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Passage: The circumstances surrounding the birth of a female infant in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on Jan.29, 1954,were not promising present was the usual mix that had so often accumulated into a burden too heavy for a single-parent household like the one Oprah Winfrey grew up in. The state in which she was born had laws in place waiting to characterize her as unwelcome, to bar her participation in otherwise acceptable social activities, to shackle her to the residue of slavery and other injustices of the past. The simple truth is that her grandmother, her great-grandmother and all the great-great-grandmothers before them never experienced one day of life free from the harsh decrees of state-sponsored racial repression. In hindsight, it appears that her birth was an uneventful one. But at age three she was reciting speeches from church pulpits. Upon discovering books, the child delved into the written word, turning out weekly book reports for her father. Even during turbulent times, not a moment was wasted. Seeds were being planted, watered, and nurtured. On April 13, 1964, nearly an adolescent and watching television from the linoleum floor of her mother's walk-up flat in something deep inside of her. She was watching the live broadcast of the Academy Awards ceremony and saw a young African-American actor receiving the film industry's highest honor. Sharing in that moment and all it implied she later told me, caused her to say softly to herself, If he can do that, I wonder what I could do? | 
