“Doves possess great symbolic import in many cultures. The fact that they produce their own milk for their young makes them symbols of nourishment, care, and parental love. They also symbolize tender, physical, sexual love. And in the Christian tradition – the religious tradition to which Langston Hughes and Margaret Bonds subscribed – the dove symbolizes not only peace, but also messages of peace and salvation that are delivered from on high: it was a dove bearing an olive branch that told Noah that the Great Flood was over; it was a dove that descended to Jesus when he was baptized.” (Dr. Michael Cooper)
