Womack - Stand up and Live: My FatherS Story from Beginning to End

STAND UP AND LIVE

My Fathers Story from Beginning to End

Audrienne Roberts Womack

Copyright 2013 by Audrienne Roberts Womack.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013911597

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4836-5434-8

Softcover 978-1-4836-5433-1

eBook 978-1-4836-5435-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
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Rev. date: 04/03/2014

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CONTENTS

I am most appreciative of my father, Horace Molvin Roberts Sr. for his steadfast attempts at trying to preserve our family history and for trying whenever he could to share his stories with me. Even when I was too preoccupied with my own life to recognize the importance and significance of our family history, my father had high hopes that it would not be forgotten. I am equally appreciative of the photos, letters, and memorabilia he was able to protect and safeguard throughout his life. I am certain that for whatever reason he kept all that stuff, I know he could not have imagined that one day it would all be turned into a book about him and his family for all to read.

Without a doubt, I am grateful for my first cousin, Ronald D. Palmer, for almost singlehandedly and consistently trying to research our family history and make sense of the Dangerfield genealogy. Most importantly, I am indebted to him for never failing to share his discoveries with me throughout my life and for always seeking me out to share his new findings.

Even though we were never able to physically get together to write the stories he so often talked about, his efforts and research have strongly influenced and contributed to the writing of my fathers story. As a result, this final product can be celebrated and embraced by all of my family members who share the Dangerfield/Roberts bloodline.

Of course, I did not know my great-grandfather Anthony Dangerfield Sr., but after learning more about him, I feel as though I truly understand the importance of why he was so adamant about wanting his children to always remember what he had experienced as a slave and why he wanted them to never forget the stories he told them and to always pass them on.

It was Anthony Sr.s lack of education that motivated him in wanting his children to be educated, which led him in building a school on his property, so his children could be educated. I am in awe of his devotion toward making certain that his children not only got an education but also appreciated their education.

It is equally important for me to recognize all the relatives that I met during this journey that came before and after Anthony Dangerfield Sr. I am now more than ever aware of how my life is so immensely connected to each and every one of the relatives that are connected to my father, who in turn are connected to me. What an empowering feeling to finally find out how rich and vast my family is and how glorious it is to know that my family history is not my history alone but also an African American history, an American history, or, as Howard Zinn describes it, a peoples history.

I would like to thank my best friends in the whole wide world: my husband, Jeff (Thomas); my seven children, Khiana Monet, Lanika Roshae, Noteisha Opray, Montell Donte, Shabreia Darsai, Trevon Jefray, and Juwan Tomei; my granddaughter, Deriana Leenet; and my grandson, Khion Deray. You, my dear sweet family, fill my life with never-ending stories and have extended our family stories with new energy and substance. I have much appreciation for you all for allowing me to spend so much of our family time working on this project tirelessly and endlessly. You gave me the time and space to collect my thoughts, and I am truly thankful for you for allowing me to finally put our family story into print.

This project was created with the best of intentions with the information that was assembled through research, photos, interviews, news articles, etc. There was so much I could have added, but at some point, I had to make a decision on what to add and what to take away. As much as I would have liked to, I just couldnt add everything that I had.

If there are names, dates, or circumstances that have been omitted or misrepresented, that is in no way deliberate or meant to minimize the role and relevance that those entities played in the telling of my fathers story. It is understood and respected that many individuals and many conditions played an active role in the history surrounding this story. With that common bond, we are indeed connected and should celebrate the immense history that we all share.

I remember my father sharing stories of his past on many occasions. I remember him telling me about his grandfather, Anthony Dangerfield Sr. I was young; and I remember thinking that they sounded like fairy tales, something that happened in another place and time, another world possibly. I almost listened as if I was hearing something that was unreal.

When I got older, my father would still attempt to share his stories with me; and even though I was intrigued, I was still an impatient teenager. Unfortunately, my time and attention was equally divided between boys, parties, and friends; so I wasnt always as attentive as I needed to be. I was still very interested in my fathers stories, but I felt my father would always be around to share them with me at a moments notice.

I would tell myself, One of these days Im going to sit down with my daddy and hear his stories from beginning to end! Throughout the years, I did listen, but in the beginning, not with a sense of urgency or purpose. There was always something more important I had to attend to. There was always another party or phone call or cute boy I had to spend time with, but my fathers family stories were always at the back of my mind. They were always on my things-to-do list when and if I had the time. I eventually made the time, and at various intervals in my life, I started collecting odds and ends of family history and was always fascinated by my fathers old family photo albums that he had preserved for many years.

At first I wanted to write a book about my father because I missed him and longed for those days when we used to spend hours together, watching wrestling matches on late-night television. I wanted to remember him and not ever forget to celebrate his birthday when it came around year after year. I wanted to remember how our lives intertwined and how we used to occupy the same space. The years started to fade his memory, and I didnt want that to continue to happen.

Sometimes I had to close my eyes and think real hard to remind myself that he was once real and a significant part of my life. I didnt want his memory to come and go like the stations on our old-fashioned television set with the aluminum foil hanging from the antennas. I didnt want his life to become so insignificant as if his existence had no validity, as if he could be easily forgotten, as if he were never born, as if his life never mattered.