Emancipation Oak - Do It Anyway
The large sprawling Live Oak tree is 98 ft. in diameter, with branches which extend upward as well as laterally, as if offering refuge. In 1861, Mrs. Mary Smith Peake, used the shade of this tree to teach the children of former slaves. In 1863, the Virginia Peninsula's black community gathered under this Live Oak to hear the first Southern reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
The Emancipation Oak is designated as one of the 10 Great Trees of the World by the National Geographic Society and is part of the National Historic Landmark district of Hampton University.
Included in this photograph is the Mother Teresa poem, "Do It Anyway" which reads as follows:
"People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build it anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway."