Local man talks of his experience meeting Oprah

At 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 20, global media leader and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey inspired approximately 550 graduates when she delivered the commencement address to the Spelman and Morehouse Class of 2012. Winfrey, who received an honorary degree from Spelman College in 1993, also received the institutions National Community Service Award.

On Saturday, May 19, Winfrey spent hours, from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., on the campuses of Morehouse College and Spelman College hugging, kissing, shaking hands and taking pictures with graduates.

She really loves these two historic and prestigious institutions of higher learning.

For Morehouse, Winfrey is currently the Colleges top donor, having given a total of $12 million since 1989. It was during that years Commencement that she declared she wanted to help educate black men. She said: When you empower a black man, you light up the world, she said about why she gives to Morehouse. When you empower a black man, you empower families. You empower his wife. You empower sons. You empower daughters You light up the world. Therefore, when 300 Morehouse Men filed onto stage, coming in from the left and right, the front and back, 13,000 people in Chicagos United Center stood and applauded.

And Oprah Winfrey cried.

Part of the Surprise Spectacular, the penultimate farewell episodes to The Oprah Winfrey Show, the sheer magnitude of queues of Morehouse Oprah Scholars taking the stage stunned the woman who has seen it all, done it all.

You got me, she said in the deep, melodic voice that for the past 25 years has entertained, encouraged and enlightened the world.

I remember, as a little boy growing up in Tifton, when Oprah came on my paternal grandmother Emily would stop whatever she was doing to listen; to tune in; to seek advice and to understand our world through this show. Sometimes she burned up my grandfather's food before he came in from work. He never really got upset, but he knew that The Oprah Winfrey Show was the primary ! source t o blame. I watched Oprah with my grandmother and I enjoyed seeing the different celebrities, enjoying their conversation, but I didn't really understand the spiritual side of what Oprah brought through her show until I was much older.

Oprah and I have been in the same area before and have briefly spoken or shaken hands: at the memorial service for the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King in February 2006 and back in October 2011 at the World Congress Center. Each time there were too many people in my way of a photo shoot. However, this time, with the help of Dr. Christine King Farris, 84 years old, sister of the late Dr.Martin Luther King Jr., Associate Professor of Education at Spelman College for 53 years; and graduate of Spelman College 1948, it was just me and Oprah and five other people in the heavily secured room for an hour Sunday morning.

Sitting around the circular conference table with bottles of water and Coca-Colas and snacks, I proceeded to ask questions as Winfrey proceeded to ask questions about me. Without embellishing and divulging a lot of information, Oprah says that she just didn't want to be on television but wanted to use it to make a difference. She was not just comfortable with the daily routine of coming on the air, reporting news and not using her influence to have people create the "beloved community" in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned. It was later in life that I learned that Oprah was encouraging America to get in touch with who you really are to deal with yourselves on an existential, gut level because we are the sermon and you are the healing that most people see, even they don't attend church or believe in the same religious personality as we do. Oprah taught me that a person can't transmit healing, unless that person is able to be comfortable with ALL kinds of conditions.

As a summation of the conversation between Oprah and me: The latest issue of some, not all, black ministers' disapproval of and attack on President Obama's decision to support and ! protect the civil rights of all Americans' rights, the issue of gay marriage, has Oprah upset because President Obama is the President of all of the people and he can't become a bigot because he identifies with the tradition of Jesus not the religious community who identifies with the anti-humanity remarks of biblical text. This is why he had a conservative, Rev. Rick Warren, and a liberal theologist, Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery pray at his inauguration.

"President Obama is not leading this civil right issue as a black man, from his black identity, but he is leading it from the unconditional love of Jesus. And he is teaching us through his humility through this process of being ridiculed and labeled negatively, that we must come to the point that we respect all humanity, even of our oppressors. When youre a follower of Jesus, you don't have to put a straightjacket around your morality."The inner light, God has given to all." You don't have to be a church member to experience the inner light. It seems to me that God is present, not only in all neighborhoods, but in all victimhoods. Because when you see yourself as a victim, you lock God out. So you have to have a high notion of yourself, called freedom of conscience, in order to affirm yourself in whatever condition you find yourself, whatever it is." (Oprah)

We also talked about the death of Whitney Houston. Oprah said she would always be heartbroken about Whitney's death because she had been so full of life and was like a daughter to her.

"As you know, I don't have any children, so this is like losing a child to me," she said.

When we got ready to take the photo op, she positioned her arm on my shoulder and said, jokingly, " I know this is going on Facebook and Twitter, but Stedman will never see this."