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LCCC students hold annual hunger banquet

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LCCC students hold Be Kind Day

<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">SCRANTON &#8212; She&#8217;s a beautician from Scranton, a mother of seven, a self-described &#8220;Air Force brat&#8221; whose father brought his family back to his Northeastern Pennsylvania hometown when he retired in 1975.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">But something else is part of Sandra Burgette Miller&#8217;s biography.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Researching her family tree has led Burgette Miller, 56, to a great-great-grandfather who escaped from slavery on the Underground Railroad, and connected her to ancestors whose courage inspires her.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">&#8220;When I sleep, I dream,&#8221; she said in a telephone interview. &#8220;It&#8217;s like people are whispering in my ear, &#8216;Tell my story. Tell my story.&#8221;</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Eager to answer that request, Burgette Miller has written a collection of poems titled &#8220;Tell &#8216;em&#8221; and illustrated them with photographs that suggest the devastation of slavery and the urgency of escape from America&#8217;s pre-Civil War South, as well as the rewards of starting a new life.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">&#8220;Here I hide in this tiny space, scared to death they&#8217;ll see my face. Can&#8217;t move, won&#8217;t make a sound. Scared to death I might be found,&#8221; Burgette Miller wrote, pairing poignant words with a photo of her daughter, Georgia Miller, posing as if she were stealthily on her way north to freedom. &#8220;A loaf of bread, that I hold. A blanket keeps me from the cold. As time grows near, so does my fear. Someone&#8217;s supposed to meet me here. &#8216;Til then I&#8217;ll wait in this tiny space. Praying to God to keep me safe.&#8221;</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Another poem depicts the pain of a child who has heard grown-ups talk about how the &#8220;mama I never knowed&#8221; had been sold &#8212; apparently to appease the wrath of &#8220;Mrs. Johnson,&#8221; who was angry that &#8220;Massa&#8221; had impregnated one of the slaves with a baby who was &#8220;born white.&#8221; Burgette Miller&#8217;s daughter Annie posed for the photo that accompanies that poem.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Perhaps the most searing poem and photo depict a mother&#8217;s anguish as her child is taken away and sold. &#8220;I kiss you away, my beautiful child,&#8221; Burgette Miller wrote. &#8220;As they drag you away, my soul starts to die. My pleads and screams go unheard, as I run behind the wagon and fall to the dirt &#8230;&#8221;</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">A poem filled with more hopeful emotions speaks in the voice of Burgette Miller&#8217;s great-grandfather, Benjamin Burgette, who was the son of Thomas Burgette, the ancestor who escaped from slavery.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">&#8220;Tell &#8216;em how I felt. Tell &#8216;em how I hurt,&#8221; the poem begins. &#8220;Tell &#8216;em how I worked everyday except for church. Tell them I was a man who had 12 children and worked hard for his land. &#8230;</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif, 'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">&#8220;Tell them I was a holy man, a loving man, a gentle man, a man who wanted his children to have and do better than I had, as my father wanted for us. That he ran from slavery to be a free man. Tell &#8216;em my name. Tell &#8216;em your name. And how all we did was not in vain.&#8221;</p><p>Burgette Miller said her research took her to the United States Census of 1860, to her family Bible, to information compiled by the Mormon Church and to a historical book called &#8220;This is Waverly,&#8221; which recounts how former slaves settled in that part of Lackawanna County.</p><p>&#8220;As a little girl, I often heard that we came through the Underground Railroad,&#8221; she said, admitting that as a child she pictured a train chugging through a subterranean tunnel rather than a complex system of traveling &#8212; perhaps on foot, or in a wagon or boat, but always secretly &#8212; from one safe place to another.</p><p>Historians describe two routes of the Underground Railroad as having stops in Waverly. One led through Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre and Clarks Green and the other led through Philadelphia and Stroudsburg. Some of the escaped slaves continued through Waverly to Canada; others settled in the area and spent the rest of their lives here.</p><p>&#8220;Thomas, the one who ran, we&#8217;ve never found his headstone,&#8221; Burgette Miller said, but several other members of the Burgette family are buried in the Hickory Grove Cemetery, off Carbondale Road. In 2003, the state set up a historical marker at the cemetery to note that more than 70 former slaves had been buried there, and several of Burgette Miller&#8217;s relatives attended the marker&#8217;s unveiling.</p><p>Thinking about the hardships her ancestors endured and the emotions they must have felt touches the author&#8217;s heart and makes her feel close to them.</p><p>&#8220;I get a feeling like I&#8217;m right there,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Oh, my gosh, it&#8217;s overwhelming.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Inspired by the stories of her ancestors, Sandra Burgette Miller has written a collection of compelling poetry. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_sandra.burgette.miller.jpg</photo0><caption0>Inspired by the stories of her ancestors, Sandra Burgette Miller has written a collection of compelling poetry. </caption0><photoCredit0>Images courtesy Sandra Burgette Miller </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_sandra.mama_.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">&#8216;Mama I Never Knowed&#8217; tells a heart-breaking story of a mother sold soon after her child was born. The girl posing in the photo is Sandra Burgette Miller&#8217;s 8-year-old daughter, Annie Miller. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_sandra.mama_.jpg</photo1><caption1>&#8216;Mama I Never Knowed&#8217; tells a heart-breaking story of a mother sold soon after her child was born. The girl posing in the photo is Sandra Burgette Miller&#8217;s 8-year-old daughter, Annie Miller. </caption1><photoCredit1>Images courtesy Sandra Burgette Miller </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_sanddra.hiding.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Burgette Miller&#8217;s daughter, Georgia Miller, posed to create the mood of a young slave desperately trying to escape. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_sanddra.hiding.jpg</photo2><caption2>Burgette Miller&#8217;s daughter, Georgia Miller, posed to create the mood of a young slave desperately trying to escape. </caption2><photoCredit2>Images courtesy Sandra Burgette Miller </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_sandra.tell_.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">&#8216;Tell &#8216;em&#8217; explains how Benjamin Burgette, son of Sandra Burgette Miller&#8217;s great-great-grandfather, Thomas Burgette, worked hard to establish a home and better life for his 12 children. The image is a family photo of Benjamin Burgette. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_sandra.tell_.jpg</photo3><caption3>&#8216;Tell &#8216;em&#8217; explains how Benjamin Burgette, son of Sandra Burgette Miller&#8217;s great-great-grandfather, Thomas Burgette, worked hard to establish a home and better life for his 12 children. The image is a family photo of Benjamin Burgette. </caption3><photoCredit3>Images courtesy Sandra Burgette Miller </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_sandra.slaverychild.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">&#8216;I Kiss You Good Bye&#8217; depicts the agony, in words and illustration, of a mother losing her child as he is sold to another owner. Posing in the photograph are Sandra Burgette Miller&#8217;s niece, Candice Blake, and her sons, Taurion and Kwilee. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_sandra.slaverychild.jpg</photo4><caption4>&#8216;I Kiss You Good Bye&#8217; depicts the agony, in words and illustration, of a mother losing her child as he is sold to another owner. Posing in the photograph are Sandra Burgette Miller&#8217;s niece, Candice Blake, and her sons, Taurion and Kwilee. </caption4><photoCredit4>Images courtesy Sandra Burgette Miller </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Poems tell stories of devastation, courage and hope</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>MORE INFO</strong></p><p>Sandra Burgette Miller&#8217;s book, &#8216;Tell &#8216;em&#8217; is being published by Flyaway Publishing and should be available on amazon.com at the end of April. Her poems are also available at etsy.com/people/jrkpxofk.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Scranton poet channels ancestry, Underground Railroad in poignant work