civilrights
Learn more about other poetry terms
black
girl
magic
its suppression in this world is tragic
the land of the free
home of the enslaved
black
girl
magic
its suppression in this world is tragic
the land of the free
home of the enslaved
All sad stories start the same
Kinda starts a while back
On a bench you could be asked
“How does it feel to be black?”
After high school, I enlisted the United States Navy. I wanted to serve my country. Make my family proud. It wasn't until I returned that I realized---the more I witnessed, the less I agreed.
From cotton fields
To bloody spills.
From metal chains
To metal clangs.
We still can’t escape
Discrimination.
Started out with
“My color,
Is better than yours.”
Remotely its hard to justify ones own purpose
when mankinds purpose is predetermined
Remotely its hard to convey ones own presence
when ones own presence is not for certain
the america that i live in doesn't require me to be in chains or present a certificate of my purchase when i walk alone
but are my chains really gone
am i not bound by the color of my skin
by the statistics
We had a voice, a dream, something to say
But the white people took that all away
Chains broken only to be put back together again
We had a love like no other
And found strength in one another
The Way She Smiles and The Way She Touch
Her Beautiful Laugh and Her skin Color While She Blush
Soft As Feathers, Warms My Heart
I Play My Role and She Plays Her Part
When She walks With A Steady Beat
I have a special affinity for the x-ray machine,Faultlessly highlighting my bones, heart, and spleen.
Change will save the world.
Treating others diferently because of their skin color,
sexual preferences,
height, weight,
likes, dislikes,
financial status,
religious views,
and disabilities
sometimes
we turn a blind eye to the facts
sometimes
we are lost in our rage by past acts
sometimes
we get caught in the "movement"
sometimes
we actually believe we are making an improvement
So they say it's over,
it's in the past,
but I in contrast
say "No".
No.
The King stood in 1968,
but he was shot,
shot down.
And as he fell,
we rose,
we rose.
When I was growing up, I was told to always fight for what I believe in. Whether it's for the greater good or for sin. But when I entered school, I was told to think differently. To just be a good person and not to express myself publicly.
300 years of slavery,
300 years in chains,
One hundred years of bravery,
This finally led to change.
Fifty years later followed Obama’s campaign,
Somehow we are still scared from all the previous pain,
Do you hate me, do hate me for whom I’m attracted to
Well, its not my fault, I was born this way
I can’t change it and I shouldn’t try
I’m gay and I accept who I am.
I had hated myself for so long
No reflection in the mirror
Because society doesn’t see me
No confidence in my life
Due to boundaries in my community
No money at the bank
Cause I never get a raise
Only sorrow in my eyes
The power…
The power to act as one wants…
The power to speak as one wants …
The power to think as one wants …
The state…
Oreo
To think a childhood could reincarnate itself in mockery
Oreo
that's what they call me
Oreo
because I'm too black to be white, but not black enough to BE black
Oreo
I used to be here,
Didn't we all.
History shows,
Powerful nations,
Always fall.
But we never worry,
Never show fear.
Just shake our fists,
And drink a beer.
No! Don't cry,
There’s a faded, torn pictureMy grandma lovingly tapedOf the day she stood in front of old AbeAnd with thousands of othersCheered for a dreamA dream full of hopeThat we wouldn’t see
The world is full of people
Sane
And crazy.
We are the sane
Us
Who established justice
Across the land
And gave peace and equality.
We are the sane
Us
We live in this world together
I can’t run from you
And you can’t run from me
There is a limited space of land & sea
No matter where you go
"We are connected in an inescapable network of mutuality
Here I write my vindicationFor my rightful dedicationWhile through holy elevationMy mindset moves to idolizationWhile in sweet elationTo a land of implication
In honor of MLK day, I wrote this poem. He had a dream for us, and now it is our turn to make his dream a reality. R.I.P. to MLK and his queen, Coretta...this poem is for you...
I wish I would of known this before,
to save myself from your door.
But we all have lessons to learn,
even if we get a minor burn.
Like Martin Luther King,
I gave you my rights and everything.
Everyone, hands in the air!
DID YOU HEAR ME, HANDS IN THE AIR!
Don’t let the bubblegum voice fool you
This weapon is imaginary
I wish I could tell you
about myself:
that I love the whole spectrum of gender
and that I feel so uncomfortable
in my own skin
that I want to peel it all away
and become new
Why?
Why must my people cower in fear at the hands of our oppressors who long ago promised equality?
We have sweat, bled, and died for this country, yet our blood is not enough to wash away their hate.
I know the reason for all the hatred.
Cuz I'm an African-American gay chick.
Cuz I don't listen rap.
I listen to rock.
Cuz I want the cheerleader.
Never the jock.
Cuz I am wearing a sweater
What happens in homes wherefathers are rolling stonesand the temptations ofthe street are open so oftenthat any other optionis unknown.
Fight Another Hour
By Jesse Yelvington
Screw you for saying who and what I’m ‘supposed’ to be,
Though I hope you know that nothing you could say will ever change me;
Desks in rows
Children file in
Classrooms filled with the stagnant scent of yester year policy
Each child
In order for us to grow, as a society, people have to know
when to stop and think, without reacting.
We’ve grown to where we are at today, but there’s still a KKK.
I never understood what was so different about LGBTQ people that they got treated so differently
I never understood why sometimes my uncle had to hide who he really was from society
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
A shadow in the night
Here comes the opportunity.
For some Old timer, trying to be Superman
to redeem himself.
A shadow in the night.
I'll take him
This comfy little suburb
They don't really see me
The see the blue black skin that covers my soul
The milk chocolate brown is what they see
Not the brain, the personality that makes me whole
Langston Hughes’ mama told him “Life ain’t been no crystal stair”
Well, I reckon it be the same way for me, too
No crystal stair ever showed up for me,
How
How can you pull the trigger,
take a life,
and walk away?
Knowing this person
made away,
save generations.
African American male.
Strong built.
Trayvon,
I'd like to know your favorite color.
Maybe you have more than one, but it's okay.
We all taste the rainbow one day
So tell me its red.....like the dark crimson slowly seeping slowly from your soul.
I pledge allegiance to the flag,Of the United Sates of AmericaAnd to the republic for which it standsOne nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.Liberty and justice for all...
Just because they are gay, we shouldn't take our right to get married away.
Walking down the road, hand-in-hand with their loved ones does not affect anyone around them.
Practicing our prayers
Making our lives look great
Making sure we didn’t sin
So there would be nothing on to debate
coming on service on time
almost never been late
trying to smile to each other
I smile outwardly to you because I don't need your pity,
You see me as a happy, bubbly, and sparkling young woman.
Did you ever realize that beyond my smile my eyes are filled with stories I'll never say with my lips?
You think this is funny.
Making fun of the sticker that claims me.
You take it off me, so aggressively, as you place it on your neighbors arm.
“You are now number 4131” you giggle as you read the name of my new identity.
They lock you up
They take pieces of you
Inch by inch
Try to force you
Into silence
Into willful captivity
Caged birds cannot fly
But they can still sing
Do not let your song be silenced
I am Congo
Looked upon with disgrace
They tried to erase my race
We were betrayed and put on slave ships
Slavery was money, so there were no friendships
I am Kenya
The church stood on one side
The street on the other
And I was the illegitimate child
scorned to no acceptance
Bound to redefine the limit
that could not be reached
Forced to hide in the shadows
I fought the will to live a tragedy, to sacrifice pain and wear a smile no matter what.
A fool amongst wise men.
A liar amongst the blind.
A friend to people who have not a clue of the person I am.
Cloudy, but no rain. Overcast
Externally. The internal, much different.
In the midst of a storm, their earth was quaking
Images of a dynamic dream and whispers of, "this too shall pass."
Why Hate Me because my skin is the color of the earth
Why Hate Me and despise me at birth
Why Hate Me with the depths of your soul
When you are the one with stories untold
I have a voice;
Strong and loud.
Can make people listen,
People in the crowd.
I know right from wrong;
I'm not sitting in a cloud.
I'll scream till you hear me;
Scream really loud!
Lets rip into hypocrisy
I dont mean The Bible it's perfect
I mean our hypocrisy
Explain to me how you see vision of
Poles, strippers strip strip for you
And money falling from the trees
Lyrical licks that lament the whips that tips the slaveholder that his chains don't hold the gold that sold out the captives, making them proactive to freeing them from the tree and be free, or is it just me?
If the society we live in today was just a dream and a simple pinch made us come back to reality, I wonder how things would be without all the brutality.
Two hands build a home.
Two states' lips talk days of peace,
ironically peace dies.
Two hands shoot guns and make bombs,
as our world breaks from our gifts.
I look back at the few years in my life and I imagine what it would have been like to NOT have gone through what I did to become the person I am today.
Mistreated.
Abused.
My blood is red
So is theirs
Yet for me I get more stares
Because I’m a darker shade
But would there be a difference if we were all painted gray
A neutral color and no one would know
The people march to protest their oppressors
Because they no longer want to be the lesser.
They are motivated by the professors
To not be the aggressors;
The ones who fight first against the suppressors.
Angel-Headed hipsters
Lend me your ears
For I constantly find myself wondering
How many of us are really here?
How many of us are truly living our lives
I rather be called handsome than beautiful
I rather be called he than she
And i rather you say his than hers
Not miss but sir
you don't know how it feels
How it feels to feel this hurt
Forgetting is the fire that burns down the building
It is the one drink that flips the car
Forgetting is the trigger on a double barreled shot gun
A tec9
A rifle
And a pump action shot gun
There's something lurking in our schools,
That's far scarier than ghosts or gouls.
It's sitting there stalking you,
Waiting for the teacher's cue.
One little hour is all it would take
The way the ignorant bystander lurks,
Enclosed with thoughts and society pressure,
Cradles their mind possessing hundreds of blisters,
Thinking they might overcome the silence.
I am…
Not just one color.
My mother, my father,
how could I be their daughter?
Adoption is the expectation,
I respond with education.
How is it today you can still take my hope away?
To have humility is to think less
Of ourselves ‘cause we are God’s creation
Red, yellow, black, white, tell that to the press
For the races received much damnation.
Injustice is still there we need prayers
(poems go here) Free to be me, free to be you
That’s what they say, but is it true?
Taxed for housing and food, necessities of society’s view
Ideas of privatization of water, our natural right
Once upon a time there was a man with a dream of peace, a dream of unity, a dream of equality, a strong dream.
Trapped.
That’s how I felt.
Living under oppression
under someone’s thumb-
Unable, incapable, inexplicably inept
powerless.
There is the saying that goes
Sticks and stones may break my bones
But words do not hurt me
Your color does not make you
Your language does not define you
Your neighborhood should not break you
You are you
not what they say
not what they think
you are you
Don’t cry little one,
All of this will be over.
Tomorrow will be a brighter day.
Can’t you see it?
Don’t worry little one,
Change will soon be coming.
All the fight is worthwhile.
Can’t you feel it?
We stands alone, the awkward silence of our shadows but a toll in to the next step. Scars of hidden memories, tears of past pain. We never feel abandoned for we sees the big picture.
Everyday we walk
Everyday we keep silent
Everyday we wait
We wait, for God gave us patience
We wait, for success comes in time
We wait, for our voices are still merging into one
The hands that wrote that letter
Sitting in that cell from Birmingham jail
The hands that reached out and pushed against the ceiling of hate
As it began to rise and slowly started to fall
Gay.. Fag... Homo... Queer,
Everyday we live in fear.
Fear for our rights,
Fear for our lives,
Everyday is a new surprise.
Arrested, Jailed, Hated, and Feared,
the 1960's were not good years.
The valleys and hills, tumbled and tall,
With ants that scurry up the wall.
The red ants march, bold and pride,
While the black ones live in lies.
Castles built under the ground
They say this is the home of the brave and land of the free
But it shouldn't take them 8 years just to hear our dream.
There was never a throne, but there was a King.
Proving Uncle Sam isn't as fair as he seems.
They said
that lines were drawn
because
black and white can’t mix.
They believed
separate but equal
could actually exist
in states
trying to step on
and stamp out supposed
“Let freedom ring!” Cried Jim Crow
Movements and martyrs,
The power in the moment
of the voice, long ago lost -stolen- Found again!
X marks the spot
Once happy
then taken
from the land of the sun
Now chained
and broken
the long night has begun
Faster
and harder
the work never ends
Fighting
to escape
the master's demands
Support. Strength. Faith.
The belief in a better future.
Keys to action.
Keys to reaction.
A dream. A leader. A desire.
Keys to revolution.
Keys to change.
Love is love,
It’s black and white.
People are people,
And these people don’t fight.
But there’s a long road ahead.
(poems go here) They did the work we didn’t want to do
We could not be in the same room
It was illegal for them to have a say
If they even tried it was almost like they were thrown away
This went on for 400 years
Before, it was solid with no change
Those, not content were looking to rearrange
Although it seemed like nothing for a bunch
It was the struggle for a checkered lunch
They saw what they wanted.
Fists in the air,
Panthers in the Ghetto,
Invaders in the schools.
They denied what we are:
Men.
Women.
Children.
People wanting freedom.
If you closed your eyes
Would you know who I am?
If you closed your eyes
Would you see who I am?
Is it possible
To see who I truly am
With your eyes closed
When you can't really see me
(Thank you thank you for your sacrifice
I appreciate everything you did in your life
From the Kings to the X's and the Parks of the rose
Yes Mr. Martin I hope you marching
While Malcom starts up the show
Consideration
Integrity
Values
Independence
Lively-hood
Respect
Innocence
Generosity
Hope
Triumph
Success
Shush, don’t say a word, just let it happen
The boot doesn’t hurt that much, and it’s cleaner then people make it sound.
It’s easier just to let things happen.
Right?
We were once a people.
We taught together.
We fought together,
For freedom.
Our people won.
Black teachers, doctors, politicians.
The sky was the limit.
We were family.
Daddy was always there.
You may know me,
But you can’t see the pain.
You can’t see my struggles
And you can’t see my strife.
For my identity, it isn’t superficial,
It’s an identity that is rooted deep,
Below your hateful words
Shuffled by,
Tossed and tied up without a bat of an eye
Thrusted into a life that was unseen
Depicted less of our mean
Voice unheard, some sort of strangled silence
Shuffled by,
Tossed and tied up without a bat of an eye
Thrusted into a life that was unseen
Depicted less of our mean
Voice unheard, some sort of strangled silence
This word burns as it rolls off my tongue ,i can feel my ancestors being whipped as the 'r' forms on my lips i can hear the cries as soon as the 'a' drops out my mouth ,this word hold so much power it hold the tears of my genealogy it's been the
(poems go here) America, like a beautiful piece of tapestry has been woven together to create a unique patter like no other. Pride, courage and strength run deep in this country’s veins. Tangled up with it are hardships, agony, tragedy and fear.
I'll give my blood
to keep your stripes red.
You can keep your white,
and I can keep my freedom.
Hate. The world I know of is filled with it. Is there anywhere where hate does not reside? Hate resides in the men who beat my father for the color of his skin. Hate resides in the policeman who arrested my uncle because he was black.
I want to live!
Live without the suppression of who I am.
Live without the regret of what I should be.
Live without the tolerance of guarded emotion.
Have a ritual of union
Without my freedom denounced
I want to live!
Live without the suppression of who I am.
Live without the regret of what I should be.
Live without the tolerance of guarded emotion.
Have a ritual of union
Without my freedom denounced
How could it end so real?
Looking back at it it seems so surreal,
But in my mind I know how the people used to feel.
The mother,
A woman strong like no other,
Told everyone who could listen about this deal
We stand here in the crowd hearing him preach
'We shall be equal! We shall be free!'
These men up here giving us false hope,
When we all know we should fight on
But in the back of our mind knowing we are shunned.
The Civil War's long been over, and slavery's been abolished
Education is available to everyone so we can all get knowledge
Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King fought for the rights we've gotten
opinons clash like air in a hurricane
we own our words
and keep our thoughts
when words are discouraging
its as if a storm is under way
but we can look to the sun
When I see into my future
I have to look behind
To those who sacrificed
And even risked their lives
The freedoms I am given
By right of Birth and Law
No matter what my gender
To be of fierce defender
Stop for just a minute and see
the vision of what the world could be
a simple life led by light
together we can do what is right.
White is beautiful.
It is bright, blinding white
That fills the cold days of winter.
It is the swirls of white
That cover the skies on a sunny day.
It is sweet, irresistible white
We all find it hard to stand under pressing hands
Insisting we comply to unjust commands and
Urging us to supply their rusty contraband
With ways to separate us underhand
By offering our hate and lusty self-demands
America would not be America,
Culture would not be Culture,
And half of us would not Be here,
Without Our Civil Rights.
My whole body is filtered black,
Knowledge is something I do not lack,
Everyone is equal,
Equality should be passed down like a sequel,
One store that welcomes different skin color to purchase a Bagel,
Do not disregard me,
for I am still the same brother with which you stand in arms with.
Forming chains to stand against the infringement of rights and ineqaulity, alike.
Every day and every night, we rally for the same end.
The marks we are born with
connected to the veins implanted
creation of unity of a whole entitled son.
Creation defined as a connection from the sole to the other.
Ballots sequence the gesture of communication
I come from
Sobbing sirens & broken traffic lights.
Hangings in the daylight,
Hooded figures breaking Bones,
Bodies,
Blacks.
I wish my phone would ring
I call home, waiting alone, dial tone screams
my mind's cold behind this blindfold of space and time
I can't escape it I'm
waiting
and like a fine rope this line holds
I was the slave girl taken from the South to the West
I was the sister that was beaten tortured and ripped from the home of my loved ones
I was the young mother dragged and taken in chains forced to kill the life inside of me
There are people under the steeple
Who can’t keep their eyes off the peep-hole.
Why are their minds so weak and feeble?
It’s misunderstood, so deem it evil.
Mr. Man sits in Congress so regal,
I was judged before I even came out my mother's womb
I was counted out and scorned despite my inner beauty
All thanks to Jim Crow
Thanks for your ridiculous laws based upon my ethnicity
Back in the 1800's, Negroes faded
With no voice and no power, they were used repeatedly
Working for white people until they die
Nobody cared
Nobody listened
Had a sporadic moment of brilliance today
This extra-terrestrial brown skin
Bronzed with historical significance
Scarred with repetitive adversity
It isn’t coming off
“I have a dream,” he says.
Dreams of justice, of children—both black and white—hand in hand, playing,
dreams of freedom
ringing through valleys and from mountaintops.
Freedom.
Where will he start?
I dare you to belittle my intellect with constant neglect.
I dare you to depreciate my ability to succeed.
I dare you & the rest of you to treat me as if my future is halted by my past.
Can you hear me now?
We want our president
We want to be heard
we want to be noticed!
No longer, pushed aside and kept in the dark.
Can you hear me now?
We want our president
We want to be heard
The Civil Rights Movement,
A time of lament
For the many lives lost
That stood up without a cost.
A voice for the people was what they all yearned
But many refused to rebel to avoid a worse turn.
I have a dream…
A day when skin color does not segregate
I have a dream...
When my color of skin does not define me as a person
I have a dream…
When equality is not just said but achieved
I have a dream…
Children,
Windows are now doors
Streets are now sidewalks
They are now history
D-day,
Don't forget your toothbrush.
Early in May our ride had begun,
on May 4th,1961.
The buses left Washington D.C. ,
and It wasn't what America wanted to see
The destruction it leaves
the people who grieve
Is it worth it to have
a weapon that leaves people so sad?
We need them to hunt
we need them to survive
but some people just have them
They call to me
yelling shouting jeering
And this—
not my name
never never
My Name—
is all
everything
I have known.
Eyes, pale eyes—
follow glance slide past
me.
The disease of men
That put us in pens
The beatings and bruises
That was so abusive
A disease of their mind
Our punishment wasn’t kind
Back then it seemed
That it was okay to be mean
A father, a mother
It didnt mean anything
But the thing is
They yelled, and fought
Leave him alone, hey
Pretty sharp in his crumby way
But what does it mean?
He must've been drunker
Freedom is an essence we do not yet taste,
Slavery is scarce, but rights we still chase.
When will this hostility come to an end?
When we die off into eternity's wind?
We cannot yet feel the end of this flame,
It’s the stare that burns like fire upon skin
The feeling like you could never belong hides within
The tear that falls slowly releases the hurt
It’s the hurt felt by generations
They say I’ve got dirty tears,
The ones that run down my face are not the same,
The blood I bleed is much too dark
My bruises far too faint,
And I’ve got dirty tears
Don’t get me started about my skin
Society
By: Megan Williams
Society
Please tell me
What have we become?
We sold our souls
Our inner being
And for what?
Society
Please tell me
Why are we so mean?
It isn't fair.
It shouldn't matter what color
your skin or hair.
It's a type of insanity,
a crime against humanity.
I can hear America working
their shuffling feet and their clasping hands
I can hear America singing
with their tutting horms and their high pitched whistles
I can hear America speaking
What are our civil rights?
Can they be won without a fight?
The world is trying but people are dying.
Children are crying and the whole world is lying
in the bed of all that is bad.
The darkness closes in.
The bag is tight around my face.
Breathing is difficult.
Fear is choking.
The light floods in
"We're free," they say.
Votes, buses, bathrooms, parks;
We can all share.
A black woman, Rosa Parks,
Refused the white man's way.
To the police, the driver narks,
to jail she went, and got bail anyway.
The Montgomery Boycott sparks.
Boycotting the buses, day-by-day,
I see what your scared of,
that thing inside that you want, the burning fire,
te desire for change,
you thought you could do it alone but your just one,
thats what the doubters say,
To control your slaves, make them hate each other,
And guaranteed, they will continue to for the next hundreds of years or even thousands.
Has slavery really been abolished?
Why do you cry?
I cry because I am a second-class citizen.
Why do you feel that way?
I feel this way because I am said to be no more than 3/5 of a person.
How are you gonna feel better?
We're all warm bodies,
put together in an artistic ways,
Our skin isn't what society embodies,
There were never any good ole days,
Shunned by society,
No love for Ebony and Ivory,
White men had the right,
Just pass a test,
And fill out the ballot,
But African Americans and women could not,
Why were we restricted?
The ride to freedom was long
Time would never heal
The wounds and the cries
From men and children alike
Full of tears, pain, shame
We walk, and hold our signs in the air.
They're heavy.
But nothing is more heavy
than the unforgettable burden
of being me---us.
Who?
Whoever made one man better than another?
When?
When did we start acting better than our brothers!
What?
What made people think suppression was alright?
Why?
In the shadows
Hides a small body
She's warm cream and soft wind
But her face is dried tight with fear
She's watching for the man
While the shadows around her whisper protection
She knows that he's coming
Superior? Infereor?
What are these words I hear?
You assign them to races,
To put them in their places
The riders are teachers,
The marchers are leaders,
The man they all look too,
Is a Baptist preacher.
She sat in a chair,
Not willing to share,
To stand for her rights,
Without being compared.
Some say ignorance is bliss, but I dare to disagree;
I say ignorance is what the eyes are afraid to see.
On the outside you may think these people are friends through whatever;
I've seen my people enslaved by these monsters
I haven't seen them escape very far
Still trapped by their masters, or the ones that claim they are
And they've been hypnotized by those damn cars
As I walk down the street
I see children playing
innocence.
They don't care about you're
race, gender, or difference
acceptance.
Beaten, battered and broken
Through hell and back,
We stay alive,
The torture, the hate and lack of respect
From Emmitt Till to Rosa Parks,
They endured, they fought!
Why won’t it change color?
I try so hard
To scrub off the darkness
That will never go away
It brings so much trouble and shame
They stare at “it”
Define me through “it”
But I am more than that
Silence sweeps over the cotton fields of present day Georgia
As gentle winds tickle the cypress and the pine.
Streams ebb contently in their beds.
Who would have thought in such a beautiful place,
During a horrific war
That divided our country in two
Abraham Lincoln freed all African Americans
From their chains of bondage
[We fight and we live
we strive and we cry.]
to live in a world so cold
so brave so frightful
so full.
Of Color [we sigh and
we hide and we hate.]
to live in a world of hopes
and dreams
(poems go here)
The struggle of pain can make you feel like your nothing, It felt like that during the civil rights.
I am a product of the Earth, much like you.
My people blossom in the motherland, soaking in the bright sun.
Our vines weave around the rough terrain, entangling in each other
We grow in these dense fields.
Little do we know,
A Civil Rights Movement
Is happening right now.
During these times,
Protestors remain silent,
Hiding in shadows.
Paralyzed by fear
Of being snatched
Away from family.
I had a dream, he had a gun.
I asked if I could sit, they asked if I could run.
Without justice there is no peace, they say “I have justice so is there peace?”
How could individuals that look SO different coincide with one another?
They said the brown animal could never be called a brother.
On August 28, 1968, two sides making up a quarter million marched as one number.
A few weeks ago I was reading a book on theater
And someone saw me reading and told me, "Black people don't read".
That made me sad.
Then the quote started to sink into my thoughts
and it started to make me mad.
"And Justice for all"
We say it everyday.
They say it too
They must,
They do.
But do they think of us
of me, of you?
No I dare say they do not.
They only think of conserving
I remember you sitting next to me learning about our history,
about the protest that our ancestors took part in.
For you and I to live free, with equal rights as whites.
Belittlement, beatings and such things as slavery.
“We shall overcome,” he said. His eyes held strength as he gripped the podium.
And spoke to the crowds of mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers and sons.
In today's world, we hear about the civil rights movements in history class.
We think, "that was so long ago, does it even matter now?"
Most teens only think about our country now, not it's past.
The search for a new beginning
Is lost in prejudices of the past.
A civil war is fought, a nation torn apart, for what?
A new hope, a new start
That instead is once again lost and
This is a Rise^
For All of Those who have Died
in order to keep the Living Hope Alive
This a Rise^
For All of those who wear a disguise
There's no need to hide
I hear the sound of guns
"Bam" "bam" “bam”
I hear the screams from afar
The horrified screams like nails
Nails screeching across a chalkboard
I hear the sound of laughter
As it fills the air
We were making history.
One thought that kept us going
as others viewed us with faces of disgust,
for we knew that the same faces of disgust
would be present upon the people reading about us.
I never had to fight to live,
Or visit June of '69.
I'm too young to see a club,
But I know where I belong.
Gramma told me that it's bitterness that eats the soul,
A bitterness one cannot control.
But it is He who shed light,
On all of those who were in a fright.
Oreos. Zebras.
There are jokes about both
That are funny to even the most welcoming of people.
When two races mix,
Two races so different as black and white, literally,
Judgment is passed,
Capture the past
I'll let it live
Very loud, asking for forgiveness
Ignite a passion for history
Let you beat me like I beat you
Greater peril awaits thee if a choose to fight for us
For I am not liked – my natural devil formed in birth.
So they say.
Though some see no light,
On they must fight.
Though they faintly hear the ring,
The freedom bells bring.
Man, woman, and child,
Their ideas seem wild.
Their lives not in vain,
(poems go here) Shut Out by Injustice
The only way I will ever feel in this empty world of hatred is belittled.
The whiplash created from the names being thrown out left to right.
Rosa Parks made quite a fuss
when she didn't move to the back of that bus
And what about MLK
whose dreams never got washed away
I have a dream he said
even on his death bed
fighting for his people
Chained down with metal unseen by the naked human eye
We were a mass paradox
Living in a country of freedom and liberty
But yet, not fully free
Beaten.Broke.Bleeding.
Still fighting. Still believing.
I keep on going.
They want a world full of white, but what good is that?
White is not unique
White is not bold
White is all I've ever been told
White is "pure"
White is "clean"
Yet all white has ever been is mean
Minorities,
Women,
LGBT,
Why is it that no one sees,
The world is not just white men,
That conquered land across the sea,
And called it home?
