Mark Anthony Hines

"I'm Keeping my Kid!!!"


Introduction


I'M KEEPING MY KIDS!!! The Murray Hines Story: Portrait of an African American Father, is based upon interviews with my father, stepmother, brothers and sisters, and aunts and uncles on both sides of my family. It includes photographs of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from the 1930's to the 1970's, in addition to photographs of the Tidewater, Virginia, area from the 1950's through the late 1990's. In interviewing my father, I did not get the kind of specifics and real feelings that I needed and wanted from him. He talked about general things but never went into any
detail when it came to my brother Norman, my birth mother, losing his two brothers Ernest and Big Willie in the last 15 years, or his thoughts of how he would make it trying to take care of 10 kids by himself. The book, more than any thing else, is my attempt to get inside my father's mind, his feelings, his thoughts, and his actions and reactions as he experienced them over time. So, in a sense, this book is part biography and part fiction.

The Motivation for the book

Several years ago I had an idea to write a book about my birth mother, Annie Mills Baker Hines. She died six days after I turned six years old and since I didn't remember anything about her other than what my brothers and sisters had told me, I thought it would be a way for me to get to know her. I had heard from older relatives that she was a beautiful woman with an angelic smile. I thought that writing about her would bring me closer to her.

When I set about interviewing my dad, my stepmother, my birth mother's only living brother and several aunts and uncles who had known her, the pain seemed too deep for them to dredge up. It seemed like they had buried the pain and wanted to keep it there. It was my stepmother who suggested that I write about my father and the sacrifices he had made to keep his 10 kids together.

After reading Nathan McCall's Makes Me Wanna Holler in 1994, I knew it was time for me to pay tribute to my dad and stepmom for all they had done for my 13 siblings and I. This book is my tribute to them, to their love for each other, and their faith in God.

Foreword

I'M KEEPING MY KIDS!!! The Murray Hines Story: Portrait of an African American Father, while not a true nor definitive biography, is based on a father's diligent and persistent pursuit to keep and maintain his family despite the numerous obstacles that confront him. In telling this poignant story, the author, Mark-Anthony Hines, who is one of the father's 10 children and the youngest boy, is able to capture a memorable account of his dad's significant contributions (first hand) to his family as a youngster and later as a father. The setting takes place in a small rural town in North Carolina, and spans approximately six decades between the 1930's and 1990's.

The author opens the book with Murray Hines' early brush with death at the age of three and then highlights his early responsibilities of taking care of his younger family members, his military experiences, his marriage, the loss of a son, and eventually the death of his beloved wife.

The latter part of the book focuses on Murray's meeting and marriage to his second wife, the relationships among his extended family, which now included fourteen children, and the successes that all of his children encountered during their lives.

Mark-Anthony has painstakingly covered each period of his family's lives in a historical context, and he gives the reader a clear and vivid narrative of his family's environment as only he, as a member, could envision. This book definitely gives the reader a unique perceptiveness into the life of an African American man's perpetual love, devotion, and sacrifices in order to save his family, and may serve as a role model for others to emulate.


William F. Rogers, Ed.D
Professor Emeritus
Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia