She reads the poems of her students, inmates at Stateville and Joliet Correctional Centers. In a clear voice, she pounds out, sings and sometimes whispers the words. Her lips move deliberately, savoring each syllable. Her fingers flip through the pages of their book, “Black Men Speak, From Behind the Walls.”
“You’ve got to listen to this one,” she says.
A teacher down to the bone, Margaret Burroughs has spent most of her 80 years instructing and inspiring others in the classroom and the community. In Chicago, she is known as teacher, artist, writer, park district commissioner, community leader, social activist and co-founder of the DuSable Museum of African-American History.
But in the past 12 years, Burroughs’ name and face have become familiar to a small population of inmates at the two Illinois Department of Corrections maximum-security centers located in and near Joliet. It is there that she is known as “mom,” art and writing teacher, mentor, friend and a bright spot in an endless stretch of time. She recently received a Special Recognition Award for Arts and Culture at the 1998 Volunteer Recognition and Award Ceremony, which was sponsored by the Volunteer Referral Service of United Way of Will County. She was nominated for the award by the Joliet Correctional Center, whose warden, Lamark Carter, says, “There’s a special place in my heart for volunteers. Dr. Burroughs’ enthusiasm and energy and her caring ability has made a big difference. She has had a tremendous impact on the men in her classes.”
While retirement and the easy chair can look mighty sweet after a busy career, Burroughs believes that she keeps going by sharing herself with other people.
“You have to have something to offer until the day you die. I’m glad to be here,” she said. “I don’t think 80. I think 39.”
Burroughs taught in the classroom for 37 years: 27 at DuSable High School and 10 at Kennedy-King College, both in Chicago. She earned an elementary school teaching certificate from Chicago Normal College (now Chicago State University) and went on to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in art education. She has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees from Lewis University in Romeoville, Spelman College in Atlanta and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Widowed in 1994, she is the mother of two and grandmother of six.
“When people think they’re old, they start to shuffle. I just straighten up and I walk tall and big,” she says, adjusting her gold lame cap and walking around the boardroom of the DuSable Museum, where she serves as director emeritus. She points out the portraits of board members that line the walls of the room, the work of her students at the correctional facilities.
“It gives the men a sense of self-esteem to create something that they will enjoy looking at or listening to,” Burroughs says.
She takes it a step further, providing opportunities for their work to reach a larger audience, through donations and sales of their art and the publication and distribution of their poetry. Burroughs worked a booth featuring the inmates’ art at the DuSable Museum’s annual art fair on July 11 and 12.
Every Tuesday, Burroughs leaves her Chicago home early with Rev. Helen Sinclair, a chaplain based at Joliet Correctional Center. Sinclair at the wheel, they head for Joliet, where they divide the day between the two facilities. Sinclair is a friend, an artist and writer too, who was instrumental in getting Burroughs involved in prison work, beginning with a similar program in 1985 at the Women’s Division of Cook County Department of Corrections. She assists Burroughs in the classroom.
“Margaret is the art teacher,” Sinclair says, “but I pitch in and take over when she can’t be there. The men would just be too disappointed. When they find out what they can do, they really start to feel good about themselves.”
According to Jerry Springborn, assistant warden of programming at Stateville, the classes are well received by the inmates, as is evident from the notes they have written about Burroughs and her work.
“I know that Dr. Burroughs will be there in any weather with a warm smile and art supplies,” wrote Mitchell, an inmate of Stateville.
Classes, limited to 25 at each center, meet for 2 1/2 hours. There are no entrance requirements, and once the men get involved in the class, they usually stay until they are released or transferred to another facility, Burroughs says.
The curriculum is open and flexible. One week, they might work on a collage together or discuss types of poetry. Another week, the men might work in different mediums. Conversation flows freely on any number of topics.
“I enjoy the opportunity to get together and have serious conversation,” wrote Walter, who is at Stateville. “It gives me a personal desire to be responsible in this not-so-positive place.”
The men are free to work in their cells throughout the week, polishing up a poem or finishing a sketch. Tuesday is the time to learn new techniques, seek advice and soak up some encouragement.
“Dr. Burroughs brings out the best in me and in the others,” wrote Paul at Stateville. “We are like a family. She is such a beautiful person that you will have to be just as she is. She is my best friend and only friend. I love her like a mother. We learn all kinds of artwork like water colors, ink and marker drawings. And most important, we learn to work together.”
According to Stateville resident Mumir, “The creative writing classes help develop the mind and rational thinking rather than negative thinking which causes one to end up here.”
And from Joliet Correctional Center, John wrote: “If I can show someone else when I teach art or music here, I can help them make something out of their lives.”
Burroughs recalls one young man who came out of curiosity, announcing that he didn’t know if he had any talent. She handed him some supplies and said, “Make a picture, young man.” Both frightened and inspired by her confidence, he began, and now, she says, he can’t stop working on his art. Transferred to another prison to serve out the remainder of his life sentence, he’s teaching art to other inmates.
“Now he has art for excitement,” Burroughs says. “Before art classes, he would raise some hell for excitement and end up in solitary confinement.”
The classes are open to inmates of all races. “I work better with a rainbow spectrum,” Burroughs says. She recalls working on “Black Men Speak, From Behind the Walls,” which she self-published, and the concern of one contributor, a white man of Irish descent, about the title.
“I said, `John, now you’re an honorary black,’ ” she said.
Both correctional centers provide some art supplies, and what they don’t provide Burroughs purchases with money she earns from speaking engagements. The author of several children’s books, Burroughs has turned to self-publishing for her own poetry in recent years.
“I can’t wait for someone from New York,” she says.
Giving fair warning to the inmates that poetry isn’t going to make them rich, she steams ahead with her own plans to make a second book happen.
“I’ve learned in my life that if you don’t ask, you don’t get,” she says, noting that she looks for grants, shops for a printer, finds sponsors, edits the volume, and for typing relies on her sister, Marion Hummons, a staff secretary at the museum. She is planning another volume, noting that there are several inmates who have enough work to fill a book.
Other plans include bringing her classes to other correctional centers.
“I’ll do this until the day I die. If I’m crippled, well, I’ll come on crutches,” she says. “If I end up on my back, they can bring me on a stretcher. To be honest, I get a lot out of helping others. The purpose of life is to share and to help.”
Appreciation for her efforts comes back in verse from Brother Jamal at Stateville:
“She taught us how to paint and speak, And to express our inner self
Because of your Motherly Affections
We are increasin’ each day in wealth. . . . Thank You Momma!”
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For a copy of “Black Men Speak, From Behind the Walls,” call Burroughs’ Chicago Park District office at 312-747-2664. The price is $10.
