Before I Sleep

Destination Freedom. Destination Freedom, dramatization of the great democratic heritage of the Negro people, is brought to you by Station WMAQ as a part of the pageant of history and of America's own destination freedom. As the last century drew to a close, a young poet rose out of Dayton, Ohio, shot across the literary sky like a comet and left in his wake volumes of poems and stories that remain

among the most treasured artistic creations of his generation. He was Paul Lawrence Dunbar. In a chapter entitled, Before I Sleep, Destination Freedom tells the Dunbar story. pains first found me that day in Dayton when I raised my hand in a high school classroom. On that day I volunteered to eat Shakespeare in the auditorium. On that

day I met my doom and my redemption. It came about this way. Paul did you have your hand up? Yes sir. Something biting you. So you have to screw up your face that way. Now, now, now, there'll be none of that. Paul, Paul, will you or will you not volunteer to memorize some of Shakespeare's poems to read to the parent's

teachers' association Wednesday night? Yes, of course. But the school is honestly the class poet. He gets oddly and articulate at the time. Will you find your voice and time to do justice to Shakespeare and to Central High? Yes, of course.

Now let's be sure you look over your Shakespeare volume carefully. I listened. You know why? I listened. I strained my ears so that I could forget the odd pain that was slicing through my body.

And even though I didn't know from where it came, I knew when I stood with Mother before the dating doctor where it would take me. This is Dunbar. You take your sound when early grief and bless you carefully.