WEBVTT

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GUEST: About eight years ago, I
had the pleasure of meeting Maya
Angelou, and... I just fell in

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love with her from my time when
I knew of her back in my college
years for her poem "Phenomenal

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Woman." And my wife's a
huge fan of hers. And I
met her in Winston-Salem.
And unfortunately,

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she passed away not too
long after I met her.
They had a auction of her
estate in Kernersville,

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North Carolina. I didn't
even know she was a
North Carolina resident.
And she had told me how

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she lived in North Carolina,
and she worked at, uh,
Wake Forest University.
And so I went through

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the pre-auction guide, and I saw
these. The name of the award is
the Spingarn award. Well, my mom

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went to Spingarn High
School in Washington,
D.C. She was the first
graduating class. So I said,

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"Hmm, that's interesting."
So I delved even deeper,
and the first recipient of

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this w, award was my
fraternity's founder,
Dr. Ernest Everett Just.
So the connection even,

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grew even more. This one is
ten-karat gold. And, and I
looked at who won this award,

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and it's a prominent
award given by the NAACP
to African Americans.
Oprah Winfrey has one,

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Sidney Poitier has one.
Martin Luther King has
one. Harry Belafonte has
one. Very, very many.

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APPRAISER: Jackie Robinson.
GUEST: Jackie Robinson.

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APPRAISER: Hank Aaron.

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GUEST: Hank Aaron. The
list goes on-- yeah.

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APPRAISER: Paul Robeson, also.

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GUEST: So I said, "I've
got to have this." And
so, uh, my friend went
to the auction, and I was

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supposed to go, but my
father had gotten sick.
And so I got on the phone,
and I was really willing to

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go as high as I had to go to get
this. I thought it was going to
go for at least $5,000, but it

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didn't. It went for around gold
price, which was $1,100. Now, I
had forgotten about this one. So

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what I found out was, they give
two awards, they give one that
the recipient walks around with.

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APPRAISER: Right.

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GUEST: And in case it gets
snatched or gets stolen or
something like that, or lost,

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you still have the real
one. So my friend who
was at the auction, he
purchased this for me

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for $80. My 50th birthday came
along, and he presented this
to me-- I already had this one.

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APPRAISER: I did find
another auction record
of a walk-around selling.

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GUEST: Wow.

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APPRAISER: Uh, and surprisingly
enough, it brought $3,000.

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GUEST: Wow.

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APPRAISER: So, you know,
for an auction estimate
on the walk-around...

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GUEST: Wow.

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APPRAISER: ...about
$3,000 to $5,000.

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GUEST: Wow, for the walk-around?

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APPRAISER: For the walk-around.

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GUEST(laughs): Okay.

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APPRAISER: Now, you said...

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APPRAISER: That's
pleasantly surprising.

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APPRIASER: Y, y... That's
a good surprise. You said
you spent $1,100 on...

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GUEST: Yes.

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APPRAISER: ...that piece,
and that was the gold value.

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GUEST: Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER: Well, good news
is, gold has gone up.

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GUEST: Absolutely.

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APPRAISER: And the gold value on
that piece now is over $2,000.

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GUEST: Yes.

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APPRAISER: But that's
peanuts compared to what I
think it's really worth. An

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important award-- I wouldn't
be surprised to see it go in
the $20,000 to $30,000 range.

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GUEST (breathily): Wow, wow.

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APPRAISER: Uh, I think
that would be a, a fairly
conservative estimate,

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and I wouldn't be surprised
to see it explode even higher.

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GUEST: Well, that's great to
hear-- I, I wouldn't... It's
something I won't sell. But I,

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I'm proud to be the guardian of
it. But, um, it's great to know
that it has a value, and I'm,

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I'm just happy to have it, and,
and I'm happy to have this piece
of African American history.

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APPRAISER: And if you're
keeping it, which is the plan...

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GUEST: Mm-hmm. APPRAISER:
...then you probably
want to insure it.

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GUEST: Yup. I will now.

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APPRAISER: Um, something...
I would probably want

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you to insure it for around
$50,000 to protect yourself.

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GUEST: Wow.