Austin Scott: “what a sad occasion. We come to pay a great tribute to a great American. And I want to join with my colleagues who are…”

“what a sad occasion. We come to pay a great tribute to a great American. And I want to join with my colleagues who are all here in recognition of this. Ossie Davis personified all that is good and what is right about America. Coming out of the backwoods of Georgia, Cogell, Georgia, he soon became recognized as a renaissance man, to do so many things so well, actor, playwright, writer, civil rights leader, humanitarian, all of these things. I happened to know and got to know him through his work in the Alliance Theater in Atlanta and on the trips he made down to Florida A&M University. And on so many occasions when he spoke, everybody listened. And one of the things he enjoyed most was a poem that I think best personifies Ossie Davis. And he would use this poem at the end of everything that he would say. He would say, ``Well, son, I'll tell you, you know, life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it and splinters and boards torn up, no carpet on the floor, bare. But all the while I's been aclimbing on and reaching landings and turning corners and sometimes going in the dark where there ain't been no light. So, boy, don't you stop. Don't you sit down on the steps because you find it's kinda hard. Don't you fall now. For I's still climbing. I's still going on, honey. You see, life for me ain't been no crystal stair.'' Life was no crystal stair to Ossie Davis.…”