefering their company, adopting the ways of poverty because they were unfortunate, belonging to their church, deferring to their leadership.

AFTER I HAD WORKED AT
Rust College until I was 69, I found me a good newish apartment in a housing development for low-income blacks (integration was a goal, so I was welcome and I paid rent according to my income), trying to be a trustworthy neighbor showing,(Poor choice of words I'm sorry I really did not feel [?] [?] more fortunate) I hoped, a minimum of the feeling of white supremacy. I lived there for four years. 

AT 80 YEARS OR SO. 

I planned, I'll move, if I can find an integrated retirement home. I would not go north or seek a retirement home for whites, because that would be running away from "my people", and by doing so devalue them: ("Whites don't stay among us blacks. As soon as they can they go back to their own. We're not good enough," they would think). But

I GOT SCARED

in January, 1978, by a feeling of frailty and wooziness due to high blood pressure and lack of exercise in the icy winter, into making more definite plans. The illness of 

LESSYE LEE DAVIS, 
A REVERED FRIEND (black), who wanted to stay in her own home instead of going to a hospital or to Care Inn, showed me that one can't do that without capable family (her sisters were too frail to help her) or friends (care is hard to find). If that would happen to her when she lived among loving friends and family, what would be the fate of a lone white woman hundreds of miles from family?

I QUOTED
to Miss Lessye, in a letter when she went to the hospital, John's verse (21:18) "...when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; nut when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go." Miss Lessye lived through the winter and died in May. 

IN FEBRUARY,
CLARICE CAMPBELL, ANOTHER REVERED FRIEND, (white) " carried" me out to visit a Methodist retirement home in Tupelo, Ms, where, because it is a Methodist establishment, blacks are welcomed as well as whites, making it the integrated home I wanted, you see, and I made application in good faith -- that is. I faithfully believed that that was the place for me. And I was the more sure it was the place because Clarice also made application.

BUT
The visit was not too reassuring. Only whites were there; no blacks had asked to come. Would they ever come? Retirement homes are not in their culture, their children took care of them; they could not afford it; they do not seek the company of whites. In spite of their desire for integration and equality, there is a tendency toward self-segregating. a desire to be among their own. 

AND I THOUGHT, 
while I'm waiting through the years for a black to integrate the place, I would be living in a haven for southern whites.

Saving...

MAY'S TANGEN TRIBUNE 1978-1979 GREETING YOU AND SENDING YOU THE LETTER I PROMISED EXPLAINING WHY I came back to the north to live when throughout my years among Mississippi blacks (1967-1968) I had meant to live there the rest of my days. WHY, IN THE FIRST PLACE, had I gone there? It was to be a giving of myself to live among God's people as God would have Christians do, being at one with them, adopting them as my people, as Ruth said, " Thy people shall be my people" (Their God was already my God), living in their neighborhoods, prefering their company, adopting the ways of poverty because they were unfortunate, belonging to their church, deferring to their leadership. AFTER I HAD WORKED AT Rust College until I was 69, I found me a good newish apartment in a housing development for low-income blacks (integration was a goal, so I was welcome and I paid rent according to my income), trying to be a trustworthy neighbor showing,(Poor choice of words I'm sorry I really did not feel [?] [?] more fortunate) I hoped, a minimum of the feeling of white supremacy. I lived there for four years. AT 80 YEARS OR SO. I planned, I'll move, if I can find an integrated retirement home. I would not go north or seek a retirement home for whites, because that would be running away from "my people", and by doing so devalue them: ("Whites don't stay among us blacks. As soon as they can they go back to their own. We're not good enough," they would think). But I GOT SCARED in January, 1978, by a feeling of frailty and wooziness due to high blood pressure and lack of exercise in the icy winter, into making more definite plans. The illness of LESSYE LEE DAVIS, A REVERED FRIEND (black), who wanted to stay in her own home instead of going to a hospital or to Care Inn, showed me that one can't do that without capable family (her sisters were too frail to help her) or friends (care is hard to find). If that would happen to her when she lived among loving friends and family, what would be the fate of a lone white woman hundreds of miles from family? I QUOTED to Miss Lessye, in a letter when she went to the hospital, John's verse (21:18) "...when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; nut when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go." Miss Lessye lived through the winter and died in May. IN FEBRUARY, CLARICE CAMPBELL, ANOTHER REVERED FRIEND, (white) " carried" me out to visit a Methodist retirement home in Tupelo, Ms, where, because it is a Methodist establishment, blacks are welcomed as well as whites, making it the integrated home I wanted, you see, and I made application in good faith -- that is. I faithfully believed that that was the place for me. And I was the more sure it was the place because Clarice also made application. BUT The visit was not too reassuring. Only whites were there; no blacks had asked to come. Would they ever come? Retirement homes are not in their culture, their children took care of them; they could not afford it; they do not seek the company of whites. In spite of their desire for integration and equality, there is a tendency toward self-segregating. a desire to be among their own. AND I THOUGHT, while I'm waiting through the years for a black to integrate the place, I would be living in a haven for southern whites.