Suggested Answers to the Third Short

[johnkarls]

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Question 1

Do we have to wait until the last sentence of Chapter 7 entitled “Canaan” to understand what Ruth meant by it?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Did Houston’s all-Black Fifth Ward NOT (per Ruth) care about the failure to implement Brown vs. Board integration because the Fifth Ward was convinced of the excellence of its Phillis Wheatley High School?

Answer 2

So it would appear.

Question 3

Although Ruth doesn’t say a word about who Phillis Wheatley might have been, do we already know that she was the first famous African-American poet -- born 5/8/1753 in West Africa and died 12/5/1784 at age 31 in Boston?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

Do we know this because Harvard did NOT become a University (vs. a mere College) until the establishment of its Divinity School in 1816 and its Law School in 1817??? Because for the TWO CENTURIES from its establishment in 1636 until its morphing into a University, Harvard was known as THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE IN NEW ENGLAND??? As not only evidenced by TWO prints that have long graced the walls of the NYC Harvard Club showing the original Harvard Hall of 1795 BUT ENTITLED “THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE IN NEW ENGLAND”??? But also Phillis Wheatley’s famous poem entitled “The University of Cambridge, in New England”???

Answer 4

Yes and Yes and Yes and Yes.

Question 5

Is it surprising that Harvard would, for its first two centuries, have been a mere college among the many colleges of England’s University of Cambridge??? After all, wasn’t the first permanent English colony in the New World established 1620 at Plymouth Rock MA by Puritans fleeing religious persecution and they founded Harvard in 1636 after Congregational (Puritan) Churches had been established as far away as Hartford CT (1635) to educate ministers???

Answer 5

Yes and Yes.

Question 6

Moreover, isn’t it true that there were NO SEMINARIES in England EXCEPT the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford -- and the University of Cambridge was the most radical epicenter of the entire religious-persecution imbroglio with many of its faculty being escorted from the pulpit, after delivering a sermon, directly to the Consistory Court and then directly to prison???

Answer 6

Yes.

Question 7

But back to Phillis Wheatley, had she been a slave of the Wheatley family of Boston which encouraged her education and freed her shortly after the publication in 1773 of her poems???

Answer 7

Yes.

Question 8

Nevertheless, did Phillis Wheatley, even though her poetry had been widely praised by such luminaries as George Washington, die in poverty and obscurity at age 31 as did all 3 of her children who died young???

Answer 8

Unfortunately!!!

Question 9

Is it pardonable to spend so much time on Harvard and who Phillis Wheatley was??? After all, didn’t Ruth Simmons receive her PhD from Harvard???

Answer 9

Re pardonability – What do you think???

And yes, Ruth did receive her PhD from Harvard.

Question 10

Did Ruth welcome access to the Phillis Wheatley HS Library whose contents she attacked with no particular purpose other than volume???

Answer 10

Yes – an avid reader of everything!!!

Question 11

Did Ruth Simmons’ own mother die young (age 55 when Ruth was 16) of kidney failure before the days of dialysis and transplants??? Was Ruth devastated, to this day???

Answer 11

Yes and Yes.

Question 12

So does the Chapter 8 title (Black Antigone) continue Ruth’s penchant for wondering (like “Canaan” for Chapter 7) about her reference to Sophocle’s Theban Princess who committed suicide rather than endure life imprisonment for burying a slain brother in violation of King Creon’s decree because she believed the law of the gods (not leaving a body unburied) trumps human law???

Answer 12

So it would appear.

Question 13

Should we excuse, and perhaps even applaud, Ruth’s reference to Antigone because, after all, her PhD was in Romance Languages and Literature??? Even though Romance Languages are based on Latin and Sophocles was Greek???

Answer 13

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 14

Does Ruth promote a THIRD teacher to her Pantheon – Miss Lillie, the drama teacher??? Does Ruth explain that she was actually Mrs. Vernell Lillie who had a family, but it was common in Black culture to call all women “Miss” rather than bother with two syllables???

Answer 14

Yes and Yes.

Question 15

Did Ruth love acting because she could be anything she chose??? And did Miss Lillie recognize Ruth had exceptional talent and constantly mentored her??? Despite Ruth’s scores of successes, did her father never attend a single one???

Answer 15

Yes and Yes and Yes.

Question 16

Did Miss Lillie guide Ruth to Miss Lillie’s own Alma Mater, Dillard University in New Orleans, an HBCU??? At her HS graduation, did Ruth weep uncontrollably because her mother had not lived to see that Ruth had succeeded in every way that her mother could have wished for her???

Answer 16

Yes and Yes.

Question 17

Does Ruth satisfy our (or at least Yours Truly’s) curiosity about “Antigone” in her Chapter 8 title as a reference to Texas colleges/universities (vs. Dillard U in New Orleans) not being ready for a “Black Antigone” or, presumably, a Black female such as Ruth who would think God’s law trumps man’s???

Answer 17

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 18

Does Chapter 9 titled “Community” mention, inter alia, how Ruth’s teachers made sure she had a suitable wardrobe for college?

Answer 18

Yes.

Question 19

Does the Chapter 10 title (Fair Dillard) mean Dillard was impartial and honest, or that its campus was clean, or that it was adequate/average academically, or one of several other definitions???

Answer 19

Please read on.

Question 20

Had Ruth received three scholarships??? Was one even from a foundation established by a White person to help Blacks – of which foundation/benefactor Ruth was oblivious beforehand leading Ruth to believe that her mentor/teachers had applied on her behalf???

Answer 20

Yes and Yes.

Question 21

Is Ruth tiring of her game of keeping us in suspense vis-à-vis her chapter titles??? On the third page of “FAIR Dillard,” does she rhapsodize about her first view of Dillard in daylight starting with an intro sentence – “…..one of the most beautiful campuses I could have imagined” and gushing forth from there??? Following which she admits that the school song begins -

“Fair Dillard, gleaming white and spacious green,
“We love thy every blade and tree…..”

Answer 21

So it would appear and Yes and Yes.

Question 22

Does Ruth admit on p. 160 to theft??? Is she safe from prosecution because, unlike murder for which there is no statute of limitations, all other crimes must be prosecuted expeditiously???

Answer 22

Yes and Yes.

Question 23

Was Ruth still convinced that a stage career was still her future??? However, did she take first semester a course in religion that “challenged [her] Black Baptist beliefs”??? Is this the first time Ruth talks about her religious beliefs??? Does she spend two pages (pp. 164-165) trying to justify her rebellion against Christianity which lasted at least “well into [her] professional career”???

Answer 23

Yes and Yes and Yes and Yes.

Question 24

Did Ruth try to transfer after her freshman year to Sarah Lawrence because she did not enjoy drama at Dillard??? Though accepted, was she thwarted by the lack of scholarships??? So did she stay at Dillard but change her major to literature and language???

Answer 24

Yes and Yes and Yes.

Question 25

Was Ruth surprised to learn that she had been selected by Wellesley College in Massachusetts to be one of 10 students from southern Black colleges to spend their junior years at Wellesley – all expenses paid??? Is/was Wellesley one of the famed “Seven Sisters” women’s colleges although two of them were the de facto coed side of two Ivy League schools (Harvard and Columbia) that took decades to admit they were coed and stop issuing separate diplomas???

Answer 25

Yes and Yes.

Question 26

Does Chapter 11 titled “Worlds Apart” then deal with Ruth’s junior year at Wellesley – preceded by a required summer course in Mexico???

Answer 26

Yes.

Question 27

Despite the “all expenses” promise, was Ruth forced to clean houses to earn enough money to buy clothes suitable for a Massachusetts climate???

Answer 27

Yes.

Question 28

BTW, was one of Ruth’s 1965-6 Wellesley junior-year classmates my ex-wife of 33 years whom most of you are sick of hearing me recount was the co-author of the nation’s best-selling high-school world-history textbook (McGraw-Hill with National Geographic Illustrations) which went through 6 editions during the 33 years – during which my real job (in addition to my day job as an attorney) was to read 12-15 bios & historical tomes EACH YEAR to unearth overlooked nuggets for possible inclusion in next edition??? And since “old dogs do NOT learn new tricks” and retirement since Dec. 2002 affords more time for reading, the number of bios/tomes is now well over 1,500???

Answer 28

Yes and Yes.

Question 29

Did Ruth then win a scholarship to spend the summer after Wellesley in France??? Was this also a transformative experience in many ways???

Answer 29

Yes and What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 30

Returning to Dillard, did Ruth find she had out-grown it in many ways???

Answer 30

Yes.

Question 31

Did she also experience a crisis of confidence with Norbert who later became her husband???

Answer 31

Yes – though she is now still married to Norbert after 57 years!!! Congratulations!!!

Question 32

And does Ruth once more trash her father for the zillionth time – this time for failing to come to her graduation???

Answer 32

Sadly in all respects!!!

Question 33

Did Ruth win a Fulbright scholarship to study in France and a Danforth Fellowship to study anywhere in the U.S.???

Answer 33

Yes.

Question 34

Although she earned her PhD at Harvard, was she rejected by Yale??? Did she ascribe this to prejudice that someone from a Black college could not succeed at Yale??? AND THAT SUCH PREJUDICE BY ELITE COLLEGES TO THE PRESENT DAY IS A ”PERSONAL DISAPPOINTMENT” FOR RUTH???

Answer 34

Yes and Yes and Yes.

Question 35

Before attending Harvard, did Ruth use her Fulbright scholarship to spend a year back in France studying Marcel Proust???

Answer 35

Yes.

Question 36

Is the Epilogue (pp, 201-204) based on a frequent question from students “how I came through the difficult periods of my life without looking back in anger”???

Answer 36

Yes.

Question 37

Since the publication date of “Up Home” is 9/5/2023, just after Ruth’s serving 2017-2023 as President of Prairie View A&M University (a historically-black university which is one of Texas’ only two land-grant universities and Texas’ second-oldest institution of higher learning) – did this frequent question presumably come from Prairie View students???

Answer 37

Presumably Yes.

Question 38

Does/did Ruth answer it with her typical GRACE??? Does “grace” mean UNDESERVED goodwill???

Answer 38

Yes re Ruth’s typical GRACE.


And “grace” here means “undeserved” vis-à-vis those against whom she could have looked back in anger (except, of course, her father for whom she never has a kind word).