Black Writers through the Mail

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"I am a black woman/ tall as a cypress/ strong/ beyond all definition still/ defying place/ and time/ and circumstance/ assailed/ impervious/indestructible/ Look/ on me and be/ renewed"

Those lines, penned by African-American poet Mari Evans in the early 1960s, released me from the imprisonment of hot combs, pink cushioned rollers, and Nadinola bleaching cream. I was free to be my black self, to celebrate my culture without anger or apology. Those first steps to self-actualization guided by poets like Ms. Evans later led to full acceptance of my American citizenship and the rights it entails. And though I met her only once during a poetry festival in the early 1970s, sponsored by novelist Margaret Walker Alexander at Jackson State College, the powerful message of Ms. Evans' poetry has remained with me.

Now, thanks to E. Ethelbert Miller, thousands of people will be introduced to Ms. …