Stand up and Live: My Father’S Story from Beginning to End

By Audrienne Roberts Womack

A family patriarchs voice is heard clearly from the past in Stand Up and Live. It is that voice that has spoken with urgent meaning for author Audrienne Roberts Womack. She did not meet her great-great grandfather Anthony Dangerfield Sr., a visionary freedman who commenced the evolution of the Dangerfield/Roberts lineage into well-educated, prosperous citizens of the United States, but it is his inspiration that started this book. Anthony Sr.s lack of education motivated him in wanting his children to become educated, which led him to build a school on his property, to harness his familys combined intelligence for progress, and perhaps had a vision of what the family is now and how Audrienne Womack knows it. His children and his descendants will most certainly know how to appreciate his vision through this book. It is also a well-written one that will put it among the ranks of outstanding family histories that help define significant portions of the American experience. At first, like many young women her age, Womack could not recognize the importance and significance of her family history. It was her father, Horace Molvin Roberts Sr., who constantly reminded her, embedded in her memory, at least, the fact that on her may very well rest the hopes that their family history would not be forgotten.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483654355

Audrienne Roberts Womack

Lotus Falcon is a native of Washington, D.C., who holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. She is an educator that strongly believes that educator on any level can be a valuable asset in self awareness and self improvement. She leads many women’s empowerment/sexuality workshops and sells adult toys and products in her spare time. She has published a book of her childhood memories and has published numerous erotic stories in various anthologies. Lotus Falcon is married with children.

Book preview

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

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 04/03/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

536980

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Introducing My Father’s Maternal Great-Grandmother, Mildred Forbes/Barnes/Burns

Introducing My Father’s Paternal Grandfather, Phillip Roberts

Introducing My Father’s Paternal Grandmother, Elvira Belts Roberts

Introducing My Father’s Maternal Grandfather, Anthony Dangerfield Sr.

Introducing My Father’s Maternal Grandmother, Jane Moore

Introducing My Father’s Paternal Aunt, Mary Virginia Dangerfield King

Introducing My Father’s Maternal Uncle, James Henry Dangerfield

Introducing My Father’s Maternal Aunt, Bessie Dangerfield

Introducing My Father’s Father, James Knox Roberts

Introducing My Father’s Mother, Sallie Jane Dangerfield Roberts

Introducing My Father’s Nephew, Ronald D. Palmer

The Empire Diaper-Linen Service, The Family Business

Sterling Allen Brown, Neighbor And Supporter of the Family Business

Introducing My Father, Horace Molvin Roberts Sr.

My Father’s Views of Himself

My Father’s Perspective on Child Rearing

My Mother’s Memories of My Father 8/2/12

Conclusion

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

hearts.jpg

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 father’s 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 people’s 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 couldn’t 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 father’s 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.

flower%20(rose).jpgimg001.jpg

INTRODUCTION

img002.jpg

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 wasn’t always as attentive as I needed to be. I was still very interested in my father’s stories, but I felt my father would always be around to share them with me at a moment’s notice.

I would tell myself, One of ‘these days’ I’m 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 father’s 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 father’s 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 didn’t 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 didn’t 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 didn’t 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.

This book initially started out to be a little project. I had originally envisioned it as a children’s picture book about my father. I thought it would be a learning adventure to visually demonstrate for children that adults aren’t suddenly born as grown-ups. I wanted to take them through the life cycle from beginning to end, using my father’s life as an example. I wanted to present to children that we all start off as babies, then teenagers, and then adults. I wanted to portray the evolution of growing up as a natural cycle that we all will experience. Not only did I want to tell them about the process, but most importantly, I wanted to show them and let them witness it for themselves.

As I started uncovering more and more research about my father, what started out to be a little project soon grew into a full-fledged family legacy. The layers started piling up, and as I started sorting through all the artifacts of his life and tried to piece it all together, I soon discovered that my father was so much more than whom I thought he was.

I soon discovered that in addition to the father, husband, brother, and uncle that I knew him to be, he was also a son, a grandson, a great-grandson, a successful business owner, a committed community advocate, a skilled engineer, and a prolific gardener. Right before my eyes, I was becoming acquainted with my father as if I was meeting him for the very first time.

The more history and research I uncovered, the more I was getting to know my father and the more I was getting to know my family. The more I got to know my family, the more I was learning about myself. The more I dug through boxes and boxes of family artifacts, the more I was able to piece together a family history that I had taken for granted and dismissed.

To think I thought these stories had no actual relevance to history or to anyone else outside of my family. Now I know better. Through my discovery, I soon realized how my father’s stories played a significant part in black history and American History, how it tells a story not only about my family but also about the story of so many others that have shared those same heartfelt experiences.

My first cousin Ronald D. Palmer was our unofficial family historian, and it was years before I truly appreciated his efforts at trying to research and document our family’s history. Even though he was my first cousin, he was twenty-four years older than I was, and my parents had my brothers and sister call him Uncle Ronald to show respect for his age and maturity.

For years, I thought Ronald was my uncle until, at some point we transitioned from