April Is National Poetry Month! 

CHANGING THE AMERICAN STAGE

ELNORA FONDREN 

FORMER FREEDOM SCHOOL STUDENT

Attribution: CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ARCHIVE

America is a stage life land,

All people have parts to learn in hand.

If I were to walk down the street and say,

"I want my freedom this very day,"

I'd raise my fingers and lift my face,

But my people would look at me in disgrace.

"Why should I try to be free?

I already have my liberty."

The people are walking as statues do;

I have no right to look at you.

My face is different, my face is black,

But why should you want to hold me back?

We are a nation, and it is said,

"A Nation when parted is a stage that's dead."

I was once a patriot true.

Now you try to take me with you:

Not to be brothers and to let me be free,

But only to take care of thee.

I still have to play my part;

I am still a slave in my heart.

To look at our flag, and say to thee,

''I am here, but am I free?"

The Nation of America is never to be

Until we have our liberty.

If Khrushchev walked to my hometown,

I'd try my best to show him around,

Even though he is a man in wrong,

I still would try to help him along.

A man is a man, and life is life;

I am a man, and he is in life.

The trail of freedom is all around,

I wish it would come through this sorrowed town.

In this nation, I want you to know,

I am a citizen, and I want to be treated so.

This nation has got to get together

And leave it to God to decide who is better.

I am here to testify,

I want my freedom, and that ain't no lie.

So Mr. Charlie, you are the best,

But I am as equal as you and the rest.

I am telling you the earnest truth,

We are people just like you.

So get ready for the fright of your life.

These people are going to get their freedom in height.

Try to be ready, try to be strong,

But you won't hold the black man down for long.

Read more about Civil Rights History and Poems @ CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ARCHIVE

 April Is National Poetry Month! 

ELEGY WRITTEN IN AMERICA 

FRENCH HODGES

POET X ACTOR X EDUCATOR

Born down in Georgia

Died in Tennessee

Non-violence was his method

Love was his plea.

He lived with a dream

Told it to all he met

Many still remember

Others will forget.

Believed in the ballot

Taught it all around

Taught it in the country

Taught it in the town.

In nineteen-hundred, sixty three

He went to cash a check

Tried to cash a check for freedom

America shot him in the neck.

Many things they called him

Nigger, gentle warrior, king,

Fool, dreamer, prophet, saviour,

He who bade freedom ring.

Freedom never did start its ring,

The dream never came true

The check never was cashed,

A debt unpaid comes due.

Born down in Georgia

Shot down in Tennessee

Love was his greatest gift

Freedom was his plea.

April Is National Poetry Month! 

IN MEMORIAM: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. 

JUNE JORDAN

RENOWNED POET X PLAYWRIGHT X WRITER X ESSAYIST X 

TEACHER X ACTIVIST

honey people murder mercy U.S.A.
the milkland turn to monsters teach
to kill to violate pull down destroy
the weakly freedom growing fruit
from being born

America

tomorrow yesterday rip rape
exacerbate despoil disfigure
crazy running threat the
deadly thrall
appall belief dispel
the wildlife burn the breast
the onward tongue
the outward hand
deform the normal rainy
riot sunshine shelter wreck
of darkness derogate
delimit blank
explode deprive
assassinate and batten up
like bullets fatten up
the raving greed
reactivate a springtime
terrorizing

death by men by more
than you or I can

STOP

2

They sleep who know a regulated place
or pulse or tide or changing sky
according to some universal
stage direction obvious
like shorewashed shells

we share an afternoon of mourning
in between no next predictable
except for wild reversal hearse rehearsal
bleach the blacklong lunging
ritual of fright insanity and more
deplorable abortion
more and
more

April Is National Poetry Month! 

JUSTICE AND JIVE

(A History Poem of American Justice)

Attribution: CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ARCHIVE

MARGARET BLOCK

POET X CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST X FORMER MEMBER OF SNCC

Justice wasn't in America's plan when they took away the Indian Nation's land,
Like the Arapahoe, the Apache, the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Navajo and many more.
Was it a just plan when you banished them to an isolated land
And infected them with smallpox and hives, you just knew that they wouldn't survive
These injustices can never be justified,
You call it Justice, but it's just another word for Jive.
Where was Justice when slavery abounded,
Perhaps she was helping Old Master keep Swobo's nose to the ground.
They took away his children, his culture, his language and his identity
but they could not take his dignity.
Madame Justice, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide.
You call it Justice but it's just another word for Jive.
Justice was nowhere around when all of the lynchings were going down.
The Klan strung us up and didn't try to hide
Because they knew that Justice wasn't on our side,
When Billie Holliday sang "Strange Fruit," she was singing about dead bodies hanging from a poplar tree.
She could have been singing about you or me.
She knew that justice would never preside,
You call it Justice but Billie called it Jive.
Justice comes with a dollar sign although justice is supposed to be blind.
I can't buy Justice and pay my rent. I make minimum wage with no benefits.
It seems to me that Justice is only for the rich.
If you don't have money Justice will be denied.
You call it Justice but it's just another word for Jive.
If Justice is really color blind then why are so many black and brown brothers doing time?
You lock them up on some homemade facts but that was always your plan of attack.
Langston Hughes once said that justice is a blind goddess to whom we blacks are wise,
Her bandage covers two festering sores that once perhaps were eyes.
You call it Justice but Langston called it Jive.
Madame Justice must be really tired.
She's permitting the cops to do black profiles,
they watch us and stop us for no good reason.
We feel like sitting ducks during hunting season.
It's about time for Justice to be on our side.
You call it Justice, but it's just another word for Jive.
Mr. President, if Justice was really intact, then why did you create the Patriot Act?
Your homeland security is an injustice in disguise
but Mr. Bush, unlike Justice, we're not blind. We all have eyes.
You call it justice but it's just another word for Jive.
Now Mrs. Bush, Justice had to have been deaf, mute and blind
when you helped create No Child Left Behind.
You're setting children up for a great big fall.
Mrs. Bush, an injustice to one is an injustice to all.
Justice should be on the children's side.
You call it Justice, but even the children know it's Jive.
Where was Justice when Katrina went down?
Perhaps she was hiding out with the FEMA director, that incompetent Michael Brown.
The people at the Superdome sent up a prayer in hopes that FEMA
would soon be there but Bush and Brown really didn't care.
They wished that they all had just floated away while they plotted and
lied and created an inexcusable delay, but someone once said that
Justice delayed is Justice denied.
You call it Justice, but we can all recognize Jive.

Read more about Civil Rights History and Poems @ CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ARCHIVE

April Is National Poetry Month! 

RIGHT ON: WHITE AMERICA

 

SONIA SANCHEZ 

ICONIC POET OF THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT X WRITER X 

ESSAYIST X PROFESSOR X PLAYWRIGHT

this country might have been a pio

neer land

once.

but. there ain’t

no mo

indians blowing

custer’s mind

with a different

image of america.

this country

might have

needed shoot/

outs/ daily/

once.

but. there ain’t

no mo real/ white allamerican

bad/guys.

just.

u & me

blk/ and un/armed.

this country might have been a

pio

neer land once.

and it still is.

check out

the falling

gun/shell on our blk/ tomorrows.  

April Is National Poetry Month! 

AMERICUS, GEORGIA IN SIXTY THREE

PUBLISHED in 1975

LULU WESTBROOK GRIFFIN 

ONE OF 32 GIRLS LOCKED AWAY IN 1963 IN AN OLD 

CIVIL WAR STOCKADE FOR PROTESTING SEGREGATION IN 

HER HOMETOWN OF AMERICUS, GEORGIA.

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST X SPEAKER X POET

Attribution: CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ARCHIVE

Americus, Georgia in sixty three
There were obvious signs of bigotry,
Laws of Segregation were everywhere
White Supremacist Groups did not care.

The hatred they had for People of colour
Was blantant and vicious,
Toward my little sisters and brothers.

There were perpetrators, spectators,
Instigators, violators, Vigilantes, Agitators,
KKKS and NEGRO haters.

We marched with our Placards
And sang The FREEDOM Songs,
We were beaten and jailed
while making History at home.

Many fought for their freedom
to change the JIM CROW LAWS,
Now AMERICUS has signs of "LIBERTY"
And no more Segregated walls.

Read more about Civil Rights History and Poems @ CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ARCHIVE

April Is National Poetry Month! 

AMERICA BLEEDS

FIRST APPEARED IN "MOTIVE MAGAZINE."

 

ANGELO LEWIS 

POET

it does, it does, i have seen it

bleeding brothers & sisters, 

i have seen it, i have seen it,

come rushing, walk crippled,

fall flatly on tears of sad streets

where creatures fall onward with

cold eyes over them, armies on

streets over them, police on

pavements over them, tear gas

in faces over them, fires &

minds, living dreams living,

all of them innocents, yes,

yes, i have seen it, it bleeds,

it bleeds, have seen it bleed,

spill blood at my brothers,

cough no at our dignity,

i tell you, i tell you, we must,

kick on this monster, till it

dies, till it dies, dies, dies,

dies, dies, lies in the dirt

with its blood & its sickness,

head fall rolling in gutter,

red, white, & blue, flow freely,

flow freely, move over, fall down,

down, down, be finished at

last.