Page 82 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2017- Online Magazine
P. 82
...and a Door Opened
didn’t want to [leave],” she whispered. “I went on a
three day fast and prayed.” She smiled, “God told
me He would supply all our needs in Plainview.”
A broad grin worked its way across her classic
bronze face. “And I’ll provide you with Camay
Soap.” Though it was an uphill struggle, and
they faced overwhelming odds, the church was
established, and God was faithful to His promise.
While employed as a housekeeper during her
pregnancy, the lady of the house, Mrs. English,
recommended that Essie see her private
physician, Dr. Don Jones. Dr. Jones was unwilling
to deliver her baby at home, and Essie refused to
Unlike the soldiers we’ve met thus far, Mother Essie
Givens is a different kind of veteran. Hers is a war waged have her baby in the basement of the hospital.
against poverty, prejudice, opinions, and longstanding When her labor began, hard and heavy, Essie
limitations — limitations that she perceived were open to presented at the Plainview Hospital where she was
challenge. admitted to the upstairs maternity ward by order
of Dr. Jones. There she delivered her baby, the first
black woman to do so. She named that little fellow
Challenge is Mother Givens middle name. It is almost
as if she was delegated by an unseen force to discover Don, after the physician who brought him into
the door to a different world, a better world for others. this world. Essie’s strong, but gentle, loving hand
Mother Essie Givens, an elegant, gracious black minister, gripped the doorknob, and the door opened just a
is pastor of Good Samaritan Church in Plainview, Texas. crack.
Did I mention that this astounding lady is ninety-nine
years old? Age does not define her nor dim the trail she But Essie bumped into another door only partially
has already blazed across these West Texas plains. ajar. Black families needing dental care traveled
to Tulia where a white dentist welcomed black
patients after hours. Essie was in exquisite pain
She and her husband, Pastor E. N. Givens lived in
Midland when the bishop appointed him to build a from an infected tooth. Extraction resulted in a
church in Plainview. Essie felt no peace about making broken jawbone. The wonder drug, Penicillin, had
the move. “Midland was the capital of oil and society. I been announced in 1942 but was used only in
the war effort. Essie was informed that she was
one of the first civilians to ever receive a Penicillin
injection…the door for black patients swung open
a little wider.
Then another closed door loomed on the horizon.
Many black mothers who worked outside the home
had no options for childcare. One day, a working
mother left her children at home and went to work.
When the children decided to cook something
to eat, the house caught fire and three children
died in the flames. For Dr. Dorothy Long and Essie
Givens, that was unacceptable. This need had to
82 Lubbock Senior Link
