Meet Mrs. Margaret Washington. She’s a quintessential supporting character on screen and off. She supported her husband Booker T Washington personally and professionally. She supports the storyline of Madam CJ Walker in the Netflix limited series SELF MADE. She is always of service to the greater good. Mrs Margaret Washington is a yogini through and through.
You won’t learn very many things about Mrs Margaret in the show, it’s not her story. You certainly won’t learn that she practiced yoga. But let me share what I learned from my research. She was Booker Taliaferro Washington’s third wife. (Yep, I learned what the T stands for) As Lady Principal of the Tuskegee Institute, later University, she helped him run the school. They had no children but she helped raise his three from previous marriages and when his work took him away for months at a time she was often the sole parent. She also helped write his speeches. Some could say she was doing what was expected of any wife at the turn of the century. But Margaret Washington was inspired beyond her family, she was passionate about lifting up the whole race. She formed and was elected president of the National Federation of Afro-American Women which would later become the National Association of Colored Women. Hers was a life of service . Whether or not she practiced the physical aspect of yoga, she absolutely practiced the philosophy.
The first Yama of the first yoga Sutra is Ahimsa; ‘to do no harm’. Margaret Murray Washington literally begins her famous speech of 1898 ” I do not come before you to criticize or find fault”*. She is a striver. Seeking to inspire her NACW sisters, she continues “you know that a great deal of harm has been done us as a race by those who have told us of our strong points, of our wonderful advancement, and have neglected to tell us at the same time of our weak points, of our lack of taking hold of the opportunities about us. Praise a child always and he soon gets to the point where he thinks it impossible for him to make mistakes. If we wish to help each other let us not only praise ourselves, but also criticize. Plain talk will not hurt us.”* The title of the speech is We Must Have a Cleaner Social Morality. In it she embraces the majority of the the yogic practices for living (Yamas and Niyamas). They include abstinence (Brahmacharya), non-stealing (Asteya), non-possessiveness (Aparigraha), cleanliness (Shaucha), self-discipline (Tapas), spiritual study and surrender to God (Svadyaya and Ishvara). She repeats these themes in other speeches I found. These are principles she held at her core.
There may be no evidence she tried a sun salutation but it’s not impossible. Swami Vivekananda brought yoga to the United States in 1893 so the math does work. But being a yogi isn’t just about the acrobatic or calisthenic, it’s a whole way of being. It’s being in service to a greater good. It’s being a good supporting character. It’s being of service to the whole story. It was a thrill to channel my inner yogini in service to Mrs Margaret Washington. She’s not the star but she was a stellar being.
*BlackPast,B. (2007, January 29) (1898) Margaret Murray Washington, “We Must Have a Cleaner Social Morality,” Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1898-margaret-murray-washington-we-must-have-cleaner-social-morality/
0 Comments