MADISON PARK A PLACE OF HOPE ERIC L. MOTLEY 9780310349631_MadisonPark_1p.indd 7 3/29/17 1:30 PM ZONDERVAN Madison Park Copyright © 2017 by Eric L. Motley This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook. This title is also available as a Zondervan audio book. Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data ISBN 978–0–349631 Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.® Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means— electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other— except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Art direction: Name goes here Interior design: Name goes here Printed in the United States of America 17 18 19 20 21 LSC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 9780310349631_MadisonPark_1p.indd 8 3/29/17 1:30 PM I’m tired of sailing my little boat, Far inside of the harbor bar; I want to be out where the big ships float— Out on the deep where the Great Ones are! . And should my frail craft prove too slight For storms that sweep those wide seas o’er, Better go down in the stirring fight Than drowse to death by the sheltered shore! Daisy Rinehart, 1905 9780310349631_MadisonPark_1p.indd 9 3/29/17 1:30 PM CONTENTS Foreword by Walter Isaacson Prologue 1. The Motley Boy 2. Madison Park 3. A Proud Black Community 4. My Motley Heritage 5. Everything Rounded Out 6. Years in Training 7. Not My Only Parents 8. Rabbits v. Turtles 9. The D.U.K. 10. Shave and a Haircut 11. That Old Time Religion 12. The Best ‘Hind- Catcher’ in the Neighborhood 13. The Music That Would Change My Life 14. Three Queens. Rosebud, Mama, and Mayes 15. The Book of Knowledge 16. Blessed Interventions 17. 1,002 Uses for a Pie Pan 18. Keeping It Real for Me 19. Steve Urkel land Boys State 9780310349631_MadisonPark_1p.indd 11 3/29/17 1:30 PM 20. Evolution 21. Beyond Madison Park, But still a Part of It 22. Remember, We’re Still in Alabama 23. There’s a Part for Every One of Us to Play 24. Scotland 25. The Limits of Knowledge, the Unlimited Nature of Friendship 26. ”Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” 27. ”If You’re Not Ready Now” 28. From the White House to Foggy Bottom 29. ”Barbara Ann” 30. Paid in Full 31. Wherever I Go Final Reflections Acknowledgments 9780310349631_MadisonPark_1p.indd 12 3/29/17 1:30 PM PROLOGUE On my grandmother’s dressing table in her farmhouse near Mont- gomery, Alabama, there was a snow globe containing a tiny fairy- like replica of the White House. It was given to her by the daughter of a family whose house she used to clean. As a child, it inspired my wildest imaginings. “One day,” my grandmother would always tell me, “you can be in this snow globe.” That seemed unlikely. I was an African American child born in 1972 to a teenage mom and raised by her adoptive parents— my grand- parents. I called them Mama and Daddy. We lived in Madison Park, a rural, always struggling Southern community founded after the Civil War by freed slaves. A safety net of neighbors, church friends, tradespeople, and most of all, Mama and Daddy, held me up. The whole town had a vested interest in me. They determined to educate me and give me bone- deep confidence in my values, my abilities, and who I was. The first in my family to go to college, I went on to receive a Ph.D. After graduation I moved to Washington, D.C. A favorite college professor warned me, “D.C. ain’t Alabama! You gotta have thick skin to survive!” A Samford trustee was optimistic. “Boy, 15 9780310349631_MadisonPark_1p.indd 15 3/29/17 1:30 PM Madison Park the world is yours,” he said. “Your name is the best thing you got, so don’t hold back.” I didn’t. I was twenty- seven, and I was inside the globe, working for President George W. Bush in the office of presidential personnel. My first day of work, I set my alarm for 6:00 a.m. The phone rang at five. It was Mama. “Bugs, I didn’t want you to oversleep, so I’m giving you a wake- up call.” “Thank you, Mama.” “I heard the locust sing all night long,” she said. “It’s a clue.” “A clue to what, Mama?” “I don’t know, but everything means something. One day you’ll be able to piece all of these things together.” As I walked through the front gates of the White House later that morning, the snow globe crossed my mind. This was one of the few times when childhood fantasy was meeting adult reality. Perseverance, hard work, and good luck had brought me here. But I knew Madison Park was the thread that stitched my life together. 16 9780310349631_MadisonPark_1p.indd 16 3/29/17 1:30 PM CHAPTER 1 THE MOTLEY BOY Amos and Bernice Perry lived with their fourteen children in Madison Park, a close- knit cocoon of about a hundred self- reliant descendants of former slaves, on the outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama. Short on money and long on faith, the Perrys went to church and aspired to little more than survival and a lightened burden. Six Perry children lived on their own or were parceled out with relatives, while eight still lived at home. Amos, a slender man with a dark complexion, was a warehouse laborer who farmed his own land. Bernice, a bright- eyed and fair- skinned beautiful woman, was a round- the- clock homemaker and had to put aside her soft- spoken ways to command her boisterous brood. She occasionally had to take on housekeeping jobs for white families in Montgomery to help make ends meet. Amos and Bernice’s best neighbor- friends were George Washing- ton Motley and Mamie Ruth “Mossy” Motley, a childless couple in their forties. For more than twenty years the Perrys and the Motleys had swapped stories and apple pies, wandered unannounced in and out of the other’s home, and cried and laughed together. Each family was in the other’s innermost circle. In the spring of 1964, Bernice received devastating news. She had 17 9780310349631_MadisonPark_1p.indd 17 3/29/17 1:30 PM Madison Park terminal cancer. As she lay dying, she asked George and Mossy for an almost unimaginable favor: to adopt her fourth youngest child, Barbara Ann, age ten, and bring her up as their own. I’ve often wondered why Barbara Ann was chosen to go live with George and Mossy. Did Bernice fear that Bar- bara Ann was the most vulnerable? Did Bernice hope that George and Mossy, George Motley and Amos Perry relatively better off and with more time to put into a child, might be able to nurture her in a way Amos couldn’t? Or was Bernice offering them the opportunity to become parents? George and Mossy likely never told Bernice and Amos about their failed attempts to have children. But Bernice had to have picked up on Mossy’s disappointment over the years. Whatever lay behind it, Bernice’s request came as a surprise to the Motleys. Most people would want to fulfill the dying wishes of a cherished friend. But adopting a child was a major decision. Taking in a youngster was a financial liability and needed to be considered carefully. For the Motleys it wasn’t a difficult calculation. They made a lifetime promise without considering how disruptive a child would be to their marriage. Invariably the will of God mysteriously unfolds just as it should. As Bernice lay stretched out in an ambulance for her final ride, with Mrs. Reeves holding her hand, she asked about the adoption proceed- ings. Mrs. Reeves, a white woman for whom Bernice cleaned house, had paid for Bernice’s cancer treatments and arranged for Barbara Ann’s 18 9780310349631_MadisonPark_1p.indd 18 3/29/17 1:30 PM The Motley Boy adoption. Mrs. Reeves reminded her that the papers had been signed two days earlier. “The Motleys are officially Barbara Ann’s parents.” “I know. I just needed to hear it one more time.” She passed away forty- eight hours later. Barbara Ann lost her mother and went from being one of fourteen to an only child in just a few days. A sunny girl, she burst into George and Mossy’s quiet home. The new name, Barbara Ann Motley, brought privileges and opportunities unlike anything she might have imagined. She had spent most of her early life wearing one of three dresses, recycled from older sisters. Now the Motleys fitted her for new dresses and matching ribbons for every day of the week. For the first time in her life she had her own pair of new shoes.