>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
[ Silence ]
[ Background singing "I'll Fly Away ]
[ Applause ]
>> Dr. Mary-Jane Deeb: That was lovely.
Thank you, thank you so much.
I'm Mary-Jane Deeb, Chief of the -- can you hear me?
Yeah. Okay.
Chief of the American and Middle East Division and I would
like to welcome you all today for a very special program.
We're delighted to have you here and to participate in this program.
The division has been very active in celebrating Black History Month
and we just co-sponsored a program on Black women
for Black History Month in the [inaudible] Room a few days ago
and celebrated two of our own wonderful women leaders here
at the library and tomorrow we're also joining with Congress
with members of the Black Caucus to celebrate Black History month
with a film on Black November on Nigeria and the Niger Delta.
It's produced by and directed by Nigerian directors as well.
So, I would like to invite you all to come if you have the time.
It's at 6:00 tomorrow in the [inaudible] Room
in the Madison Building and there will be a reception.
There will also be actors and actresses who acted in the film
and the director will be there and a number of congressmen.
The project was organized by a Congressman Bob Rush
and today we are absolutely delighted to have this program
on Growing up Gullah with Dorothy Browner-Hubler
and we heard a great deal about you and about the work you are doing
and Marietta said she must come here.
The library needs her.   So I'm delighted that you could come

and to introduce you Marietta Harper will make comments.
Thank you.
>> Marietta Harper: Thank you, Mary-Jane.

Good afternoon and welcome to African
and Middle Eastern Reading Room's Black History Month celebration
on Growing up Gullah.   I have the distinct pleasure

of giving you some background information on our lecturer.
Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler was born and grew
up Gullah in South Carolina.
She received her BA degree from Morgan State University
and earned an advanced certificate of study from the University
of Paris Sorbonne in France.
She received an MA degree from Johns Hopkins University
in the educational administration and supervision Magna Cum Laude
and a master's of education degree in the educational psychology
and counseling Magna Cum Laude also from Johns Hopkins University.
She also studied at the University of Rome in Florence, Italy,
on Italian Renaissance Art and Literature and the University
of Hamburg Germany for the 18th Century Art.
Ms. Browner-Hubler taught Latin, French, Spanish and English
in the Baltimore County Secondary Schools and was the head
of the foreign language department languages
at Towson State University.   She was founder and CEO

of the National International Cultural Exchanges Incorporated.
Nice. She was founder and CEO
of the National International Culture Affairs
for Franctaphone Embassies, the World Bank Staff
and for American Diplomats in Washington,
D.C. She was a project manager for the Department of Agriculture,
Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Social Service Administration
for Baltimore City and five surrounding counties.
She has organized multiple cultural, educational
and scientific events nationally.
In her retirement, Ms. Browner-Hubler continues to serve
as a consultant in cultural diversity and education
and as a career counselor to young people.
She received an award for her volunteer services
for the Covenant House in Anacostia Washington, D.C. In 2010-11,
she elected on the Gullah culture at the Smithsonian Museum
in Washington, D.C. She prepared and participated in the documentary,
"Growing Up in Gullah", produced by the Smithsonian Institution
and was featured in the documentary on the Gullah culture produced
by the Voices of America that was distributed worldwide.
In July, she delivered invited lectures
at Ege University in Ismir Turkey.
Ms. Browner-Hubler has traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, Asia,
South America, Australia, Mexico and the Caribbean and has traveled
in 47 states of the United States.
She is fluent in French, Spanish and English.
I have the distinct pleasure of bringing you Dorothy Browner-Hubler.
[ Applause ]
>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: Good afternoon.
I am so humbled that I was invited to come here.
I have been waiting for all of you and I want to share my culture
with you the way that I grew up in South Carolina and also in Maryland.
I must say it wasn't all beautiful, but I didn't know, I was a child
and to me life was everything and family
and just the pure enjoyment of nature.
I would like to start out with a song, again, just the beginning
of that song because what I have to say I'm hoping that you will take it
in and understand part of the culture
that is embodied in our spirituality.
[ Music and singing/clapping "I'll Fly Away"]
I grew up learning all kinds of beautiful, spiritual songs.
Reason. It was because in my culture the people here three things
that are very important that is the spirit world and our spirituality,

our bodies and also an encompassing those three things
of course we have our minds and we connect with the world,
the natural world, and we feel and sense the spirits of our people
in Africa and in America.
As a child, I will like to start at 8 months old.

My mother was one of the elders and she would every Tuesday
or Wednesday night have what you call a prayer singing.
It's called the praise house and what you saw
and what you heard were just some of the songs
that they would start singing as they started the evening
that might last an hour or two hours or three hours or even eight hours.
Singing and praying, solving problems, helping people
of all kinds of say problems and marriage problems, your children,
your health, they would pray and they would hum.
These were the elders and you respected them.
[Inaudible] I was just a baby I was 8 months old and I don't
like standing here like that, I like to move around,
and what happened was the [inaudible] was going on,
the singing and the shouting, and I'm only 8 months old.
Even at 8 months I was just, the young man that was doing that dance
on You Tube from Beyonce, I don't know how many
of you saw that, I loved it.   Let me tell you what happened.

I had never, never [inaudible].
I heard the music and I was a little child and I jumped up and I fell
down and the ladies were continuing to shout and to sing and moving
and twisting their hips and just praying and even talking in tongues.
I kept jumping and I fell down.
They were all into this [inaudible] and I jumped and I fell, I jumped
and I fell and the next thing I know as my elders told me
that they were startled because they knew I had not crawled yet
and I started jumping and I shouted and I shouted
and I walked, I never crawled.
We have something that we call the mute.
An elder speaks [inaudible] listen and one of the elders
of the group pointed her finger at [inaudible]
and she's saying this child is special.

She is walking and she 's shouting,
but before she leaves this world she is going to crawl I promise you.
I never crawled until in 1980 I was injured while teaching.
I was [inaudible] and beaten in my head.
My pulse stopped 39 seconds,
the paramedics were [inaudible] thank God for that.
I had an out of life experience
and they told me I said please bring my head back, I need my head.
I don't remember any of this because I was in a coma for some time.
They gave me my last rites three times
because they knew I was going to die.
What happened was when I came to, which is about two
and a half months later I did not know
who I was, I [inaudible] amnesia.   I was paralyzed on the left side.

I could not move a finger or lift a leg.
I lost hearing in my left ear and sight in my left eye

and believe me I didn't even know anything, but through therapy
and prayer and working with all kinds of specialists and started
to come back and what happened I was finally taken home
after almost a year and things came to me
and as I got stronger I was still very weak and I wanted to,
my baby was only three and a half weeks old.
I wanted to go down stairs and they called special people, the nurses,
physical therapists, had not arrived.
I crawled and slipped out of bed and scooted like a child.
>> [inaudible].
>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: What happened was I finally scooted
down the steps with the right arm and when I got
down took me some time I dropped
and [inaudible] I crawled along the floor.
I remember my mother said,
one of the elders said you would crawl again; for the first time
in my life I crawled for months.
So when an elder says and point that finger, beware my friends,
because in time it will come true.
So this praise house was the most important thing
in receiving the beginning of the Gullah culture.
In every family, there was a praise house somewhere in the community.
In my home, was the praise house and my mother was the elder
and she took care of these kinds of things
because there's a direct relationship with the colored people
and spirituality and not only that but because the music
and the dance there's a natural sway of the body
and this is known as the shout [phonetic].
This past summer in 2011 the Smithsonian Museum had the largest
shout line in the world.   It was videotaped by them and it was

on what do you call the Guinness World Book
of Records the first time.
They had over 1,200 people in line doing the shout.
It was amazing.
The twisting of the body was always accepted
by even the educated Blacks, but not among whites
because they didn't understand how we connect with the spirit world,
our physical bodies and our soul, the heart, the mind, of course,
we know [inaudible] where there's a direct correlation
with the Gullah people and the spirit world
and the soul and also with nature.
Their exists to us a symbiotic [phonetic] relationship
where we all connected and we live in harmony in peace with earth
and all the animals, all the plants and all the flowers and trees
and we live on the nurturing of earth
for our existence along with our spirituality.
That is the praise house.
You would find that the genesis of shouting spreads through the south
like the catwalk which is a kind of dance
that even the Seminole Indians did.
Now I'm going to go and let you know just a little bit about Gullah,
we don't have too much time here, but you can see on the screen
that the heart of Gullah line is in South Carolina
and what you call the Sea Islands, the Gullah Geechee Corridor.
One of the main places of these islands, there's about 27 of them,
is the Island of St. Helena.
There's so many things that happened first there,
but let me get back to my meeting of Gullah.
Gullah derived from Gullah, an ethic group living
between Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Some people think they started in Georgia
because there's a region there, a river, that they call the,
it's not Geechee River, but it sounds like Geechee and so,
therefore, many associate the name Geechee with Georgia,
and it refers to the indigenous people from Sierra Leone mainly
from a place called Bunce Island and from Sidney Sambia, Liberia, Ghana,

Nigeria and also the [inaudible] Banene [phonetic],
many of the western countries on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

Why the Gullah people?
The Gullah is synonymous with Geechee.
Some people say why do you call yourself a Geechee girl?
Why do you call yourself a Gullah girl?
It's the same thing because it represents a culture that had been
in existence for thousands of years even before the birth of Christ.

The European slave trade they broke over 645,000 Africans
from the West Coast of Africa in the 1700
and 1800s even though they started bringing Africans
over in the 16th Century, but you have to remember
that the first colonists or the first pilgrims did not survive
because they didn't know how to.   It was the ship captains

who had observed these people that were different.
They were educated, they were skilled in all kinds of trades,
they were experts in the cultivation of rice, they were experts
in what do you call ship building, making baskets, all kinds of things
and carving, dyeing fabric, cultivation of cotton
and the dyeing of fabrics.
So, the ship captain decided we need these people
and they also had a high resistance to malaria.
So what happened they brought with them so many different kinds
of skills and you will see here the rice coasts.
They were from the rice coasts in Africa and South Carolina they came
to rice coasts of the New World
because that was the salvation of the colonists.
They did not know how to survive and the Gullah people taught them.
Not only in the cultivation of rice but in all kinds of skills
that they brought with them.   They were experts in agriculture.

The Africans had a natural immunity to many diseases that the Caucasian
or the Europeans did not.
So many of them left the islands and had overseers
and the people were left to themselves.
That is the reason that the Gullah people were able
to preserve their culture because they were isolated
on these islands even though they were brought in through Charleston,
South Carolina, and what happened was they didn't have anyone
to change their ways, their morays, their dance and the way they ate
and also their tribal traditions.
There was no one there to change them and fortunately they were able
to maintain their African culture and morays and songs and dance
and also their family traditions even though many
of them had been separated and taken away and shipped further
up the Atlantic Ocean up what do you call the Potomac River,
up the Hudson River, and even into Canada they broke up the family
of the Gullah, but they still survived in South Carolina
because there was no one coming there on those islands;
just an overseer every now and then.
What happened later on you find that because of that
and all the different tribes that came into this area
from Africa the Mendee [phonetic], many different parts
of the whole West African Coast.
They blended together, they tried to associate language,
they learned each other's language
and they created a language known as the Gullah language.
In 1997, the United Nation voted to accept the language
as an official language of the Gullah/Geechee people.
Gullah people speak English with a distinctive accent.
I have been living in Maryland now for 45 years
so my accent has changed slightly.   When I first came to Maryland,

I didn't understand a word the people were saying

and they did not understand anything that I was saying.
I was called primitive and a lot of other names that I didn't understand
and I would ask my mother.
I don't say the "N" word but anyway my first experience
in the Maryland School System
in Baltimore City was a very bad one for me.
[Inaudible] African American mid 1956 or 7
and they put me back a grade because I'm primitive and I'm dumb
and I'm stupid and I am from South Carolina and I talk funny.
I said nothing in the classroom because I was angry.

The teacher had me to stand up in the middle of the room
and there were two doors, you know, and I stood up
and there were teachers here outside of the door, teachers here


I stood up and I started to read
and there were certain things I could not pronounce
like the word F-I-R-E.   I say fire.

I could not pronounce the word very plainly for M-A-N.
I would say man.
I could not pronounce the word C-A-R because I would say car.
The teachers laughed and my teacher said I don't know why these Black
"N" want to come to Maryland.
They should have stayed in South Carolina.

I didn't understand so when I went home I told my mom and she said, oh,
I don't worry about that.
They don't know who they are and she will not know where she's going
and what happened was the next morning I came to school I was
in the classroom sitting on time as usual and there walks my mother in.
She says I am the mother of the Black "N" girl and I will
like for you to meet and behind my mother was the governor
of Maryland Governor McKeldin.   I will never forget it.

Behind him was the mayor of Baltimore City, [inaudible]
and also an admiral from the Naval Academy and the principal
of the school along with his superintendent
of Baltimore City Schools.   That's the Gullah mother for you.

You don't mess with her children.
[laughter] We remained cool and calm while we take care of you.
My mother let her know that this will never happen again
to any child regardless of where that child is within this country.
So, I'm told she ended her teaching career
in the United States of America.
That's my mother and I am the spirit Arsena Elizabeth Rucker Browner,
a Gullah-Geechee woman.   [Applause]

We have no fear of man.   We only fear our own Gods.

Now, I want to give credit to Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner
who proved the existence of the motherland
of the Gullah-Geechee people.
He was an anthropologist and for many years he went all
over the United States, South America, the Caribbean
and Africa trying to find the roots of his family and he did,
but unfortunately, he died before he was able to prove
and to know it within his own mind.
It was his mother, it was his what do you call his sister
and also his child that continued his studies in research
and in 1957 they made the connection to Sierra Leone the customs there,
the language, all the kinds of things we did were traced back
to the Gullah people in Sierra Leone and also many of the islands
and other western countries they all had the same similar kind
of traditions within the culture and blended many languages,
travel languages, to come up with the Gullah language and some
of it was English that the overseers spoke.
They created this language out of what do you call suffering, pain,
the most horrible crime that ever happened
in the United States was not the bombing
of Pearl Harbor it was being a slave in this country.
The Gullah culture is unique in the sense that the Bahia culture
in Costa Brazil also has the African roots
and Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner connected that also.
I was in the Bahia country in South America in Brazil.
I was in the area called Bahia and the music, the dance,
the way the people eat and the wording you can see connected.
For example, just to give you one example I love the Gullah word
for drum is goma and in the Congo and Angola a lot of the people came
from Angola also who were Gullah.
My father's people were from Angola, the Maroons [phonetic]
and they really had headquarters in Jamaica or in Kingston
up on the mountain top and they called the area Elizabethtown
and the Gullah women are strong and they're leaders
and in the Elizabethtown the woman was nana and she was born in Angola.
She was the most fierce warrior of the Gullah people at that time.
I was going to show you the video but I can't do
that because they don't have a video connection that was done
by the Voice of America that went worldwide, but I'm going to talk
about now the people, the [inaudible] and the lifestyle.
These things directly came from Africa, Gullah rice dishes
and red rice and okra and gumbo.
I have here, and I'll give everybody I hope a gift
from the Gullah culture.   We eat a lot of rice.

Rice is what we call the salvation of our people
and we fed all the colonists and we know how to cook rice
and we know what to do with rice and not only
that we also eat grits also.
We have a fabulous dish that is worldwide now.
It's probably in every five-star restaurant in New York
and California, Georgia, South Carolina, all over the country,
even Kansas City, Kansas, in Chicago, in Boston,
there's so many restaurants now
that are serving shrimp and gravy over grits.
Well, you haven't lived until you've [inaudible].
[laughter] You have my sympathy because once you eat some shrimp
and grits over gravy [inaudible] you will think [inaudible],
the food is so good.
Our food is very different from the colonists and the British.
Our food is tasty and spicy and you can taste everything
and you smell it and those smells you'd be racing to the kitchen.
That is what you call the [inaudible] kitchen.
That was the family room the kitchen and in the kitchen you went there
to do one thing; to eat and there was always plenty of food.
Now, one of the things that I'm going to do is
that I can't throw the rice, usually I throw the rice.
[laughter] But I'm not going to throw it because we're
in the Library of Congress and I am so honored to be here [inaudible].
This is, we can make at least 200 dishes out of rice.
We never eat the same kinds.   Our rice is so good and not only

that we don't have a very high diabetes rate in Gullah people
because we know how to eat.   They know what to do with the rice.

We are the experts in the cultivation of rice
and that rice was the salvation of all the [inaudible]
and make them rich because we know what to do with the rice.
Don't even bother thinking about that movie the [inaudible].
Very clean with our cooking and our bodies,
but don't make us [inaudible].   We know what to do and [inaudible].

So, I want you if you haven't tried it this is Rice-A-Roni
and it's fried rice.   We would put all kinds of things in.

We even put [inaudible] this company came out with Rice-A-Roni
with our menu, our cooking.
This is [inaudible] lot of things that we [inaudible].
So I'm going to give this to [inaudible].
[ Speaker has stepped away from mic ]
A little bit of red pepper and hot pepper,
a little bit of rosemary also because all these things I'll talk
about later in terms of your health because we have a tea
and we have food that will cure and help every disease known to man.
If we can't do that, we will go to the elder [inaudible]
and they will [inaudible] and pray need connect with the spirit world
and they will tell you exactly what to do to help your body just
like I did when I was paralyzed.   I went home to my people.

They prayed, they chanted, they gave me all kinds of [inaudible] to eat
and to drink never leaving my side, humming all night long a team
of women, elders, in shifts and I was awakened by the chants,
I went to sleep with the chants, I ate with the chants and they talked
and they prayed and I was told when you leave here you will be
with a walk and by the way what do you think I've been doing?
I've been walking.   You have to believe in the people.

>> Look at the picture.
>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: Yes, another thing we do is [inaudible]
that is really interesting.
Sweet potatoes are very good for you and they're also one
of the antibiotics that is used to cure colon cancer.
Every food we eat has a reason.
The yams, one yam every other day will help prevent colon cancer
[inaudible] friends.
Yes, due to the fiber and the beta carotene.
Also you will find that we make our sweet potato pies
that people die for.   Isn't that right, Marika?

[laughter] Yes.
They are not like [inaudible] pies or whoever they are.
When you eat a sweet potato pie, you feel so good because we put a lot
of nice things in it and also the nuts, you know, all kinds of nuts.
My favorite is the pecan pie because that was my mother's favorite pie
and she would glaze her pie and burn the sauce before she put it
on adding a little bit of Jack Daniels to it.
[laughter] Also all kinds of flavors and lemon and other kinds of spices,
a little bit of cinnamon and also cinnamon is very healthy for you.
It'll help you get rid of a lot of things I'll go into that later,
but everything we ate had medicine and purposes even
with the vegetables and also the seafood.
Next slide.
So when you come to my house, oh, my goodness,
I wish I could just leave you right there because I don't know
if you see this but these are what you call candied yams,
sweet potatoes.   You notice this dish is empty.

Yes. [laughter] That was [inaudible] fish and then on top
of that the other one was two big bowls
of shrimp and gravy over grits.
Let me tell you we eat it three times a day and in
between for snacks because it's so good
and so healthy and it smells so good.
I wanted to but I couldn't, you know, you can't bring the food
in here, but I wish I could have my husband who is a nuclear physicist
to design some kind of system where you can pump the smells of the food
into the room and everybody be jumping around and saying
where do you live, where do you live because I tell you everywhere I go
where I'm cooking outside [inaudible] what do you call
when the young man was here from England, Prince Charles?

We were in Potomac at the Ambassador's Cup, polo,
and I am grilling my food and he's getting ready to go out
and there's what do you call interesting family from Connecticut

and I was parked here, you know, tailgating and she was here
and she went and I said to myself that will only last
for the next five minutes.
[laughter] Because I'm going to light my grill.
I had been marinating my food for three days and my salmon was ready.
We eat a lot of fish you know and I had a brisket that had marinated
for three days and it was on the grill and I opened up the top
and then I had another grill and the salmon was being smoked, you know,
it was really like a smoked salmon it marinated with all the lemons
and all the spices on it for three days it was ready
to eat just like it is.
She smelled that, oh, hello, how are you?
I'm hungry.
We're going to be having dinner soon.
Oh, that smells so good.   I said, yes, it does doesn't it?

And she's looking, she's looking
and the next thing I know her whole family had gathered
around my tailgating party.
I got everything and you know what happened?
I gave [inaudible].
She was the nicest lady from Connecticut.

[laughter] The nicest lady.
Her husband was so happy that he even brought out
and gave [inaudible] because he was so, he's never eaten food like that
and we did not, and I don't drink so I passed it out to everybody else.
In every Gullah home, you find a piano and fruit
and vegetables all kinds of nuts and berries,
Africa art to reflect back to your home.
>> You've got 10 minutes to talk about teas.
>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: I have ten minutes.
My husband says I should go right to the teas.
>> Right. You haven't covered [inaudible].
>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: And he's not Gullah.
That's why he's rushing me.
[laughter] And only because I consider you company
in the great room, which is the kitchen,
I'm not going to tell him what I think.
[laughter] Because we do not hold back the tongue.
We speak our minds and the Gullah culture is a matriarchal society
because we are the leaders.
That's the reason that we have existed and maintain our culture
for over 400 years in this country and you know that's very difficult
to do especially when your Black is beautiful like me.
[ Applause ]
So anyway Gullah medicine burn treatment I was burned,
I was always the kind of child who did not talk too much.
Believe it or not I was very quiet growing up.
I just followed my father around and my mother and there was cord,
I always trip over cords, and they were having breakfast.
Breakfast on Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings were very important
and you know what happened?
I dropped my fork and I leaned down to pick it up
and there was the electric coffee pot all down my face.
I screamed.   First degree, second degree burns.

My skin rolled off.
My father was so, I was a daddy's girl so I understand,
he just lost his [inaudible] he grabbed me and he put me
in the car and you know --   >> [inaudible].

>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: Okay, and he took me to the hospital
and my mother said please don't take her there,
don't take her there and he's up and gone.
I come back they wrap up like a mummy.
Not even my eyes were out; everything was closed.
My mother had already called the elders.
When they brought me back, they were all sitting there and they said
to my father you may leave now.   They cut it off.

They had made up a suave and thought was the [inaudible]
and that suave had [inaudible] oil,
tar from the street, you know that black tar?
Yes, they boiled it and they put all kinds of other kinds of oils
and olive oil and glistering oil, all kinds of stuff
and they put it all over my face gently.
It was very greasy and it was black.
Only the whites of my eyes you could see.
I had to be that way for exactly two weeks and that was my mother
and the elders knew that my skin would come back
without being scarred and no burn scars and those severe burns
in my face were gone using the Gullah medicino treatment
with herbs and tar from the street.   High fever, one story quickly.

My daughter was experiencing having the greatest celebration
of her life even though she doesn't know about it
and she was only 4 months old and I was a young mother and the baby,
you know, I would take her everywhere, I was so proud
of this baby, you know, and I would take her everywhere
and she got a fever and it wouldn't stop going up.
So I called my mom and said what should I do?
Her temperature is high.   She said what is it?

I said about 150.
I didn't know how to read a thermometer.

[laughter] It was 105.   That is hysterical.

That is really deadly for a baby,
and I said I called the doctor, he's on his way.
I got rid of all the other doctors
because they didn't make house calls.
I'm used to people coming to the house, you know,
I'm from South Carolina and I'm living
in Howard County, Maryland, in Columbia.
I only interviewed about 105 doctors, 115 of them maybe to see
if they were qualified to be my daughter's pediatrician.
I selected one.
But anyway her fever was high and he comes to the house and he says, oh,
I'm so sorry, this is dangerous, I'm going to have
to take her to the hospital.
I said well I'm going to have to ask my mother
if he can take her to the hospital.   He says I have to do it now.

I said no you can't do it now because my mother might object.
Mother was in South Carolina, right, at the time,
and so I called my mother and told her what was happening
and she said do not let that doctor take that baby out of here.
I will tell you what to do.
Put the doctor on the phone -- he's now deceased -- she said Dr. Blake,
you are not going to take my grandchild any place.
She will die in that hospital;
those people don't know what they're doing .
She says you follow my daughter's instructions as I give them to her.
I want you to go downstairs and I want you to get --

do I have to stay [inaudible]?   I like moving out, you know.

>> They won't see you.
>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: They won't see me?
Okay. Oh, that's too bad.
Anyway my mother says you get out of the refrigerator --
we always keep our things in the refrigerator --
you go downstairs and you get out of the refrigerator some white potatoes
and an onion and some gauze wherever you keep it and you slice it thinly
and you put it exactly where I tell you, you understand that, Dr. Blake?
He says, yes, ma'am.
His eyes were getting big, he's looking at her fever,
he checked the fever again it's almost 106
and this man says I just can't do this, I'm going to have
to get her to the hospital.   My mother says, no, you will not.

You're going to leave my grandchild right where she is
and you are to do as I say.   He helped me quickly.

We sliced the onion, we sliced the potato,
I put a slice of onion here and a potato on top.
Each arm. Around her neck, and of course, we wrapped it in gauze,
and around her neck onion, potato, onion, potato all the way
around her little neck and wrapped it in gauze.
Underneath her armpits wrapped it in gauze and down
from her throat all the way down to her naval and wrapped it in gauze
and had to put a little bit of tape on it and also
down her spine the same thing.
The bend of her knees and underneath of her feet
and we wrapped it in gauze.
My mother said you wait 30 minutes to 45 minutes
and that fever is going to come out [inaudible].
The doctor set there and he's nervous.
He thinks he's going to be sued or something
because this child is going to die right there and, you know,
he knows that he should have sent that baby to the hospital
in his mind not in mine because I knew my mother was always right
and do you know what?
The doctor jumps up he says my God I can't believe this,
the fever has gone down in 40 minutes to 98.7.
He grabbed his head and he's walking around in a circle shocked.
As I took the gauze off that white potato was as black as this.
They drew all of the fever out.   >> You've got two minutes.

>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: Okay.   Now, herbicidal medicine.

Oh, blood pressure, my husband's family Upstate New York, you know,
they eat like the British and they boil potatoes
and they also boil the chicken, they boil all the vegetables
and they use lots of mayonnaise and lots of cold cuts and stuff
and white bread, you know, white bread.
So all of them suffer from heart problems
and clogged arteries and stuff like that.
When we get married, he says I have to go
to the doctor my blood pressure is high.
I said what?
I said you don't have to go to the doctor.
I'll take care of that.   What did I do?

Have you found my garlic, darling?   Did someone take my garlic?

[laughter] I know I had it here.   Look in the other cart.

Look in that cart.
Anyway what happened I got myself a gallon jug, glass, no plastic,
filled it halfway with garlic.
Took me all day to rinse that garlic up
and I poured it to the top of water.
I let it set for a week and I told my husband every morning before you
eat you are to drink a glass of garlic water.
He goes oh my God, I can't do that.
I said you will do that and not only that when you take a drink
of that water you fill it up with another glass and put it back
in the refrigerator and not only that I had him a jar
or at least 8-10 ounces in a jar for him to take to work with him.
You drink it before you eat.
When he got home in the evening, he had another jar,
when he went to bed, he had another jar of garlic water.
You are to do this for two weeks.
He had all kinds of mints and gums, chewing gum, Spearmint,
everything because he smelled like garlic.
It's okay.
And then he went to the doctor and the doctor's appointment, you know,
the doctor says my God that's some great medicine.
He says I gave you what was the name of the pill?
High blood pressure?   >> I don't remember.

>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: All right, Lipitor or something,
I don't know, but anyway no high blood pressure.
My husband says I didn't take the medication.
He says, good, you must be very relaxed.
He says, no, my wife gave me garlic water.
He says garlic water?
Yes. Yes, and his blood pressure was gone.
I still have him drink garlic water because all those drugs that you put
in your body does harm and causes other kinds
of problems many, many times.
Herbicidal medicine or teas that's what I like.
Let's get to that.   There are all kinds of teas.

This is a sassafras tea.
How many have heard of sassafras tea?
Very, very good.
Now that tea is what we call the tea and it does.
You have about three cups of this tea a day.
It helps with kidney problems, acne, emphysema, psoriasis
or breathing conditions, rheumatism, gout, skin disease,
spasm and not only that poison ivy and oak
and bark is the natural [inaudible] if you take the bark, you know,
put it and rub it and you can wash your hands
and it kills all the germs, okay?   Next one, please, the dandelion.

Oh, I love that.   I have that very often.

High in potassium and Vitamin A. It's a great blood purifier,
high blood pressure again, kidney infections, liver disorders,
and also you can use it to help lose weight, ladies.
Okay. Now, the other thing is, oh, this is my favorite, catnip tea.
It's a sedative.
You don't need the, what is that, you don't need all kinds of things.
I'm going to let them smell these.
These are the most medicine of teas I think in the world.
Catnip is one of them.   You can't find it in many places,

but I'm going to tell you where you can get it.
It calms the nerves, you don't need the Valium throw it away.
You don't need Zoloft whatever it is
and all those other things they give people for depression and all
of that or you just become a Gullah woman or Gullah man if you like.
We welcome you.   Gullah people are also blessed.

We don't get depressed.   We know what to do.

We have all kinds of teas that give you any kind of high that you
like and one is catnip tea.   It is so safe.

Every baby born in the Gullah culture
around the world has had catnip tea.   It grows wild; it's calming.

It takes away the stress.
Babies have colic, upset stomach, you give me some catnip tea
and one teaspoon what do you call karo syrup and you put it
in their bottle and let them drink and sip it
for about maybe four ounces.
All the colic, the pain and not only that
but also the what do you call things like you can't sleep at night.
I took my baby to the doctor because she never cried.
I gave her catnip tea every night.
[laughter] She slept through the night.
It's very calming, okay, it's great even for insomnia those of you
who say you can't sleep at night, George,
I want you to get some catnip tea, okay?
Fine. The next one is sarsaparilla.   Oh, I love sarsaparilla.

It's the flavor and the smell is so different.
Blood purifier, again, male and female hormone regulation,
body building, acne, hot flashes, you know, I remember that
and sexual problems, skin eruptions, and the gout.
Get yourself some, was that sarsaparilla?
>> Yeah.   >> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler:

He changed it before I got a chance to look at it.
Next one is, no, no, no.   >> [inaudible].

>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: Chickweed.
It grows in your yard, you know, not if you have chem lawn, it kills it,
but chickweed is natural and it's one
of the wonderful what do you call teas that helps with all kinds
of problems like obesity.   Michele knows about that, Obama.

Cholesterol, bronchial congestion, allergies, it's good also externally
for burns and you have a scalp, you know, or any kind of wound it
on there and it will sooth it and kill the pain.
Good for all kinds of rashes on your face.
Now this is the, what do you call the most blessed tea in the world?
We call it the tea of everlasting life.
It is a gift from God.
It's an antibiotic, it's a blood purifier.
It helps with cold, emphysema, fever, infection,
your immune system is aided with this tea.
Prostate glandular problems, lymph nodes.
A lot of young people and older people suffer from lymphoma, cancer,
this is the tea that will prevent all of those things.
Next one, please.   Peppermint tea.

These teas are as ancient, older than man.
You have your digestive aid, [inaudible] disease, gouts, colds,
bronchitis, nausea and depression.   Peppermint tea is uplifting.

Don't take it at night.   Pardon? Two minutes.

Oh, dear. Please go.   Hurry, hurry, hurry.

Cinnamon. I'll tell you what I'm just going to have
to give you the gifts of the Gullah people and gifts from my mother.
>> That's the last one.
>> Dr. Dorothy Browner-Hubler: Right.
And cinnamon tea I put it in my coffee.
I even put peppermint in my cinnamon coffee.
I put chocolate in my cinnamon peppermint coffee every morning
and also I put almond milk because of the nuts
and what you get from almonds.
I get a high every morning off of my coffee.
It's healthy for you.
It keeps the rate of stress and all kinds of things
and also is an anti-aging process.
I'm not going to tell you how old I am
because I'll tell you just one example I was very ill back
in October and November and December and January and February.
I was in bed practically all weekend.
Very ill. But I'm here today feeling very strong.
I've been drinking my teas.
My friend was very, very ill hospitalized
and Gullah people have a compassionate heart.
I knew I shouldn't have driven and I had not driven in over four months,
but I drove to Washington from Howard County to visit my friend
and I took her teas and she's here today.
Emma, would you please stand?   Yes. Yes.

[ Applause ]
Not only that I took her one of my favorite soups
of strength 14 different kinds of beans and barley, yes, and lintels
and let me tell you they were seasoned like I don't know what.
Now, what I'm going to do is that we have a little time
to do things that I want to do.
I'm giving you a gift and these gifts are from my mother to you
and I want you each to have one.   Let me tell you what's in it.

You will have in here when I went away as a young girl to Europe
to study I was leaving home for the very first time in my life
for such a distance our men did not, a lot of them did
but my family did not, have anyone fighting in the wars.
So I was the first one to go abroad, but I went abroad to study
and travel in Europe and also in Africa
and my mother being a Gullah woman her spirituality strong believers
in God and the universe and also man we do not think
that everyone is evil or everything is good.
We live within the reality between the dichotomy of good and evil.
It is your perception of what you think and what you see
that you will say whether it's good or whether it's evil,
but you have to know in a man's world there's always going to be
that dichotomy that exists also within nature.
So, we have to go forward without fear and you go with faith,
you go with a belief in your God, you know who you are and you know
where you're coming from and you know when to return.
I sent you my angel she said and you will be protected
by the spirit world and by the grace of God.
You're to take this Bible with you at all times.
It was a small Bible; it fit right in my big pocketbook
and do you know, I said, oh, thank you, mom,
and she says I want you to have these prayers.
I said, oh, mother, please.
You are to read them and these prayers are going to take you
through on your faith and on my prayers.
I go lordy, lordy, lordy.
Let me tell you there were trials and tribulations, tears and sweat
and fear for the first time in my life of the kinds
of things I encountered as I traveled all over Western Europe
and into North Africa and the Western Africa all the way
down to East Africa to the [inaudible] and at
that time the capital was called [inaudible].
Now it's [inaudible].
I have never seen such beauty in my life of the people not only
in Europe but also in Africa.
I'm to go to the safaris in Tanzania.
It was like oh, my God, there's a God.
Many things happened that frightened me and my mother said you must read.
Everything that you can imagine is right here.
Every time a problem you have in life .
I want you to have this and then I'm going to have to say goodbye,
but women, Gullah women,
Gullah/Geechee women, they're strong.
We are, we form relationships and believe it
or not it's not overnight.
We observe you, your behavior, we observe your mind
and also your spirituality
and if there's a natural connection we welcome you into our families
as our sisters and as our brothers, but we are the foundation also
for the Gullah culture existence over these years.
We are strong women and we are wise and not only that the first thing
that is important to us is just like Harriett Tubman, a Gullah woman,
who risked her life over a hundred times going to the deep south
from Maryland, deeper south,
and she almost was killed many times, but she was saving what?
A Gullah family; that father, that mother and that child.
Getting them to freedom in the north, but they help.
A people like the Amish and the Quakers they did not believe
in slaving a man but they did feel and think they were superior
to the Black man, but they risked their lives
over 5,000 died helping the Gullah people escape north to Canada
and Upstate New York and places like that.
So, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Mary [inaudible],
Marion Wright Lederman is a Gullah woman.
So, is our First Lady of this country,
Michelle Obama a Gullah woman.
I can name many, many more even Sojourner Truth,
who was the first woman really to speak up for women's rights.

Yes. A slave that was brought in from West Africa.

Our women I salute you not only in art and literature and culture
but in also as nurses and educators and scientists.
This is my plea to you we must continue and it doesn't mean
that we are isolated because we always want relationships
with people who want to move forward.
I thank you for being a wonderful audience.
>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.