I Have Heard of a Land

Early one autumn morning I sat down at my desk to write. In my mind’s eye, I began a journey back a century in time to the land of my birth, where I met my Great-grandmother Judy Graham. There in the golden light of an Oklahoma sunrise, I knelt down on the porch steps beside her where she revealed to me her remarkable story. By the time she had finished, fireflies danced around our heads and night had fallen. It is with her strong and gentle spirit that I now pass along to you the poetry of that story which I call I HAVE HEARD OF A LAND. That land is and was an Oklahoma...

Where the earth is red with promises Where the redbud trees catch the light And throw it in a game of sunbeam and shadow Back and forth to the cottonwood trees

As Great-grandma Judy told me of the fascinating and valiant role that she played in the great Oklahoma Land Runs of the late 1800s, I penned Oklahoma rhythms, Oklahoma rituals.

The illustrator Floyd Cooper, also born in Oklahoma, must have harvested similar memories, for his ancestors, like mine, ran for the land. Look, see how he strokes red-clay Oklahoma hues, earth-rich colors in each compelling painting.

Our great-grandparents, newly freed from slavery, were not alone in escaping the continuing perils of the post-slavery South. Through Great-grandma Judy, I discovered that other African-Americans journeyed to Oklahoma during this little known, yet important period of American history.

When my Great-grandma Judy reached Oklahoma she helped build a robust new society, a place of democracy in which all people - African-Americans, Native Americans, and White Americans - were treated equally.

As I sit here at my desk and finish this letter to you this morning, it is my hope that all Americans will know for themselves the freedom, independence, and mutual cooperation that Judy Graham described during my enchanted Oklahoma visit. I believe that it is within the power of each and every one of us to create a land...

Where the (spirit of the) pioneer woman still lives (where) Her possibilities reach as far As her eyes can see And as far as our imaginations can carry us

Sincerely yours,

Joyce Carol Thomas

Joyce Carol Thomas is an internationally renowned author who received the National Book Award for her first novel, Marked By Fire, and a Coretta Scott King Honor for The Blacker the Berry and for her first picture book, Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea. Her picture book I Have Heard of a Land received a Coretta Scott King Honor and an IRA/CBC Teachers' Choice Award and was an ALA Notable Book. Her other titles include The Gospel Cinderella, Crowning Glory, Gingerbread Days, and A Gathering of Flowers. Ms. Thomas lives in Berkeley, California.