Related Poems
They walked and walked and walked. With bruised feet, they walked. With bruised souls, they walked. With bruised hearts,...
Don’t let my last name fool you – Cortes
I want to work as equally hard as the person beside me
One who holds the same...
When all we could see was black and white
those memories we all hold onto so tight
for those people that nothing could ever...
Represent
The palm of my hands is the palm of yours
Represent
They represent these United State shores
Comes the tall ‘n...
He had a dream…
To change the nation.
He had a dream…
To take away the categorization.
He had a dream…
That hands would be...
Falling.
The fresh taste of blood salts my lips.
Rage. How dare I dream about a future that may never come?
For dreams...
Look at all the people
Staring in disbelief
Witnessing terrorism
Help commander in chief
We seek the governments help
We...
Pain, terror, torture, hurt
Watch as another church is burnt
Laughter, scorn, mocking, disdain
Follow me, increase my pain...
The loss of words hits us without warning, express yourself by action my brothers and sisters of the sun and all shall...
The movement never ended
Burning churches have become mosque
Black power has become gay pride
Only love can conquer hate
If...
Color
My skin contains color and pigment
And melanin turning me into
The beautiful queen I am.
Because I am black
And I...
My brothers, my sisters,
And my friends I call misters.
Do we only fight, just to be right?
Being right is overrated,
But...
Yesterday African Americans didn't have rights
Yesterday a white man standing up for a black man was wrong
Yesterday slaves...
It has been discovered
that this Earth upon which we flourish
rotates and revolves about the sun simultaneously.
With such...
the right song can have it’s way with you like a lover can have with your heart
make you happy, sad, move you to do things...
The weight of history
is what we carry everyday.
Like ankle weights that shackle us to an antiquity we never lived.
Past...
(poems go here) there is always a time and place for everything ,
sometimes it takes a friend to bring out the good in...
I'm working so hard
to barely get by
To say I'm exhausted,
wouldn't be a lie.
A white man walks,
a bag over his face
to hide...
Is it not enough that I ask for respect
Until that time, I seem to detest
That my fellow beings are being treated
Such as...
Strength is a father’s peace and struggle is a father’s fight,
Oliver Brown, a man among a population, of lesser than equal...
When dreams long since are spent
and broken-
when a weary people can no longer
wait-
they will rise up, rise
from raisins...
Rejected
I put my time and effort into you and all I get is a painted canvas that’s washed away soon after. You make not...
She is my life, she is my heart,
She is not like you, treated horribly by her differences, tearing me apart.
To you, she is...
There goes that ribbon floating through the air. Her dress flowing in the breeze. She's curious, she wants to go, no...
Walking down the busy street
surounded by melodious voices,
low and deep, high and sweet.
I enter a building to my right.
My...
Soft golden handle.
Large bronze door,
pushing its breeze on my face,
not knowing what can come my way.
Open the door to...
The silence before a victory in equality parallels the silence after:
it is alighted by those who barter their carved flesh...
It's wrong of me
To want to be equal.
It's wrong of me
To not feel like a woman.
Or a man.
It's wrong of me
To not be...
(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...
I belong to heirs who were kings and queens
Yet somewhere my royals were deceived
Token stolen with no explanation no fear...
You make think I’m crazy but I think you’re so amazing
You’ve given me inspiration to soar to a higher elevation
Knowledge...
I never ever claimed to be a lyrical genius or one who spit words from the top of my cranium that could make you so furious...
We fought for the right to be free,
Free like those before us had not been.
We protested and tried our hardest to fit in,...
I have the right to school
I have the right to live my way
You have no say
I have the right to speak
Thats my rule
To live...
So often called the land of opportunity
How often this country found itself sliced into disunity.
North and South
Blacks and...
Back in the ‘60’s the movement began
From Memphis to Selma the freedom trains ran
Rallies and demos the fires did fan
As...
differences are obvious, all one has to do is look.
the weak try to differentiate for the purpose of tearing apart.
but...
the color of my skin is yellow
i feel sick, and i feel bad
for being disgusted
it’s not your fault
you were raised to be...
They say we have the right to be civil
The right to be right
But not the right to be white
The right to be different
The...
To say that we are not equal
And to deprive us of our right
Is to say that we are not people,
But creatures of the night;...
One voice shouts against the grain
Words of anger, fear, and pain,
Arms spread wide to grasp the sun,
But too far a leap for...
In history,
You read of my grandmother's pain.
Her torture,
The whippings
The pain of being pulled apart from her children...
Honestly, where im from success doesnt come around commonly
You're successful if you survive a lifetime in my shoes...
War, Hatered or Fear
why do we fight
For our contery
For the people
For honor
or for the fear of not doing anything
Fear of...
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...
Hi, my name is Jim Crow,
And I have the power.
The power to tell you where you can sit,
The power to tell you where you can...
Darkness was all that was there
Black, the color of a rising movement
Hate, the feeling that overflowed the nation
White,...
In memory of Martin Luther King and others lost tragically before their time and before their potential in the human...
Day in and day out, people rush by me,
See past me, don't want to take another look at me.
“Get off the bus! This is for...
What does it mean to possess civil rights?
Does it mean we’re part of a special caste?
Or do these rights distinguish blacks...
So its as plain as the night
That I’s black and he’s white
That I work as he reaps
That I plough and I weep
While he sleeps...
It took me three months to muster up the courage to talk to her,
six, to ask her out,
nine, to make her mine.
She put the...
America would not be America,
Culture would not be Culture,
And half of us would not Be here,
Without Our Civil Rights.
The...
Now you lay me down to sleep
The soul God prayed for you to keep.
Sentenced to die before I awake,
My life ended, because of...
It’s rage, color, and quiet.
It’s emotion, imagery, and sound.
It’s the movement of a breath-taking riot.
It’s the goal of...
We are all EQUAL Americans, this should be common sense,
but instead, for society what’s not right is rinsed
Its just as...
Darkness covered this earth,
Racism, ignorance, discrimination,
Seeds of pain and anguish,
The people can only take so much...
Fire burns
In the streets and in their souls
Fire as powerful as Prometheus' Flame,
A flame that ignited civilization...
They wanted to call us colored
But what did colored mean
To a population with crops dying
Radiation spewing across the sky...
(poems go here) Shut Out by Injustice
The only way I will ever feel in this empty world of hatred is belittled.
The whiplash...
“What a Beautiful Love” is what I see as I open up my wall
A post from Shawn Robinson displays a ripe red rose and deeper...
they had
waited for the sun
in a world with only shadows
the dominant character in a story with no sun
no light for those...
Born into this life,
I knew not of any strife.
My mother just held me,
Never wanting to leave me.
I knew not why,
I just...
I cannot bow down to you
Blood boiling over, teapots squeal, hate filling my chest –
Anger rises, as the screams escape the...
Everyday, another body in the street, out cold, drowned in blood, left there for hours, days, weeks, months, probably years...
"All men are created equal" wrote Jefferson,
Yet it took a war to make all men free.
Blood was spilt,
Brothers killed...
We stared at palms- the softer, crafting part of a hand,
"We are the same color."
"No," said the sister, "turn them over."...
One man who had the power to change the world.
A man who was heaven sent.
A man who was determine to fight for equal rights...
I'll give my blood
to keep your stripes red.
You can keep your white,
and I can keep my freedom.
The chains of oppression...
White, black, short and tall
I'd like to thank you all.
Strong and frail, made it to Heaven but was forced to travel through...
I'm only 17, I was born in 1999.I thought by 2017over the years things would change but it seems as if we're going back in...
Why is there such disrespect
For all those that we know?
Why is there such prejudice
Are you putting on a show?
Why does...
They march and march, but not without a reason.
With no guns or knives, but they're still accused of treason.
Signs in their...
A person walking in shame.
Violence, Bloodshed, Fright
Reactions when mistreated because of their color.
Courage, Change,...
The bus is hot as it rolls, and with the number of bodies is
Sticky air and sweat-wet seats and the raw smell of humans.
We...
The riders are teachers,
The marchers are leaders,
The man they all look too,
Is a Baptist preacher.
She sat in a chair,
Not...
The sting no longer comes.
With every crack of the whip, I just wait.
I simply wait to lose consciousness,
Wait for the...
So is that who I am?
To be stereotyped just from my interest.
Is that who I am?
The one who's labeled just for being me.
You...
What can I say about the American Civil Rights movement
Actions for equality, freedom, and civil improvement
Black slavery...
The crowds of people march down one by one
Like a soldier and his gun
The world at their feet
They go down in history on...
Opposed to equality
Fearful of integration
Nine teenagers fought back
against America's horrible past that hindered progress...
Civil rights are guaranteed for you and me,
But they did not come for free.
From the 13th Amendment, Abe Lincoln led the way...
Im Just walking down the street with a bag of skittles and ice-tea and all of a sudden this man just started...
Us
That's me and mine
We're the same.
White. Nose. Dinner.
We're family.
I started school last year.
That's us. We're the...
Black:
Lacking hue and brightness,
Absorbing light without
Reflecting the rays composed of it,
Enveloped in darkness
Black:...
There they stood so proud with roses at their feet, sunshine glimmering down,
everywhere they looked they could see the...
Tears trickle down my mother's dark face
Sweat precipitates on the filthy back of my father
All around me I see people who...
We have come a long way
From the time were horses ate hay
Where people could hate
Because you were not white
We have come a...
Let’s keep this simple.
Nothing good comes from slicing the throats of peers
Let’s keep this simple
Nothing good comes from...
This is me, this is who I am. This is my life, this is my business. I respect you, and I respect your choices.
Respect mine...
No one critiques a rainbow.
It's bright array
and the brilliant creation
Of unique colors are welcome
To every human eye.
It...
No surgery
Lost limbs
Give a leg
Then ask of him,
Restore my sight
With nothing to hide
He said
She said
Spread it out
Or...
“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part;...
Prop 8
You're so full of hate
You f*cked up a state
And forced us to wait
As bait for the courts
You seemed easy to kill...
The American dream.
Is it a joke or a passion?
Should we rush after it and put our heart and soul on the line?
Or wait it...
Still happening.
Marched for nothing?
Television tells me that,
we did not win the rights we asked for.
As women,
as men,
as...
When society does a 180 twist down on my headAnd I can't rest anymore, digest anymore except if it's a complete mealI'm...
Why?
Why is it always those who are powerless to fight?
Because they can't stand up for their rights.
Why do you have to...
Why can't I find
My confidence
Where is it
How can I survive
This world asks for it
I know is in there somewhere
I can feel...
There are two doors with which to enter
Only one of which is right
Only one will give you freedom and promise
That door is...
I am pale as the moon in a sky of darkness
White against the shadows of the night
His skin is dark like a moonless sky
But...
I’ve got hope… Now where’s my change
As I sat down searched my mental for my last remaining bit of sustenance
I stumble upon...
Bars, the social norm
Keeping us in, keeping them out
When will it end
This nasty game they’re playing?
But we wont back...
Picture, if you will, for a minute,
A leader.
A man rooted deeply in his home community,
In the nutritious soil of faith and...
Ten years ago, just a glimpse of stocking,
Would be a sight just oh so shocking.
Just the sight of elbow would cause a stir...
We are shadows.
We are beneath you, behind you, wherever you may go.
You cannot escape us.
We cannot escape you.
We are your...
Jobalee Jobalee
What happened to the slaves that they say are now free,
freedom is what they gave us when they carried us...
Wake up turn on the news
And guess what I see?
Another black man getting killed by police
You'd think it's once a month but...
One ugly has divided the world
Separating friends from one another
Causing brothers to go against each other
Everywhere,...
Color of the skin
It does not matter to me
Black people are people too!
My dialect is catastrophic. Viciously it consumes the minds of those who surround me. To catch only a whisper would reveal...
August 23rd, 1963
Sweat dripping on the late summer afternoon
250,000 people of all color
United, as one
Witnessing the new...
I hold these truths to be self evident, though many people cannot see
we were all created equal from sea to shining sea
I...
Freedom
I never knew it was like to have my freedom stripped away
But I now I see it in their eyes that I can't even go to...
On a bus that cold wintery December 1st 1955,
Word caught the wind and the people did thrive.
Could this be? Well of course...
In vain
Was it really in vain?
The woman that wouldn't move in the bus,
The tremendous speeches that broke chains,
And many...
There's no one keeping you down
he says
because the President is Black
You don't need a scholarship
for your melanin
because...
Why does the mockingbird sing?
Why does she lift her head to die?
Is it the color of her wings?
Or is it the passion in...
She was Born to be Judged
Judged to be Born,
She inspired those of her color,
Those of her class,
Those of her gender,
To be...
Dear Ms. Eckford
I loved your dress.
Your hair was fly.
Your shades were classy.
Your walk was fierce.
Dear Ms. Eckford
Were...
As we are boycotting the buses,
As we are marching in the capital,
We are calling for the country’s attention.
We are...
You know what’s hard about civil rights?
I’m the white male juvenile discussing it
Can you put that picture together?
I’m...
Freedom IS costly
Costly?
The lives that were Volunteered,
made freedom costly
The lives that were damaged beyond Repair,...
I see duplicates of me hanging from trees like suffocating fruit gasping for air
It’s not random who takes this position; no...
If it wasn't for the magic
when this universe was born-
the gravity that held it down
the sun that kept it warm
If it wasn't...
I believe
in the equality
of color, race, and skin
I believe
in the ability
to fight prejudice and win
I believe
in the...
(poems go here) Age five. He had that innocence we all once have.
asking to play with someone of a different skin
he knows...
The diner reeks of sweaty booths
The ceiling fan has died.
Summer bakes the windows brown
As brown as burgers fried.
Black...
Teach them about the past so they won't be ignorant. guide them through the present to better their future tense.Like King...
Mama?
Yes baby?
What’s a nigger?
A mean name for our people.
Mama?
Yes baby?
Who are our people?
Colored folk.
Mama?
Yes,...
Do you know about the past?
When your ancestors thought they wouldn’t last?
Sitting in the back of that class
Words that...
From the beginning of time we have been judged by the color of our skin.
Not caring for what was within.
People have told us...
Growing up, all I ever heard was how the "white man" would keep us down.
How all they ever wanted to do was see me frown....
I am a parasite. I feed from the fear and pain of the cowards; the unfaithful fall as I consume their souls. I devour their...
He said
“Hello, Ms. or Mrs. I’m so glad you came.
Your interview’s next, m’am. What is your name?”
“My name is Brittany” I...
There was one big box.
Six sides, white, with straight lines.
Nothing made this box different than any other,
But it kept...
We're all warm bodies,
put together in an artistic ways,
Our skin isn't what society embodies,
There were never any good ole...
Wake me up,
when the days of suffering and pain are over.
Wake me up,
when I can walk amongst others with out recieving a...
I realized that I live in world that lacks common sense.
Yet we continue to commence wars and debt.
Yet we continue to...
No one wanted to be someone like me
Ebony!
Ebony!
I repeated every night
It was the most beautiful word I was called if I...
The school from which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. received his doctorate, Boston University, is, as its name implies,...
I beat from within
The quiet river of life
Flowing through my veins
I crave another
To hear the tribal beating
On their red...
This year, paper showed what we really are to everyone; equal.
Racial discrimination banned at work.
Free to vote wherever...
The simple air of a whistle.
Clean outside air, sweet perfume, cigarette smoke
From the usual porch sitters
Outside Bryant’s...
(poems go here)The Power of gangs rule the streets...
women in fear children mistreated...
how so has this tragedy cause my...
One man had a dream
That dream asked us to put our preducies behind us
That one dream asked every person, balck or white to...
It's as if they fear the color
Will drip off of their skin and stain their clothes
As if they may breathe it in
Like a...
“The Darker Brother”: forgotten and unappreciated hero.
He is courage, strength, and commitment.
“The Darker Brother”...
Not a day goes by where I don"t think of them...
Those people like Dr. King, Malcolm X and Rosa parks. that fought with...
It began with a dream
To be free of oppression
Of segregation
Of prejudice
It was not a normal dream
But one of motivation
A...
Take me to a world where there is equality and respect for one another.
Where the hearts of man runs freely with no worries...
It was a movement
Filled with martyr’s
Those who knew what was right
Equality and no separation
Integration was a must
No...
It doesn't matter if you’re black or you’re white,
You shouldn't have to beg for your rights or put up a fight.
The color of...
Why am I so different?
Confused by the color of my skin, I am ashamed.
Though He says we should love everyone, but one does...
Feeling the grumble from below
I continued to sit and wait
Another thirty minutes pass
An ache begins to form
I continued to...
It all started with Emmit Till
We won’t let them have our bodies to fill,
their rivers of hate...
She is told she is wrong
So she spends her life thinking she is wrong
But no one has that power to say she is wrong
So she...
The blind is leading the blind,
So who know whose fair?
As I watch the news,
I can't help ,but be speechless.
Who will be...
Who Am I?
The brown skinned brother in the back
I try to adapt but I always get thrown in the back of the pack
If only my...
when the door closes that's when the clock stop, that's when his mind take control, to all those who don't know he's...
Ever since I came out the womb,
they said it was power to the people
But what power do you have
when you aren't allowed to...
The law should be blind to color, the law should just.
The Civil Rights Movement finally blew through the area like a great...
One eye
Just one eye
That's all it takes to see
One eye to view the deep corruption of a land
One eye to shed a tear for...
I truly feel free!
Centuries of injustice and finally
freedom rings!
From the cruel and torturous
shackles to the White...
The Civil War is 19th century news
Only talk about it in history when my brain is on a cruise
See the Civil Rights Movement...
One man willing to stand up for his rights,
one woman willing to fight,
A man who has a dream for equality in the nation,...
Back then we were'nt allowed to vote,own property,work.
We coud not live our lives.
Now we can do whatever we set our minds...
Back in the 1800's, Negroes faded
With no voice and no power, they were used repeatedly
Working for white people until they...
They are scared, they fear, they suppress my uniform
They demoralize my people because of what we represent
Just because of...
A Throne
A chair that entails great power
Power to destroy
Power to heal
Power to free
From this seat exudes authority
A...
Chained down with metal unseen by the naked human eye
We were a mass paradox
Living in a country of freedom and liberty
But...
Why you so surprised?
You thought change was gonna come
But let me explain something to you
History repeats itself
And it’s...
I am young and fierce; I am tall and strong;
To some I am feared, and they say I don't belong;
Yet I have a place on earth...
For a second be civilized
peer through someone else's eyes
who was once terrorized
unfortunately we are mesmerized
by not...
Negros united
Even standing with the whites
Vain deaths no more
Even through the tough times
Rise against separatists
And...
The White School towers across the street
holding its head up high as if it didn’t notice
the black school just beneath its...
Because Martin Luther King had a dream,
The fertile dreams of the future never looked so bleak
Torture on my dreams led to...
ÛBUNTU ÛMUNTU
I'm for Ûbuntu
I'm for us
I stand for I'm for we are
The collective responsibility
You're for Ûmuntu
You're...
It’s the stare that burns like fire upon skin
The feeling like you could never belong hides within
The tear that falls...
We take for granted the freedoms we have
The biggest freedom of all to some
Are civil rights and liberty
African Americans...
Tears were shed
Spirits were broken
Blood was spilled
and strong words were spoken
Many died, and many cried
but one man...
Nineteen sixty three was not an end, but a beginning
The dreamer proclaimed with an aspiration of winning
The ideal of...
Religiously Politically Accurate
Politics and morals
Don’t go hand in hand
Maybe this is the reason
That religion is...
When you are a child
You see those around you as equal.
For ignorance is bliss.
When you age,
You become callous,
Judgmental...
Scars are permanent and so is ink
These things I unveil are just what I think
Rosa Parks and Ida.B were women fighting for...
From a young age,
We’re taught about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.
We learn about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I...
I am not a man
Not my brother
nor father
was a man
for all us three together would not be a man
for all us three worked...
We the oppressed people
Are much more than a waste of space
Boomerang Maltreatment and Injustice
One win, Two losses
...
“We shall overcome,” he said. His eyes held strength as he gripped the podium.
And spoke to the crowds of mothers, brothers...
I heard jesus walks...
well, i hope he's stalking
me, come and see all the stuff that i be talking
bout, no doubt, the...
Day by Day
I look upon a street
Watching and listening
As kids are dancing to the beats
You know what else I see
I see the...
Standing alone on the corner
Listening, waiting, hoping
The message, loud and clear
But everyone else refuses to hear
All...
Biloxi Beach
Sunny beaches
Tranquil and smooth
Who'd have guessed that your shores
Could be so abused?
Doctor Mason
Your...
What is color?
A trick of light
Or lack of light.
White is bright.
Black is dull.
But that’s not true.
Black is all colors....
Individuality, gone
Hope, ha, you've got none
Everything that you found light in,
They locked away, out of reach
You tried...
(*This is read as a haiku*) I walk into class. Oh no, not this bitch again. Ms? Please burn in hell.
They say listen to your elders
Thats what I did
I did everything he told me
I was only a kid
He used us and hurt us
Broke...
They promise me freedom but I all I got was chains.
So I tried to break from these chains
But I got slain.
They say freedom...
They say He made you in His image; You have a heart, a mind, a soul.
“You are just a piece of trash,”… said the white guy...
Ready or not here they come, the ones who have made room for us. From the top of their head to the bottom of their feet, all...
My mama told me to sit down
That I would get hurt if I stood up on the bus
It was awfully full on that bus
Some people...
Civil Rights
We are all equal
But are we?
We aren't all treated the same
We aren't all given the same support
There is still...
It is hard to believe how far we've come
this journey is hard and long but still undone
through pain and sacrifice rights...
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...
Coretta, Rosa, and Viola believed in right
To vote and be heard was their fight
To realize the dream they did demand
The...
A woman once asked me
What does it mean to be free?
As I pondered this question, I though
Freedom is the ability to be me...
It started with the index finger...
A dictator was killing innocent people
Crematoriums, mustard gases, guns
Those were his...
The rumbling of the drums to the
gathering of the clans are
where we began.
Mothers and fathers together as one
uplifting...
As flesh imprisons one’s soul and mind,
Fluids slip silence; yet hold in time:
Every color we tried to be hid in that wasn’t...
Walking down the street humming, listening,
I hear the pitter patter of my own feet.
My heart does not skip a beat,
No...
A church I say, a church
For only God knows the boundaries of his creations
The beautiful children of my kind step forth...
How do you describe my skin? Do you only describe me as light skinned? Do you not see the pain and scars that are visible to...
I live in the past
the thing is though
it’s not my past
it’s the past of those who have come before me
it's the past of...
We have been living amongst a misconception
Misconceived by those who decided to create the title “Black History Month”
Now...
Your name is your legend
To flow through the years
The problem was hate
Demolishing love, and creating fear
No one had to...
I am majority, you are minority, who are we?
I am powerful, you are powerless, who are we?
I am free, you are not, who are...
On the beaten path together we walked
Onto a world that had stood divided,
With moral code broken and blocked.
Explosions...
Protected saplings;
Symbols of what Anne Frank viewed for years.
Her entries foretold what America would cherish,
And gift...
Hey Martin, Hey Martin, would you be proud
If you were live to see the way that we live?
You fought for civil rights,...
The parents stand straight,
Awaiting a verdict that they know they should win.
The press scribbles and jots,
Knowing they...
I am…
Not just one color.
My mother, my father,
how could I be their daughter?
Adoption is the expectation,
I respond with...
Separate But Equal
What is wrong the world?
You feel worthless,
Scared, and alone.
No one to trust,
Not a hand to hold.
So...
The road to freedom was filled with trials and tribulations
And the government’s mind was full of hesitation.
The white man...
We are Hmong people.
We have same rights and humanity as others
However we speak differently.
Because of minds who said we...
My splattered blood dries
over the newly cemented pavement
where my head collided,
after my back got soaked and bruised
from...
Society
By: Megan Williams
Society
Please tell me
What have we become?
We sold our souls
Our inner being
And for what?...
What is brown?
The richness of the earth
Tough like leather, smooth like wood.
brown is America
What is white?
The light of...
My flag says I am free.
Free from prejudice based on my color.
Free from others believing I cannot learn.
Free from hurt...
Tell me how you feel when the wind gets strong enough to blow you over.
Why do I try?
Taking in everything that's happened,...
God told Eve to leave it alone
But the temptation grew out of control like hormones
She thought she could handle it on her...
How can man live in true unity?
Nature is interconnected, it is as it is.
A tree does not reject a living being for living...
Cleveland Ave
It’s not that I had never seen her before,
I’d seen her many times, no doubt.
Always looking tired, but strong...
It was for our freedom that she fought
Our suffrage, rights, autonomy
Until her expression was brutally shot
With the bullet...
They said we were free
From the chains and the whips,
Yet this is another
Kind of imprisonment.
No freedom at all,
To choose...
If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention. It's all the white supremacist the president fails to mention. It's all...
This little song that I'm singin' about,
People, you all know that it's true,
If you're black and gotta work for livin',
Now...
See if y'all keep playing imma turn this shit into columbine oh nah it's not funny when I make white jokes but when y'all...
Skin color, Skin deep
White, Tan, Brown, Black
Past divide, present leap
Rights of women, Rights of men
Vote, Work, Control...
A generation of sons flown overseas
Those left at home rendered mute although screaming for truth and peace
Left with no...
The revolution was not televised.
It will not be found in a tweet or an updated status.
But do you know your status, the...
I Am Only One
What can I do?
I Am Only One
Who would hear my voice?
I Am Only One
Why would anyone listen to me?
I Am Only...
Black- much more than a color.
It represents an entire race.
A feeling of pride and honor,
humility and grace.
Unfortunately...
(A colored skin individual with dreams and aspiration in their eyes
Faced with the choices of the now and the then
Reminded...
As we are black ,
we tend to be underestimated
as we fought for our rights they couldn't hold us back
As we are black,
we...
I may reside in the southern states but I can travel to the Border States if I desire to.
I walk down the street quite...
I dare you to belittle my intellect with constant neglect.
I dare you to depreciate my ability to succeed.
I dare you &...
O’ Captain! My Captain!
Onward across the borders,
Crowds ringing earth swaying.
The hope of freedom
Springs from beaten...
For what do we strive for?
As a race?
As a community?
As a nation?
As humanity?
Is it freedom?
Is it...
Before, it was solid with no change
Those, not content were looking to rearrange
Although it seemed like nothing for a bunch...
White signs in red writing won’t change the world,
Angry threats and harsh words hurled,
No rushing mob with guns in hand,...
People go through lengths to love someone, to find peace with one another now
That way back in the day, it didn't matter...
The silent tears go unheard
The biggest fears come at night
Others choose to standby
While others choose to fight
By taking...
In a bus, in the city of Montgomery,
A woman came aboard.
Little did anyone know at the time,
That this woman would change...
Years have gone by and still tears seem persist
As a whole race of people are hushed by a cracking whip
The voice of one man...
When I woke up one day,
I realized,
my personality wasn't the same as usual.
I had never acted this way before.
When I woke...
I look in the mirror and I see a person
Whose face reflected what was on her heart.
I look at her and tell her, “You know...
The bus is hot as it rolls, and with the number of bodies is
Sticky air and sweat-wet seats and the raw smell of humans.
We...
I am informed of the dictatorial countries in this world
And I instantly contemplate of our home
How we are liberated from...
Our heritage
From our skin to our inner most features,
We have the deepest roots.
From the food we eat to the souls who cook...
My naivete has led me astray from the real world.
This wonderland in which my mind obtains is nothing more than a fallacy...
What we need
Is a revolution.
What we need
Are real solutions
Youth on fire, with a heart for God
Filled with the Holy...
This immediate desire to quell and instill, I sensed, rather than heard.
Inspiration was born from a mournful song of one...
Discrimination, Distinction, Discernment, Differentiation…
This so called pigment of black doesn’t match, because we come in...
While it may not help that I’m just a kid from suburbia,
Born in the 1990s and white
It certainly does not mean I’m ignorant...
How do you change the world
It's a question worth asking
back and forth we go
Are we right?
Are we wrong?
We don't know...
The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in great times of crisis maintain their neutrality
In my eyes those...
Why do we label?
Why do we see people in groups?
Why is being different, different?
Why do people say they don't see me.......
That man over there say
a woman needs to be helped into carriages
and lifted over ditches
and to have the best...
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...
Many dreams were created
But these at first were hopes
Never had the thought of making it
now we're out the fields separated...
Freedom: The power or right to act, think or speak as one wants without hindrance or restraint.
Ask me am I free. It’s what...
Here we are
Here we stand
We are living out God's own plan
We are the children of the dream
I don't need another new year to...
The word hate is strong but true
In some people's cases
People judged on inheritance
It was all about the races
So closed...
We fight for what’s right,
We fight for what’s good
We fight for what’s true
We fight for the safety of you
Is what they all...
Who are we? We are not a normal bystander.
A person who gets demist and overlooked.
We will not be taken, used and forgotten...
SHE woke upTo EXPLOSIONSbursting her earlobes …Gun shots brought her to a state of CONFUSIONAs time SLOWED Then...
Nothing.
That is what is expected of me.
No,
That’s what I am expected to be.
So I am.
Nothing.
And if I am more,
I am still...
Finally we have overcome,
Where man and woman can be respected no matter where they're from.
A revolution? Or a strong...
Helping Momma carry groceries after a long wait in line,
I spot a water fountain but can’t read the sign.
Parched, I run to...
Beaten and tired of being called on last,
Mocked and threatened, living this way is no easy task.
Viewed from the bottom of...
Innocent and Pure,
A child who cries from hunger,
hunger that is not being feed,
rather discriminated,
hated for being born...
Is a picture a picture if it's all just white?
It’s just a blank canvas, that isn't right,
Just sitting there, alone,...
They weren’t allowed to learn together
Use the same restroom.
They weren’t seen as equals, whatsoever.
But, this won’t...
As I hold my comrade’s hand and sing, my mind wanders to the day before
I was running from the beasts and horrified by the...
Judged.
By the color, and size.
Every inch wasn’t good enough,
and every shade was not appreciated.
As if...
times change
so do people
things were bad
getting better
things change
we can help
love is everywhere
let it out
I am an African American, Truth Be Told. Riding in a car in a nice neighborhood on my way home, Truth Be Told. Stopped,...
Sometimes I wonder about the life
The lives that gave me equal rights
Leaders who have paved the way
Who have made it...
Silently weeping for a voice
Silently giving into force
Silently fighting in our hearts
Silently praying for release...
You have skin and I have skin,
So what's the difference between the skin we're in?
Yours is black, and mine is white,
But...
Who are they to judge me?
Who are they to conspire against me?
The KKK, no shame,
despising me and laughing in my face....
From the bus to the streets,
People of color were limited to meet.
Separate but equal,
She wanted to idle.
Rosa Parks,
Took...
In America today, people live for tomorrow.
The present is a gift that is accepted with sorrow.
Living the “dream” just to...
History is not all it seems
Yes, it may tend to repeat
At times is also one to defeat
The fabric of time has been tethered...
What is civil rights?
What is it to us today?
We as a new generation use racism as comedy,
when racism was war to our...
Her hair in neat braids, her frock a stainless white
Gazing at the wispy clouds that curl against a cerulean sky
She...
(Devin strolled in the house open the door to let in his buddies and the cold
“Hey nigga’ , this sandwhich grows mold.”...
He had a dream,
a never ending dream.
This dream was an concept
to cure the diease of the heart,
not the skin
This diease of...
A day on a bus,
Just like any other in the year 1955,
‘Separate but equal’ for white and black.
After a long day of work,
A...
Through death,
Through darkness,
Take a breath
They’re harmless.
With God in your heart,
His light as your guide,
Enemies...
1940s, pen to paper,
Truman said discrimination needs to be vapor,
No mater your race, color, nationality, or religion,
No...
The land of the free,
The land of the brave?
Yet the savage sun sets on this horizon,
Race, gender, and ethnicity in a blaze...
Believe in a better
World where we’re equal
Free from ignorance
And feeling evil
Believe in a better
Law that treats us
With...
I had a dream last night that turned into a nightmare,I woke up still asleep and walked to school full of fear.The kids gave...
Piercing eyes glare at unfamiliar faces
Awaiting rejection
So use to backs being turned, hearts being broken
There's...
land of the free, home of the brave
forced to conform
forget your culture
we'll beat the indian out of you
conform, be like...
We hold these truths to be self evident,
yet, I'm like some unwanted tenement.
All men are created equal,
some, but not all...
Do not disregard me,
for I am still the same brother with which you stand in arms with.
Forming chains to stand against the...
Who am I?Will I ever find out?Am I loveAm I hate?Am I happiness?Am I sorrowWould I only be simply emotionsOnly driven by...
Every minute of my fifteen years on earth has been spent examining the various colors around me
The chestnut trees that...
I look at the world today
How so many blessings came our way
How one man he took a stand
Freedom was not in our land...
Working for the workers
Laboring for the laborers
Fighting tirelessly
One man, one man alone
But then, never truly alone
The...
The pain they felt
I cannot imagine
They fought for rights
With such great passion
They fought for right
With all their...
How naive are we to believe that the civil rights movement is over?
Is it because we can all vote for our presidents?...
His is Malcolm X, and it all started when;
his dad was murderd
when he was six,
while he was playing pickup sticks.
First he...
How do I repay
the deeds done by
the civil rights leaders
of the bonded past?
How do I shine light
on the dull, average...
In a country where one color was once the norm
A multi-colored star is born
Where freedom once depended on race
Liberty is...
All I ask is to be respected, I will not be neglected, you're surprise of an uprise of people acting reckless, years of...
Death seeks in us all, but why does ones life seek death for us all.
It lives still lurking as hate devours each and...
The ride to freedom was long
Time would never heal
The wounds and the cries
From men and children alike
Full of tears, pain...
My body maybe black, but my soul is not
I may come from a different land, but I'm still human.
My tears are clear and my...
Pain
Gain?
The innocent slain
They were treated like dirt
Whether they wore pants or a skirt
They were washed away like muck...
All people have color
anyone can be your brother
Be they black, white, or pink
discrimination makes you think
Our skin does...
Children are screaming and babies crying,
All this from a little poverty?
Mommies and daddies begin praying.
People think...
Bitter, Wretched, violent
Words flowing through my ears
Hate exposed through words and actions,
Kick. Spit. Shot.
Enough...
You have no say
Yes I do
For I shall have the right to speak
Isn’t it Freedom of Speech?
No man shall be prohibited to speak...
Chemical world Its a chemical worldBy the system you are toldMore pills you feel much betteryou take more you feel clever ...
There was a time when we were'nt allowed to voice our opinions.
Now decades later there is a person of color in power....
Yes I'm black, that doesn't mean I'm vulnerable to attack,
I'm just like you, a human, red blood, emotions and a moving...
What is this white cap I wear
That makes everyone stare,
When I can down the green crown
Of liberty to set everyone free?...
I'm white
I've known nothing but white.
But the day in history came to learn about our rights.
Our rights as people, people...
White and red is proudly hoisted
Soldiers mount their horses
Say a quick prayer before departing
The battle turns to a...
The story of then,
The story of now,
and then the story yet to be unveiled:
The beginning takes place so long ago,
Hundreds...
The pain they felt
I cannot imagine
They fought for rights
With such great passion
They fought for right
With all their...
Black blood stainsStain hot black asphalt.
Black Mother’s pain.News of a son slain.
Six times shot!Four long hours lainIn...
I cry.
Seeing the faces of the afflicted.
Dark like the night with lifeless eyes.
The eyes burn through me.
Angry.
I am an...
As a young woman
She challenged polices
As time continued
She emerged as a teacher
Supporting college students
Who dared to...
(G)rateful to no longer be subjected to segregation, blessed to benefit from
(R)acial integration
(A)frican American civil...
Desperate times have ended.
The violence, the segregation, the violence.
Now to our eyes, the rainbow is visible.
The...
Talking as if history started with slavery
look how far they've come
but look how far they could be
still rejected rights...
What I want in my life is not much.
For you its garbage, but for me it's lunch.
My alarm clock is bullet's flying.
My days...
There is a bird
behind a door
before a door
waiting to be
and we allow it to wait.
it hurts to know
how it tires
flapping...
America America, why do we fuss and fight America let’s all unite America, stand Tall and strong for what you believe in and...
Come and talk to me,
I promise I don't bite
I have a wonderful story to tell you
A story about the day that changed my life...
John Kerry ran for president
John Kerry lost his election
Senator in 1984
Senator in 1996
Couldn’t make John Kerry a...
America, America, bound by brotherhood from sea to sea.
Holding hands and singing joyous songs all over the country.
But...
Civil Rights, an act to be free
when all around segregation we see
Disrespect, no justice all the time
Segregation, a...
I am stricken with the paint of bigots,
Cast in the colors they throw on me.
I am mulatto, all coffee and cream.
But when I...
Cold. Dead. Alone.
Eyes sunken
Nails brittle
Heart slow
Life held no meaning
Death held no sorrow
Light held no hope...
Do you hear the voice?
Screaming from the rooftop
Begging and Pleading for the world
To look and stop
Hear the brothers and...
I heard jesus walks...
well, i hope he's stalking
me, come and see all the stuff that i be talking
bout, no doubt, the...
Society has loved and hated
The world is kind yet it is cruel
Humanity has wronged, you have wronged humanity
Racism, Sexism...
I stroll down the sidewalk of my school, I hear murmurs and whispers of my name,
"Why is her hair like that?" "Why is she so...
There’s Segregation with dark skin and light skin and everything in between
I really don’t think this was Martin’s dream
He...
America was never a monarchy, yet we still had a King.
The man had no crown and was beaten and tossed aside.
With bruises...
My teachers were there....they were there they were there
They heard the cries for freedom and they saw the blood shed
They...
Pay Us Fair Wage
By Sabrina Riffle
Age makes no difference it is always the wage.
A cage, my sisters and I are stuck in from...
We are strong
But only when
We stand together.
Hand and Hand:
Ignoring our unique skin color
And focusing on the Humanity of...
We washed upon the shores
And traveled in rivulets through the veins of a nation.
We filled her cracks and hollows
And...
Desolation is a dusty road
How soothing is a leader’s gentle sigh
In DC, crowds buzzing and humming with anticipation.
Will...
Things were different back then,
your parents had to approve of your friend.
My grandpa says race doesn't mix,
Yazmin is my...
Mistreated and never trusted,
treated as outsiders,
treated as possessions,
never equals.
Set apart from the community,...
Hell and repression, stuck in a state of repression,
being pushed to far smacked down and shoved back,
forced into ownership...
Black and white
White and black
Ying and yang
Colors that make this world bright
Why should color of skin matter
When trying...
Most kings we know rule their kingdoms sitting down
Enclosed with luxury and riches all around
This new King was unlike any...
Face to face what a complex taste. Living in a world full of haste. Lines of races marching around in their places. Looking...
My heart races.
My hands tremble.
I know I must stand up for what I believe in.
No matter the cost.
The price is great.
But...
The actions you speak the word you,
Use all has an effect on the people around us.
Like the great Dr. King did. He fought...
People
A head, a heart, a body, a soul
Working, breathing, loving, hating
Brothers and sisters
Created as equals
With only...
Black, white, brown
What holds these colors to authority?
What empowers one to be bolder than the other?
eyes, face, hair...
Those who wrote the law
full of special holes
riddled with exceptions
Their money flows
their hands reach
They claim power...
I ain't done nothing to you
I ain't even looked at you funny
All I ever done is be me and all you ever done is
Hate me
You...
Twenty-five years ago
Deaf people found their voice
They said the hearing president must go
Deaf had made their choice
By...
I have a dream today,
Yo tengo un sueño hoy,
That one day, freedom will ring,
Beyond the confides of law
Or Government,
Over...
I practice to make perfectin learned lessons/
When love is the message your filled with this essenca that's precious/
A...
I am blessed
To have been born
Inside a place
Previously torn
But now repaired
With the thinnest thread
I remember this
As I...
My Bones Ache
My Hairs Grey
My Pride is Gone
Can I Rest Now?
You Ask For My Seat
I Say No
My Hands Are Cuffed
Can I Rest Now...
To control your slaves, make them hate each other,
And guaranteed, they will continue to for the next hundreds of years or...
I feel the mysterious paint dripping down like a cape
Containing the worlds lies that I thought I could escape
Masking the...
I never had a dream, all I had was a vision.
One was better my living, two never end up in prison.
Stay in school so I won't...
From her early years to her final years and unsung for hero helped the hearts of her struggling colored people.
From falling...
we are Black.
we are Proud.
they do not own Us.
they do not defeat You.
show our Spirit.
show our Strength.
we rise Up.
we...
The Guards were out
The people screamed
In this world so cold it couldn't be foreseen
The nine brave and power human beings...
accusations against innocents
crime against the colored
fear, disgust, seclusion
we take one step forward
little by little...
Back in mid 1900's blacks had no rights.
They were hung, beaten, arrested and even injured with dog bites.
All they wanted...
"Hand in hand,
we sisters unite.
Heart for heart
and fight for fight.
Though perilously we trek
into the untold,
we sisters...
There was once a time, when whites and blacks couldn't be around each other. There once was a time where black people weren'...
Alone I travel on the rocky road to success
Socially awkward with communication skills that can only get business done
Grew...
Those eyes we see
We walk down the isle
All I can have is a simple smile
I know all the hostility we create
It does no...
"Whites only" the sign reads
What does it really mean
Separation and segregation
Special privilege to others over needs
We...
The curls of you engross around
the nooks of my body, aching
for a moment of enticement
an enjoyable conversation over...
Barack Obama is all about protecting our freedom
In 2008, people thought Mccain was going to beat him
They said he can’t be...
"Why" does a little boy with hopes and dreams feel so alone?
And, when that little boy needs motherly guidance in his life,...
How much does it heart to see a young see a young girl twirk?
While her great-great grandma had to work, work, work.
Out in...
We shall not be moved
Together we stand, together we fall
Blown by the wind
Blown by the bullet
Drawn by their words,...
Sweaty hands, pacing heart
The struggles of everyday life
It took one to sit
To make a stand
She knew the consequences
But...
Tell me brother from across the line,
When did our love for each other become so defined,
You aim your gun at me,
I aim my...
The feeling of hopelessness, lost and pain was awakening within me.
What should I do? What should I do?
My shame began...
There once was a man who said, "I have a dream."
This man's dream was to be more than what he seem.
To not be classified...
White is beautiful.
It is bright, blinding white
That fills the cold days of winter.
It is the swirls of white
That cover...
We shall be free
And not conspire thee.
To only then can
Our race breathe liberty.
Thy soul shall have justice
And our skin...
My whole body is filtered black,
Knowledge is something I do not lack,
Everyone is equal,
Equality should be passed down...
M- otivation
O- ptimism
V- oices
E- quality
M- artin Luther King Jr.
E- nthusiasm
N- on violence
T- ogether We Stand...
If we are all created equal,
Why are we so different.
If we are all created equal,
Why are some living in the clouds,...
I have the right to learn.
Maybe I learn differently than you.
Maybe I learn more slowly than you.
But I still have the...
We, the inferior peoples of the world outside the First World,
more specifically outside the Great Yankee Empire;
and most...
Black or white?
Why should it matter?
We're all still people;
We're all still human.
Why should they have to walk the...
I'm just walkingOn an adventure you might sayThrough day & night Who knows what I might find?We may just be lost in...
Who knew something like a bus,
Water fountain, or bathroom,
Could cause so much distance between two races?
Those were hard...
Pushed to the side
and always passed by
I do the deeds
that are whipped out of me
You can not stand up
You can not say no...
Let me speak.
Speak.
I wish to speak the words of a free man.
Is he free?
Free.
What is does it mean to be free?
He dreamed...
Gallows Gallows are all I see People dangling-Dangling from hangingsGallows are all I see
People dying,People crying-for...
we fight on for the precious red, white and blue
for our childern to be equal and educated
for our mothers to be busniess...
Together we are One
We are no different
Personality must overcome all appearance
It makes no sense to ignore them from...
There's Sally, getting sprayed by a hose,
She screams and falls, landing upon her brother,
She is crying and trying to get...
Black and white are as opposite as the sun and the moon.
People can be so thick skulked, like stuck in a cocoon.
Even if the...
Grandma was it all worth it?
The constant tears, the shedding of blood, the ongoing battle
Was it all worth it?
The bus...
This shadow covers me
It's so dark
They walk about
I can't give up
I'm deep in pain
Screaming for help
They are looking
They...
"Five score years ago,”Looking out at the sea of growing peopleThey’ve come to end the segregation between them and the...
Do I not bleed the same as them
Do I not breathe the same as them
Do I not see the same as them
Do I not do everything the...
Paint me black
Paint me white
But paint me red
I become a color
But what color
Bright or Dark
Faded
Maybe I am faded
Hate me...
Man eats man’s flesh
Because the only God everyone worships is success.
Idolizing things like the body,
Oddly, there is...
A father, a mother
It didnt mean anything
But the thing is
They yelled, and fought
Leave him alone, hey
Pretty sharp in his...
chains and bars
across the sea
whips and bits
all over the earth
when does it End?
the odor of flesh
twine tied tight...
Strength isn’t always about who has the largest biceps,
The thickest calves,
The most powerful triceps.
Strength isn’t...
No one had thought it could be true
Seeing all these people on TV showcasing that there wasn’t anything they couldn’t do....
It started with one person,
who refused to give up her seat.
It started with one person,
who dared to stand up and say, "I...
I took a walk
Once
By a quiet stream
Away from you.
I could let my mind forget the times
You looked at me cold
Just because...
You try to tell me, that we are not one
You try to tell him that he is not like me
You want to separate us
But what you don’...
I'm not walking because I'm going somewhere
I'm walking forwards
I'm not walking to show them what I can do
I'm walking to...
cold, dark nights
laying on wood that goes into our backs that are already in pain
nights that seem to never last long...
the struggle
it began the time we were born
when we fought to grow and some of us to continue on with life as we knew it for...
it was after
the division of the country
and the great war
and after they were dragged
on that rocking ship
and loving men...
Passing by their faces show,
The ignorance hidden deep below.
I read their faces like a book,
Absorbing every dirty look....
Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono.The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.Kamehameha III asserted,...
The world is brimming with colors
Spilling across the globe
In an array of pigments and hues:
Red, green, purple,
Blue,...
If I could see over this farmed hills,
I wouldn't have to be afraid of life's thrills.
I am here for you brother-man
Here to...
They say that words won't break a man
And names won't color your life and place.
But we belong to greater things.
Than...
They walked and walked and walked. With bruised feet, they walked. With bruised souls, they walked. With bruised hearts,...
The pulse beating through their bodies,
The throbbing ache deep in the pit of their hearts,
They know the approaching...
He was my age when he died,
a boy who would now never grow up.
I don't know what it's like
to grow up hated and feared
by...
How beautiful it is this idea this right
To be fair to be just for this cause I would fight
As a great man once said and...
Harriet was born a slave on a plantation
Working very hard day after day.
She made it without proper sanitation.
She was...
We need a dream; to scream when told to be silent
We can no longer bare the hatred and violence
We hate the racism,...
Blinking sweat from his eyes,
His heart is on the verge of defunct,
Light irises face his.
Wild with fear,
His stomach...
Breathing
Walking
Sitting and talking
Simple acts taken for granted
Before it was not so simple
Society was broken and...
Tempted, be the endeavors of a heart once wounded
And pained, be that of a lover once scorned
Always wickedest in motion
And...
We stared at palms- the softer, crafting part of a hand,
"We are the same color."
"No," said the sister, "turn them over."...
It’s only a color.
Just a color.
Like red, blue, green, white.
Only it’s darker.
“Darker than night,” they say.
“An animal...
What they were called…
Negroes. Stupid. Ignorant. Less-than. Inadequate. Niggers.
What they really were…
Citizens. People...
Perspective is one's opinion
Whether something is right or wrong
No one can take it away from you
Because it's only you...
You have the right to remain silent. More like the reason to stay silent actually.
Anything you say or are can be and will...
Many things have changed
between a hundred years ago and now.
The laws have thankfully rearranged;
all that people's mouths...
Back of the bus, Know your place
Follow the rules and you'll be safe
Pale faces, wrinkled in disgust
They think they have...
We As Americans will help out the less fortunate
We as Americans will help out people who have nothing
We as Americans will...
Color Mute
I didn't know color had a mother until my heart bleed.
I didn't know that the ehips and the chains had a father...
Remember when we met on
in February 1960. You were standing there waiting
for me at the Woolworth
in Greensboro, North...
Well, you see Sir,
Time has come Teacher
you desire a review
of everything you say and do
and Dear Instructor, I have a few...
Behold an August day
a flock of black ravens
flew their way
to freedom.
What else is in the air?
A flock of white falcons...
"Freedom for women!" they shout
These feminists few
But how can they not see that she's a feminist, too?
So many spaces are...
Civil Rights?
Yeah, right.
We have hindered any rights that we have.
Did they fight?
Of course they did.
Taken two steps...
At any point in life, there is a choice. Whether to live or die,
Whether to sink or swim, Whether to fight or to just stand...
I am slumbering
Shifting in my cotton sheets
Tangling further in them
Till I cry out for fear of chains
I am waking
Opening...
The Honorable, The King, The Inspiration
The Lost, The Forgotten, The Unheard of
A man who made such an outcry
To be reduced...
“I have a dream,” he says.
Dreams of justice, of children—both black and white—hand in hand, playing,
dreams of freedom...
Why do we think we are better than another race?
Why is there such a thing as white Supremacy?
The colonial forefathers...
Is it better to be slave,
Than king of this cave?
We're chained people afraid
Of light.
Of a loud lion with no bite.
These...
These days, we hold gunsAt the ones we onceHeld our guns for.We give out freedomAs a broken promise.We don’t careFor the...
I am an African American
Take away African and I'm American like you
Do I not have a head full of hopes, aspirations, and...
Can you hear them
as they sing?
The whispers of the wind?
Can't you hear them,
And their song?
Wanting him again?
They seek...
Stand
Stand up with a straight back and a head tilted toward the heavens
Stand up with feet firmly on the ground and eyes on...
What are our civil rights?
Can they be won without a fight?
The world is trying but people are dying.
Children are crying...
To be here, or not
You will never get away
It's only a dream
Do not listen to
the rest of them. Proud spirit,
hold your head...
Cesar chaves was a great man that helped and healed
He was blessed as a leader
He was educated
He grew old and educated the...
(poems go here) We're only children, can't they see?
You're just like me, I'm just like you.
There's no difference between...
We are the same, you and I
Same hopes, same fears, same dreams
Same heart, same mind, same eyes
We have much in common, it...
Step, step, step—
I walk the streets of Selma to obtain the unattained.
Whip, whip, whip—
The bone chilling voices of...
Don't Judge Me
Don't judge me
Did you hear me
I said
Don't judge me!
It hurts
You know
Cause you don't even
Know me
So how...
Black,
the absence of color
or the absence of light?
Or is it the color
of a life-long
fight?
Red,
the color of roses
or the...
I'm not free.
I feel as if I was back then
With Martin Luther, Jesse Jackson
Because I still hear slurs, it's distractin'....
I write America, holding back the pain from her, the hurt from him, and the anger from themI’m a silently outspoken girl...
I kept trying to wrap my mind around it
Was there something I was missing
How could evil and hated be so prevalent in a land...
Together we soar,
Together we strive,
Together we are great,
Together we are alive;
But not today, no,
We have lost all...
When it's cold in the night we shall fight for our rightWe want shame to be goneFrom the land of the lightThe queen of the...
Are WE created EQUAL?
"Hell YES!" shouted the black man
"Hell NO we ain't" said the redneck
Divided
Connected
We are humans...
There are people who are called White
And there are people who are called black.
Some are concidered Yellow
And some Red....
They said
that lines were drawn
because
black and white can’t mix.
They believed
separate but equal
could actually exist
in...
Born into this life,
I knew not of any strife.
My mother just held me,
Never wanting to leave me.
I knew not why,
I just...
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...
Open your minds
Open your hearts
For you see today
A brand new start
Shout on the highest peak
Stand on a mountain
Let your...
Life
A deadly sin indeed,
A symbol of death, A symbol of disgrace,
Discrimination, Hatred, and very little hope,
Segregation...
Separate
Has never been
And never will be
Equal.
Paging through the textbooks of history and time
The white, clean pages...
The history of color
Is the history of time.
It has existed even when
Life had been blind.
But like all history,
Color...
DISCRIMINATION, that is a word that sliced deep into the hearts of many, pouring out the blood flow of confusion and a sense...
A critical strike—
Locusts swarm Baghdad.
Hands on general watch point north;
We know the hour.
Onerous change—oppressors...
Free at last, free at last!
Thank God almighty, we are free at last!
That’s what I want to say
But it’s not the truth
I mean...
Minorities and majorities are no matter
Regardless of the nonviolence, they never escaped detection
Between rejection of a...
I love your brown skin
I can't wait to see you again
Again to see your brown skin
Marred by the stormy weather...
let freedom ring
let freedon ring
all of our generation shall stand and sing
thank you for what you have done new generation...
We talk about the blacks and whites
but what about the rest?
There is more than just color in this world
and for that, we...
Skin making the decisions,
not character;
not beliefs,
but a part that isn’t a choice.
It took one person do it,
not a mob;...
Civil Rights are dead
They've been dead ever since
We let fear
Guide what we might hear
Since we ignored the cries
Of the...
Iconic of the civil rights,
Just a stool in a lunch counter,
Unknowing and unwavering, they played a part that needed...
Watch them march in peacefully lines
Fighting for equality on their minds
Looking forward to a day with no hate
Looking...
Do you understand that the right to vote is NOT a racial entitlement!
Do you understand for hundreds of years we were denied...
Feeling like I’m walking in a circle
Everywhere I go I see the struggle
On the street human life is like a bubble
Better...
Civil Rights… Who? What? Where? How?
Let’s start with Dr. Martin Luther King, who said “let freedom ring”
Or what about...
They walked and walked and walked. With bruised feet, they walked. With bruised souls, they walked. With bruised hearts,...
Dear God,
Is it time for us to live?
And break those shackles that bound our hands and ankles?
Trying to escape, danger...
There She Sat
The First Seat
To Rest Her Feet
Tired From A Day Of Work
She Sat And Looked
Out The Window Until The Next Stop...
Racism is something that one can't speak on unless they experienced themselves
Looking to be treated equally like everyone...
A thirty-mile thick crystalline wall
Shrouding all sight like a bride’s lacy shawl
We chisel and chip at its translucent...
“Mommy, it’s getting dark!” his voice quivering,
clinging to my skirt.
No response. My pain was great though,
I couldn’t...
Liberty, who may define this subtle word, our governing persuaders, you or me? Surely one may elucidate Liberty as freedom...
I dreamed a dream where bears stood on two legs
They roared and they screamed and they fought like beasts
Mindless and feral...
As I look threw the thick clear glass,
I don't see my reflection,
As I look deeper, and deeper into the glass
I was no where...
The land of the once free is now a land of the condemned, a land of rape, a land of war, and a land of corpses. Ten’s,...
He was just a boy
Someone who was filled with joy
They could have given him a chance
Still at the age of ignorance
All they...
Both ironic and congruent in how the black mans hands bled in the same manner Jesus' did. Broken skin, a result, not of...
It's you who decides.
It's you who decides.
Decides whether or not taking risks is what you want.
You have to know.
Know...
that day when one woman stood up for her rights as an American citizen and said "No, i will not get out my seat".
that day...
Powder your face girls
We are going to war!
Tighten your bodice and strap the heels to your feet
We march tonight!
The men...
Inside it controls.
Inside rage.
Inside pain.
Inside bursts of tears.
Silence.
It hides in the chaos-filled voices that live...
You were never put together properly.
Joints glued, pierced, taped together---
You were a statue,
hollow inside and unmoving...
I am blessed
To have been born
Inside a place
Previously torn
But now repaired
With the thinnest thread
I remember this
As I...
The journey started in a paper bag, dark, crinkling,fragile
Sliding up and climbing out, light drew, lost, and crawled back...
A beautiful black girl with
innocent
young
brown eyes
And she gazes up at me
Miss, why are you so beautiful?
Miss, why is...
They stand tall,
They stand proud,
Sadly they fall,
Within a big crowd,
On that day in ’65,
In that month of March,
We watch...
Our forefathers bled for us.
They took the pain of being
different away.
They fought against the
stubborn who would never...
We preach freedom around the world, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other, that this is a...
Cival rights?
Still waiting for it to happen.
MLK was the captain
When he died, the movement lived on.
Blacks are able
To do...
My God isn't her god, Isn't His God, Isn't your God. My God has a different name, a different form, and claim to fame. Their...
There is nothing in this world that will define me as an impulsive woman. READ BETWEEN THE LINES... I AM AN INDEPENDANT...
Here I am, once again
Chains that shackle my feet
To an ideal,
To a model,
A model with such small features,
such crimson...
They call us blacks not only because of the color of our skin,
but because...once upon a time,
we were like shadows.
Black...
Freedom isn't about color
Freedom isn't about race
Freedom isn't about gender
It's about Power
Power to act
Power to think...
With all of the diversity today
You'd think equility would be the norm;
Sometimes it feels like just a step away!
But our...
At first sight,
Her white skin melted the eyes of a bystander
Her rosy lips curved that of a muse
Her silky hair swayed...
Why is strife so memorable?
It seems our struggles are painted on our wings
As we fly to the destination of our dreams
We...
My son, I told you your life would be hard,Because your skin is a chocolate brown.But please, for me, never stop fighting,...
(poems go here) The White Man’s Burden
I probably don’t know you.
I most likely never will.
But I like it when the color of...
As time passes, as days go by
Our hearts are filled with content
Grateful for the world we live in
With security and...
Daddy's best friend liked boys
My's friend Jeff had a boyfriend
And that was fine, I loved them both
My friends were equal...
To get here to there
WE had to go through hell
Not because the content of OUR character
But the color of OUR skin
Look at...
I stopped saying the pledge of allegiance years ago
Nevermind those who tell me that I'm disrespecting
Those who fight for...
I had a dream
Where a world was free
It never mattered who you are
but what you will become
I am fighting for a dream
where...
You are yourself
who is your neighbor?
are they any less, more?
you cannot be defined by the exterior
the furnishings of you...
The Struggle to stay strong
Is a shameful reality,
They say I don’t belong
And I tell them they have no morality
The visible...
When will America be the land of the free?
When will liberty and justice
For all become equality and opportunity?
Who am I...
Stand up for freedom.
Come join the minority.
Stand up for freedom.
It may become the majority.
It can be tough
to speak...
Blood spatter washed away by a fire hose,
I was only 10 years old when I first watched,
It was the middle of February and my...
I was made very aware
Of what others think
I am
Shortly after 9/11
You see,
Some strongly opinionated people
Thought it best...
Though some see no light,
On they must fight.
Though they faintly hear the ring,
The freedom bells bring.
Man, woman, and...
I want to retire
at 21
I’m tired.
And it’s pure laziness
because I haven’t done much yet
but I’m always so tired.
I’m not...
Blinded by the glamour naive to our rights
Seldom have we as African Americans taken advantage of our ancestor’s murderous...
Death knows not the difference -the boundaries- between youth and the aged;
It knows not the faces of color, race, or...
I was wondering if I could hold your hand,
take you back to when they said I can't.
Can I show you what my people have been...
W E T H E P E O P L E
we fought to change the days
but forgot to think about the coming war
we marched to...
The end
Draws closer.
Try to rewind
But it escapes me.
Can't overcome it
Thoughts are overwhelming.
It builds like stairs...
I don't understand why we can't be together
Just 'cause your skin is darker than mine
I love you more than anything
More...
Civil rights,
Gave me a reason to fight
In these streets that can easily ignite
Evil in me
and the person next to me.
But...
What would you do if money was valued more than a human life
How would you cope with being told that it is morally right
How...
My brother a little older than I,
where have you gone?
where are you?
come home if you may,
We have school tomorrow, it's...
We who believe
We who will not rest
We shall not rest until freedom comes
My struggles, it is realized
Was a payment for the...
When I look at you, what do I see?
A strong woman looking back at me,
You have reached places where no one thought you could...
Once upon a time there was a man with a dream of peace, a dream of unity, a dream of equality, a strong dream. This man was...
Don't get shot if you end up going.
Why are you even considering it?
You will throw away your life by enrolling.
The high...
We have come a long way
Yes we have. We have moved from slavery, to freedom
From voting requirements to suffrage for...
I wish the moon could kiss my lips,
Releasing the sorrow I so long have held there.
A gentle touch from beams ever last....
i am me
old, frigid..some days young..
prisoned and free.
Greyed vision for me
A tanned skinned for you
For this is all you...
I may not be black
I may not be white
But I understand that they had to fight
They had to fight to live
They had to fight to...
I can never sleep in the future but I dwell on my past
My life is not my own
I am told to remember the stars and remember...
Lost in a sea I stand
In the ebb and flow
Of bodies like never before
The rustle of clothing and fans
Like waves meeting the...
We stand
Here
Together
Every race every age
Treating each as kindred
Because that is what we are.
We are equal
We stand...
L stands for LOVE I stands for I , F stands for FOR and E stand for ETERNITY! If forever ETERNITY do I believe in the...
From the back of the bus
To the front of the class,
No doubt such hate and fuss
Could ever last
Though with darker skin and...
From the early decades of their unearned reaping, we supportThe likes of those who never loved us, to pave the way for my...
Brutality littered her neighborhood,
Am I "hood", because I live in the hood?
Helicopters devoured the dark sky,
Screams and...
Watch how the masses rally and pound, making the ground
Shake,
United by one banner, the Latin Americans marching like a...
Through the darkness there is no light in a situation.
There is no light no sound no reason.
Through all this darkness comes...
For many years, looked down upon as slaves
Whites pointed the finger and said how to behave
Thankfully, King stood up for...
To sit back and watch
That is not how I do it
I stand up and say aloud
I am who I am
A gay man
I do not hide anymore
I do...
A red fish,
a blue fish,
a Seussical pair.
On a day
like today
that just isn't so fair.
Says Red to the Blue
"I could eat,...
Martin Luther King, Jr. unveiled a dream and a brighter vision
Rosa Parks, unwilling to move aside, said "no"
A. Philip...
During this time not too long ago,
Hatred swept and kept us low.
During this time of black and white,
People took a stand,...
Civil rights, an act to be free
An act to for once be treated as equals
To no longer judge by the color you see
Once not...
Isn't it ironic that the same person responsible for bringing you into this world had to fight years of oppression in order...
I stand up for him, I'm there for him, I'm the perfect wife you could ask for, I cook your favorites, I loved you, You...
It is their mission,
To gleefully condition,
Our fine nation,
To hate a station,
no lower than themselves.
They would rather...
Toss the rags of the nigger away
go down in the water
be baptized by the river of equality.
Let it cleanse your soul of pain...
Imagine a world where no one cares how you look like.
Imagine a world full of peace where everyone loves you, for who you...
Freedom is an essence we do not yet taste,
Slavery is scarce, but rights we still chase.
When will this hostility come to an...
We still struggle as a country,
with civil rights and equality.
From race, color, religion, and orientation,
There’s still...
Why you so surprised?
You thought change was gonna come
But let me explain something to you
History repeats itself
And it’s...
Civil Rights inspires the fight, within our soul cause we have one goal
To be free and respected, not bullied and rejected...
Who?
Whoever made one man better than another?
When?
When did we start acting better than our brothers!
What?
What made...
What is ugly? One might ask,
When appearance is nothing but a mask.
Pretty features that work to hide
One's true potential...
Through my eyes, I see warriors, fighting for battles in unity.
Fighting for color, fighting for peace, and for rightful...
the young black child goes to school with its head hung low
feeling worthless and life missing its glow
the child felt its...
I join this march in hopes and praise,
that perhaps it will end these dark days.
I turn and see a group of people,
whos...
Who Even Knew You?
The news anchors debate
every little detail
hoping to uncover something
that explains it all away-
The...
It is you who defines the hate
It is you who decides our fates.
I have never looked at you face, your hair, your skin, and...
Unheard
Hello?
Is anybody there?
Can you hear me?
When I have fallen into the deepest part of life
The struggle of...
It hurt, you know.
The way you treated me.
The way you made fun of me, the way you hurt me, the way you talked about me like...
He was an unsung hero,
unknown to many.
He was a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
but few people today have heard his...
The bus windows lets me stare
at all those people that give no care.
Why should I stand when I pay the same fare?
We live...
Just because I'm black doesn't mean I am attributed to racism.
But when I am standing on the lunch line, waiting for a free...
Living in the Shadows, the man of color
Looks for work, only to be turned down.
Another day for food stamps
and support from...
Without the civil rights act where would we be?
It ensures equal rights for all,
Discrimination was ruled out for you and...
All men are created equal
despite of race, religion, or gender
This is what the nation was built on
and what we must...
Shut Out by Injustice
The only way I will ever feel in this empty world of hatred is belittled.
The whiplash created from...
The harmonious step
Like Ants—Strong in Numbers
Like Tributaries Leading to a River
Starts with a trickle, Becomes a Flood...
I don’t mean to discredit them
We give credit where credit is due
But there is much more to do
This is not just a race
This...
Oppression looming, Brutality imposing
Justice dictates that we stand up.
Tradition trapping, Society sneering
Fear does not...
I am a young woman.
I am American.
I am seventeen.
I hear the voices from my past, my gender's past.
I hear their screams as...
What it was like,
to not be that of a white.
The pain, humiliation and suffering
and still ending up with nothing but the...
She sat down and faced turmoil,
for everyone who was different to join in.
A woman with courage and vision,
none other would...
In the beginning, there was darkness.
There was no room for sense,
No room for differences.
But one day, a light suddenly...
African-Americans, veterans that originated from the struggle
To be considered as good Samaritans
Recognize the repercussion...
I dream of a world
With no persecution
Execution
Demolition
Only production
Repair
We must repair
What is now torn
Or lost
I...
Abraham Lincoln was the author of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 16th president of the United States
Martin Luther...
I want to live!
Live without the suppression of who I am.
Live without the regret of what I should be.
Live without the...
Blind in the eyes of god is the color of our skin
And who said you were in charge of deciding where I eat, drink, watch a...
It is time to get up;I hear the pounding on the door.He yells-because it is what I deserve
I hear the pounding on the door.I...
Beauty is only skin deep?
Does that mean not everyone is beautiful?
No.
Beauty goes much deeper.
Beauty is who you are.
It’s...
Should you look at me as if I come from another planet?
My feet are scarred as if there was power behind my sprint.
My legs...
(poems go here) When my mother was young she always had to drink 'white' water
White water? For little girls dressed in a...
We have been
Down the road
That most have not traveled
We have fought
For the rights
That we thought should be ours
We...
I was born with 400 years’ worth of heartache scarred on my back.
Whips burns and lashes; everlasting marks because my hair...
A light is seen just beyond reach,
There is a strive towards it that welcomes each push forward,
As the first breath is...
I stare in front of me as I put one foot
In front
of the other
I look down
At my wrists
And see them yoked to my brother’s...
Life is peachy, but its's got a little fuzz
the inside is sweet but there's no hidding what's above
pick it up, set it back...
How could I speak if it were not for my soulful, god-fearing angel/ancestors choosing not to be silenced by a roar of Jim...
Keep quiet,
Censored.
It’s just ignorance and fear; she says.
Well I’m afraid of a lot of things,
Tornadoes,
Spiders,...
As Malcolm held in his dark arms
the artillery of force,
And Martin yelled with some alarm
his words with no remorse.
Two...
This is how it feels
this is how it feels to walk the streets
without seeing a glare from someone
to meet people who don't...
Why you so surprised?
You thought change was gonna come
But let me explain something to you
History repeats itself
And it’s...
On The Line
One, two, three. Take a deep breath; you're no longer free.
Everywhere you turn, death lurks on the corner. Wipe...
(poemsScarred, mistreated, broken,
Beaten, songs of freedom they sang.
Children taken, women raped,
Still songs of freedom...
You say we are different
but do you even look closely
Look past the skin
Look past the color
Look past the gender
Look past...
Where to begin, lets start off with the ink in my skin, letters condemening me of being judged on a whim. Simple conclusion...
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...
If God created us with equality, then why do we degrade eachother? Our Founding Fathers said that "all men are created equal...
We are all created equal.
These words echoed throughout time.
But how true have they become
As history is so full of crime!...
Fight, they said.
Puncture the minds of those who choose not to listen.
Free your voice.
Let yourself be known.
Fight, they...
I woke up and left my house
I rode the Metrorail train to Rosslyn Station
I was with a fine, Christian & sexy spouse
I...
Hate Me
Judge Me
Threaten Me
Beat Me
Lessen Me
Fear Me
You’ve never known me
Black
White
Mexican
Asian
Indian
Arabian...
life is filled with struggles,
you have young women struggling,
young men dealing,
young teens not knowing how to survive in...
I stand upon an assembly line.
My gaze constantly wondering.
But I'm not suppose to grow curious.
“Eyes front” They bark....
Walking down the street in fear;
Not of you- but rather your leer.
I am no performer- yet
you judge me like we have never...
I remember a reoccurring dream, my infantile reality.
The young Sorangel is sitting in the front gallery on a lazy afternoon...
The world was swaying, his vision was blurred
His lip was fat, his speech was slurred.
They came at him in a pack, four of...
The Artist
Writes what she feels
And feels what she writes;
Not for herself,
Nor power, nor might.
She does it to make her...
My black was my face and my face is my impression.
Nevertheless, my personality cannot stop them from thinking what they...
People like to bully immigrations when they do not even know their side of the story.
Who are you to judge others?...
Across the seven seas we rode, back and forth, back forth.
We toss, bodies aching people crying chains rattling.
Finally...
Everyone is equal, but not at one point
Some people were undermined at the time
They had the soul, they had the spirit
They...
If you don't vote, don't cry
We told you before to vote or die.
When things get really bad and you have to walk...
There shall be equality
There shall be a world of equal opportunities
Among blacks and whites
Where discrimination does not...
We were called crazy then.
To us they were not benign.
We fought our brothers opinions.
We were seen as out of line.
We did...
here they come, riding on the two buses that would have changed the world, here they come, the freedom riders here they come.
I have a dream that one day there will be no more war.
I have a dream that one day families will no longer be separated,...
Whether you call it
Racial Discrimination, or
Racial Degradation
Racially inferior minds
Would still have me to believe
My...
Treated wrong as if were nothing
Taken in as slaves and held like captives
Our women raped, husbands slain
Discrimination...
Black bodies,
swarm in
squeezed; shoved
locked
up.
The built bodies behind the metal bars
costs more than thousands of gold...
All or Nothing,
Our neurons fire based on that principle
All or Nothing,
Our elders fought for that principle
All or Nothing...
Silence sweeps over the cotton fields of present day Georgia
As gentle winds tickle the cypress and the pine.
Streams ebb...
Bloodshed, yelling and screaming in a world in which I took my stance
All I got was an undesirable glance
I didn't apologize...
Eeveryone judges, no one understands.
Very hard to want to try.
Ever feel like just hiding?
Really disturbing how evil the...
The struggle
The pain
The discrimination
Between each other
What are we fighting for?
We are all human
No one is better
We...
Rosa parks, Mlk, Malcom x
Pepole who were more than the best
Leaders and brave souls that should be dressed in something...
Our world was drawn in twisted lights
But the only colors we see are black and white
The Creator has no preference in any...
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...
Ghandi.
Ring a bell?
I wondered how many times, you've heard this tale.
He was the one that bring India out of hell.
He...
The rankling of shackles should be reminder enough
The torrid fury of words aiming to hurt
And not in deception, those...
I once had a spirit,
That would cry, Livid.
A soundless screamer,
A sleepless dreamer.
A cowardly warrior,
A body-less...
They shuffle up the stairs
In a line like prisoners
Their heads hung low
As they walk in a single row.
“To the back of the...
Im sorry Mrs. Parks and Dr. King,
You fought for a dream!...that is now barely conceived.
After all the marching and...
A voice speaks out
Her words ring through the world
A woman heard across the nation
She asks for something as simple as...
Gather round young and old I have a story that needs to be told, this story can still be heard round the nation.
Doesnt...
I am not dark skin.
I am the sound of deep cognition.
I am the voice of thought-provoking composition.
So, if you feel like...
(poems go here) “By any means necessary!” shouted Malcolm to the powerful crowd
“By any means necessary” the rioters think...
Rosa Parks sat, that's when one of the world's greatest movements was met.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walked and " I Have A...
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...
Black,
White,
No matter what color or race,
Thank those who made this place truly,
The “land of the free”,
From Martin to...
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...
My future is decided.
My skin color defines it.
My skin color is it.
This is what I am told,
An "invisible" label I have to...
Here I sit minding my own.
You stare at me because I sit here alone.
Harder you stare and then part your lips.
I put my head...
- Who am I?
- Or a better question
- Who are you?
- I'm judged by something you can't see through
- The skin is only to...
Hindsight,
Can you see it now?
You don't even realize all the sorrow and pain.
Hindsight,
Read about it, paid your dues
No...
Forever it's been this way
Times have changed but the feelings people feel toward you & I haven't changed
They still see...
Integration.
What’s that?
Faubus said no, this won’t happen in my state.
Does he have that right?
The Arkansas National...
Hit the mirror - watch it shatter
Not liking what you see
Blood running down your arm
Oozing like your broken heart
-
Empty...
I see the white kids on the swing,
My heart is pounding from within.
What will they say if i ask to play?
Will they say "go...
Skin – Chelsea Nelson
Was it my skin that made me a sin?
That made me hated by the white men?
Or was it that brother
Full of...
People afraid to stand for their name,
Afraid that they'd be judged in vain,
Afraid to show courage,
Until a woman named...
Passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Gender, religious, and ethnic disparities we say no more
No bounds to voting in the...
what makes us human?
eyes, ears, arms, brains
but there's something more.
we breathe
we love
we dream
everyone of us
...
A World Without Abuse
We live our lives from day to day,
There is always something that takes our breath away.
Hearing those...
Cradled by life, mind so naive
Fierce within, yet shackled by body.
A voice so strong, a will so powerful,
Humanity's gift...
It is said to "not judge a book by its cover",
Mama's advice.
Yet I am judged.
Justified by society
and immense disparity.
I...
Black Panthers arise
Wipe those pitful tears from your dark brown eyes
Stop and listen here as I talk
While we take this...
By the way things used to bug me
is not the same way it bugs them
but with euality and equity it bugs us all now;
I know i...
Why do we hide it like it isn’t there, like it didn’t happen or affect our lives? The civil rights movement has been put...
Did the movement really end?
The feelings, tensions, all amend?
Or does separation still exist?
Hatred and doubt with a...
I am a parasite. I feed from the fear and pain of the cowards; the unfaithful fall as I consume their souls. I devour their...
Does it matter?
We the people
Born the same way
Came out that hollow cave
Does it matter?
From the light Brights and the...
I am not a man
Not my brother
nor father
was a man
for all us three together would not be a man
for all us three worked...
Three hundred eighty one days later
The burden has been lifted.
The way we move from place to place
Is no longer segregated...
At night I lay awake.
What was it like for them?
Spending their nights, cold; too tired to shake.
Working 'til they bled....
The way the ignorant bystander lurks,
Enclosed with thoughts and society pressure,
Cradles their mind possessing hundreds of...
My People & I
We are Perceived as the Enemy
We are the black coffee to your vanilla
The Racists claim that we are bitter...
This country was created by the minority,
with a whip to their back
a gift from the majority.
And when they were free of...
The kitchen is her house.
One would think that it would be her home,
But living in a place does not make it a home
Nor does...
We stood up for civil rights.
We sat in for a cause.
The arsons no longer burn.
And what did we earn?
African-Americans in...
The struggle was never mine,
but I bathe in its sweet rewards
The fear was never mine
Yet freely I find myself
Although I do...
Many years ago in the 1900's,
A group of people stood up
And fought for what they believed.
Fighting for a voice within....
Emotionless
Standing tall
Shoulders straight
Head held up high, but barely
All other pairs of eyes are cast astray
Allowing...
They all knew,
this hate would not last forever,
and they fought with bright eyes looking to the future,
then like the last...
Born into a world that is filled with pain sorrow
They always make you wish you didn’t have to face tomorrow.
A little boy...
I too have a dream, like Martin Luther King , that ALL races get together and make peace and live together in harmony.
I...
Executive Order for no order,
Was a citizen now, an enemy
all after a day that lives in infamy,
Hawaii, California, West...
Taking action is making a move.
Taking action involves you.
Taking action means going for it.
Not backing down just one bit.
(poems go here)
Oh, you're black?
A question I get asked far too often
Just because my skin is light does that mean I am...
You stand with Me.
Hands connected. contrasting skin.
Warm from the fight that flows through our veins
Damp from the tears...
My skins is dark
My hair is locked, long
My eyes are brown
My legs are fast, strong
My music is loud
My hair is nappy, black...
My little lady,
Is going to work today.
Dressed in her Sunday's Best,
As she trots down Avenue A.
She'll sit at a bench,
For...
(poems go here) She has experienced many tragedies; haunted by mere thoughts of her childhood, the persistent feeling of...
In the lap of Himalayan it lies
still I remmember when I close my eyes
because of the melodious voice of reven
My...
The Becoming of Change
Overcoming is becoming the way of becoming,
And becoming is the process of overcoming.
Walking the...
The siren sounds,
Here come the hounds,
Everybody hit the floor.
Bricked in window
Bricked in widow
Crying on the floor....
Did the movement really end?
The feelings, tensions, all amend?
Or does separation still exist?
Hatred and doubt with a...
I hung his Teddy on the tree
In the field where he'd go to play.
The sun had danced upon his cheeks--
The gleam of my...
Separate but equal.
Races are just that, only skin deep.
The abuse sinks in much farther.
Separate but equal.
Struggles of...
We are all one
but we live as if divided
we share the same pain and shed blood for what we belive in
Yes we all have issues...
My grandfather
Down in the Congo he came from
Tall like a tree, brown as mud
Sent to the land of the free
Picked cotton for...
The dream wasn’t to be accepted, but to be equal.
I still dream not to see race, but to see people.
We can’t imagine love...
Like crayons are only colors our skin is too.
We should all be equal shades to the human sight,
but fighting over colors is...
I am a dark skinned child
seeking for answers
Who am I?
What am I?
Where do I come from?
I am tired of being labeled African...
Empowerment flowing through my veins.
Those feelings flow through my voice
and into your ears.
My words go into your...
Harriet Tubman
Abe Lincoln
Rosa Parks
Martin Luther King
Backbones
Hearts
Minds of Steel
Black and White
Just a color
Hard...
When Obama won they said it’s over. He won. He’s in.
I say no. One triumph does not erase past sin.
Years ago they hopped...
Desperate times have ended.
The violence, the segregation, the violence.
Now to our eyes, the rainbow is visible.
The...
Imagine how our World used to be,
Not even getting to hang out with the person we want to see.
Long ago, there was no World...
Rising to the sounds of freedom,
Rights unearthed by the righteous ones.
A leader stands on the hill before his kingdom,...
There are many just like me,
Who compose our thoughts to set us free.
We know our rights.
“I love her”, Jen says through her...
I can feel the constant beatHear itI can feel the constant flow I cannot seeI cannot tasteSo warm and safe I can feel the...
On my hands and knees I pray
For this world to see a new, brighter day.
Not with the eyes of humans we should see,
But with...
It ends tonight
Our battle to be equals ends tonight
How can we look our children in the eyes and tell them that they live...
Do you see them now?
Seem happy and old.
Search their eyes,
Their anguish and pain.
Do you see yourself?
So whiney and...
Brown skin, dark hair;
This little girl is so scared.
Why am I different?
Why don’t they like me?
I don’t know how much more...
Plastic, white containers can
Temporarily
Block out sound from the
Inside
But not
Vision,
For sight
Cannot be
Hindered by...
A black woman, Rosa Parks,
Refused the white man's way.
To the police, the driver narks,
to jail she went, and got bail...
How does a blind man see color?
Blue can be described as a cool and relaxing bay,
yet it can also be a terrible sadness....
One Nine Five OneI am 8 years old.I live around the corner from a school I can't attend.I am forced to travel by bus to...
Rising from my bed The flies hit my face Creeping through my head “Damn, you’re a disgrace” The walls are painted Blood and...
As I walked up to school I thought it was raining
But no it was just her spit.
I was looking for a friendly face smiling...
a man
a loving man
non violent man
who wants other man
to love one another man to man
it wouldn't matter what the skin color...
In Memory of Trayvon Martin
February 26,2012
Ya life was taken
Why?
Is It because of
Yo race
Yo appearance
Yo walk
Or
Ya...
In honor of _____. I left it blank 'cause I'll need it next year'Bile Rising in the stomachs of those who were convinced...
There was a little black boy, with skin as dark as can be.
He knew his skin was different, as you can truly see.
The world...
Segregation was prevalent
We had no rights
All Malcolm X wanted to do was fight
Dr. Martin Luther King saw that non-violence...
Let there be light.
Let there be darkness,
To balance out the light,
Both equal, both important,
But separate.
Ferguson says...
Excuse my blackness
My blackness crack thin around my elbows. I have my hand rose for days, but the quantity of bright minds...
I could be depressed dwelling on the past
But I should realize troubles never last
I could take my life today
Yet I should...
Mrs. Teacherlady,STOPP referencing our textbook
Stop referencing that junk,every day
That unnecessarily heavy textbook is...
Questionin innocenceNeed tuh cleanse n replenish dis effed up conscience.Hoodie up, arizona n skittles in his...
They beat us
Abused us
Made us feel like we were nothing
But one day,
One regular day
A woman decided no more.
She would no...
Black or white?
Was the question
The most important
That kept the people guessing
What made us different
The color of our...
It all started over half a century ago
A people, oppressed, shut down, told no
But they stood tall, stood fast
and argued...
Though others were ashamed
of the color that told are history
The pain and struggle,
Not knowing what tomorrow
held in the...
I am gray
I am niether black
nor white
I don't keep track of
who did what to who
Jesus taught me the
golden rule:
Do onto...
I am not a man
Not my brother
nor father
was a man
for all us three together would not be a man
for all us three worked...
Flawless sun kissed skin
In infinite shades of brown.
Beauty Sculpted by God
Crafted in his favor.
From the trees of Africa...
When I walk down the street,
You look at me funny
Saying in your mind
“we don’t like your kind sonny.”
If I drink at the...
I love my civil rights,
It helps to keep state laws tight.
The 13, 14, and 15th amendment,
How dare you try to suspend it!...
Law
Righteousness
They are not the same
One
Yet two
To the naked eye
The other is blind
They can come
From two different...
Who am I a civil right activist born on December 13, 1903
Who am I. I joined many social activist organizations.
Who am I....
Black, White, Brown, Red, Yellow
Whats the difference
We can all be excited and mellow
Whats the difference
We all live in...
We all are human, we all are born free
It only takes one to be the voice for thee
MLK rose high to be
One For All, to let...
Right or wrong?Gone is she?Is it decision?Shes gone, gone from existenceGone with all her passion.But shes always...
Why think about separation?
When Jesus stood on the cross, his purpose was without discrimination.
Think about the nine...
After facing the brutalities of racism,
African Americans were standing in front of white skepticism,
urging for a chance to...
Negro!
Dirty Negro, were some of the words that I heard.
The things they said to me were absurd!
Spitting, Shouting, and...
Its time for all to awaken
Man or woman all have a maker
He who created them as ying and yang
one for the other a half for a...
Those Days when blacks weren't allowed anywhere
Those Days when they were beaten by many purely bare
Those days when...
Words are powerful.
With one word I can command a room
Listen.
With one word I can change your mind
Why.
With one word I can...
What makes us people?
Is it our outsides?
Two arms, two legs, one head
Our skin.
It is our insides?
Two lungs, one brain,...
Can you get into my head?
Can you make me one of YOU?
Who...walks past fast,
with Ray Bans?
Should you change my mind when I...
Sweat and blood cradle it,
It’s the mothers old hands that
Wove its breath.
High above myself and earth,
I can see freedom...
Freedom Riders
Fighting for freedom
Begging for mercy
Bravery was key
Twelve young people
Begging for their rights
Refusing...
I stand amid the encroaching walls that bind my soul to perish among the dull unknown of confinement. With eyes unclouded, I...
Minorities,
Women,
LGBT,
Why is it that no one sees,
The world is not just white men,
That conquered land across the sea,...
I woke up in the morning,
feeling like my head was roaring,
from all that had just passed,
which I simply could not grasp...
You believe you are better
than those who love
their own gender.
What makes you so special?
You make your cases
and think...
People protest because they want to be heard.
They want to fight for their rights,
but sometimes those end up turning into...
Can you imagine what it's like to struggle?
To be confined to a suffocating bubble.
To not be able to live peacefully and...
Life has always been plagued with corruption
Together, we all stand against this enemy
To all of you haters, I'm not mad...
Trapped.
That’s how I felt.
Living under oppression
under someone’s thumb-
Unable, incapable, inexplicably inept
powerless....
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As we remain "civil"
the world passes us by
As we remain "civil"
Brothers continue to die.
The rights that our ancestors...
Crowding the streets
Boycotting the bus
Any action that could draw attention to us
We will do it rushed
To try and budge out...
You'll realize one day color doesnt matter
im a mix of two ...
all i get is abused from people like you
There is equal opportunity in this place we call earth
But times were tough for those who were incapable
of loving each...
My flesh is moving, my heart is racing, and spirit shifting. Thousands of emotions conflicting, at war, roaring, weak, and...
*Indiscriminately* discriminating, -Former is now
Never so quiet;
Stand up
Up
Up
Indiscriminate—
No more segregation...
Look at the world
Look at the hate
Look at how people
Discriminate.
Look at your life
Look at your home
Look at yourself...
A time of tears
A time of fears
Pain and Misunderstanding
No communication
No love
No acceptance
Marches, Murders, hangings...
Why?
Why do we discriminate our own kind?
It's a color in the publics eye.
Society is out of their mind.
Why?
Why do we...
Heavy heart. Not strong enough to carry.
Mind clouded. No words expressive enough to make room.
More emotion than I can...
Better, we must be better
For this we try to change the past
But do we know how? Maybe not all, yet still we will try, here...
A century before,
Not quite a distant enough memory
brother fought brother
on an all too familiar soil.
The only winners...
From the beginning,
We were made equal.
In the past, they didn't see t
That we were made equal
No matter what color of skin...
Many people said
Ignorance is bliss
But that’s only because
They’re business was at risk
The trading of slaves
And unpaid...
You have said to be sure to show loyalty to your Lord,
Do not argue
Because you are our life's protector.
You have said your...
I too have dreams.
I dream about people who want to be free,
From Palestine to Isreal to China and Germany...
No matter the hurt
No matter the fight
No matter what they say
We have the same right
No matter the thought
No matter the...
Here is a man
Proud and strong
black
Here is the Law
Strict and harsh
White
Here is the school
Whites only
Fair
Here is...
She was a Rose
A beautiful, brown Rose
She stepped up on the bus of separation
She sat down, for our freedoms
She rode the...
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.
My...
Nobody gone hold me down
I am a man and constantly getting put down
In this world I am surrounded by hate
You take one look...
People Red
Meet People Blue,
Forming a Purple hue,
They see, they know, Unity’s role.
Where Red and Blue meet
Purple edges...
Cloudy, but no rain. Overcast
Externally. The internal, much different.
In the midst of a storm, their earth was quaking...
Dead the names of bodies
We will never know,
Fear of getting to know
Each other because in
The hood you are taught
To hate...
My name Rosa Parks and I'm here to tell my story
About this boycott that happened in Montgomery
I got on the bus because I...
You gave us water, land and food
In return we took away your land, culture, religion and language.
While you were willing to...
Sitting in my fourth period creative writing class, a little brown boy laughs at her. Chest swollen with mustard gas, his...
Mom, hey Mom!
Why is everyone mad about those dark people sitting at the lunch counter?
Why won’t that waitress lady give...
People, people everywhere;
Walking, talking, so unaware
Looking around, seeing the other
Always a stranger, not a brother....
My rights are my rights/ got infinite time to put up a fight/ going through the system/ listen to your mther respect your...
Black, white, yellow, brown, even purple.
Rainbows of heaven that blend together
to one
to all
beauty is the essence
the...
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,...
In the hood of the fallen I am weak,
It is beacuse when I am beaten, I chose to not speak.
But little girl and liitle boy...
Through education is key, we are not free
We allow our self in a trap of debt, for verification
We allow our selves to walk...
(poems go here) Is it our time to feel new again,
To feel free and be treated the same.
What was the cause to be treated the...
It is the year 1896,
And a black child born
In rural Louisiana
Sometime in 1865
Has just had her
Thirty-first birthday.
She...
How could individuals that look SO different coincide with one another?
They said the brown animal could never be called a...
A land a sunder
One side thunder
The other strife
But both of plunder
A schism of people
Eager to greet you
Naive, standard...
Stings of pain prick my cheek,
I've done bad,
My master's smirking at me.
Gritting my teeth so hard I can feel them...
We stand
Here
Together
Every race every age
Treating each as kindred
Because that is what we are.
We are equal
We stand...
From my side of the tree strange fruit hangs
The blood stains the roots of my ancestor’s pain
This is my history that is...
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...
To believe is to receive
Let freedom ring and freedom bore us a martyr as well as a King
Unjust fury fell upon the nation...
You say that I am deaf.
You tell me I'm no good,
but what you fail to see,
is that I'm not made of wood.
I have a heart and...
Steinmen, Rosa, MLK
The preachers and poets, championing a new era
Heroes far beyond their years
Instilled with wisdom
They...
I am not just a number for you to process
I have feelings.
Nothing you say can change how I feel.
Just because you think you...
"I have a dream" is what the late martin luther king j.r. spoke. We walk around holding that speech in our throat. Going to...
Outlawing racial discrimination,
Restoring voting rights,
And having assured laws with equal protection.
What was it to be a...
Listen to the earth move under our feet.
We march on cold heartless stone.
We shall not be moved by forces outside of our...
At the beginning there was no love,
Only hate,
But from one man, a brave man,
Layed our society’s fate.
There was sadness...
Are we truly so different? We live on this earth together, breathe the same air, travel on the same roads. We see what we...
It began on a ship, one we didnt have an opportunity to drive,
this was a cruise that a person of color was lucky just to...
A movement to be civil,
Civil in the minds of all,
More than you and me,
Its about a specific destiny,
Destine to be strong...
Life is good
Life is great
Without it we would be dead
without it we wouldn't feel anything
No love
No happiness
Just a...
Days beaten worn down and crushed, I remember those days the days life was a hell cuts upon our back reminding use of the...
All together, all as one.
Do not give up, until the war is won.
Together we march on,
fighting until we see that morning...
We were once a people.
We taught together.
We fought together,
For freedom.
Our people won.
Black teachers, doctors,...
THEY TAKE MY KINDNESS FOR……………WEAKNESS
THEY TAKE MY SILENCE FOR…………. SPEECHLESS
THEY CONSIDER MY UNIQUENESS…..STRANGE
THEY...
Here we are
in today's world.
A world enriched by the beauty
of diversity.
Diversity should be celebrated
Take pride in who...
You have no say
Yes I do
For I shall have the right to speak
Isn’t it Freedom of Speech?
No man shall be prohibited to speak...
(poems go here) Fighting through his words
non-violent man, who fought through his powerful speeches
A man who had a dream...
We fail to see there was a problem,
Until we learn about it in history class.
We assume somebody else will stand up for...
Different day same circumstance
Is it my turn to take a stand?
Struggling just to make it through the night
Wait,
This can’t...
"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...
Can a nation divided, come together to undo what’s been done?
Can we go back to where it all begun?
This time,...
Red; the color of passion the color of love
So many colors with many different meanings
Red; the color of passion the color...
I am who I am.
I’m no ordinary man.
I am a nerd.
I’m not absurd.
I am a son of the Pharaohs.
I’m more precise than sharp...
Equality is important with civil rights because it means being treated equally. Civil rights are important to all Americans...
Sunlight- the sun will rise- so bright, upon that which I should not be compelled to call home
Whisper’d is thy...
When you see a rainbow after a storm
You can’t escape it
It illuminates there in the sky for all to see
Each color together...
Because of you, our cities sleep,
Like a shepherd's eyes over his sheep.
A life fulfilled, a dream began,
Unite the hearts...
I look at my arm and see glowing amber skin
Bright green eyes, curvy figure, long hair and thin lips
Anyone can see that I...
that man walks past the bench
wondering how a word
a palabra
could change someone's day
someone's life
una vida
that hombre...
A culture founded from oppression,
Now we’re practicing suppression.
It seems like hate has become an obsession,
What...
We were brought into this world,
And we were given the gift of sight.
Not just the ability to see,
But the ability to...
We shall overcome one day,
Are the words that the leaders use to say,
God Let us have justice is what they'd pray,
Please...
Civil Rights. Let's talk about this.
Civil Rights. Now, let's see what Civil Rights is about.
Back then, we knew that this...
It's hard to look at a white man the same,
When your ancestors suffered, and they're the ones to blame,
White America will...
By: Jerren Jones
I have a dream that blacks and whites can swim and sail together
I have a dream that blacks and whites can...
I am strong
for nine months, I carry the gift sent from heaven
I nurture and care without greed
I am the roots of the fine...
Bent over
blades pierce through
carcass meat
Like a pig
in a butchers back room,
ready for slaughter
Coughing up sludge and...
I am one of four....
One little girl...
One little girl that never grew up...
I am one of four....
One child...
One child...
Ain’t it but truthThat as we dive further into historyWe become itWith music blastingAnd children laughingAnd dreams are...
Once property we didn't have our own identity. I could only imagine how it used to be, but now I'm thankful because now I...
Don't look at me and say that you feel the same as me.
You are not my equal, you will never be as equal as me.
I fought for...
Black Power!
They may try to devour
Within the hour
If things go sour
Theres always power
Within all thats ours
Black powers...
We must fight for our right to be women!
We will fight for our right and be free!
We will fight can't you see for freedom...
I can’t hate you.
To be quite honest, I don't want to.
Your bullets are made up blood my brother. Years of fight and...
There will always be a sunny day and dark day,
The darkest when you fight to get in a word,
And the feel of not being heard...
A world dominated by people who have erased vulnerabilityFrom their thoughts, seems to be falling apart.We train ourselves...
I hear the slinging of whips across the field,
Then the ring of the freedom bell with power to heal,
The sound of the King,...
(poems go here) A small voice roars like a lion king
Let us be free and have rights...
Freedom and equality, what you and I need,
Oh how prosperous this world could become, if not for greed,
This land is your...
Now just because I say sh*t, don't think of me as rude.
I just got to get it off my chest, some of the sh*t you do I think...
Fighting out of the jim crow entoil
painful for the black
difficult for the white
impossible for our closeted flames
hated...
The Black man stands strong on the slave block being
ridiculed and torched similar to King Jesus.
Day after day he is...
If I sit here, will you stand up? Why can't we be friends? We're the same, so man up.
My skin is brown, your hair is silky,...
We are defined
By the simple mind
The mind of those
That only choose to see color
Discrimination against each other
White...
Say nothing,
Do not protest, let the bigotry cause no unrest.
People laugh off the the pain, like the insults some sort of...
We have to live we have to pay we die every day .We live we thrive we must work together to for a bee hive. We must rise...
Nobody can know what the wind is whispering.'
Nobody can know what the thunder from the clear sky is bringing.
The storm is...
Some people think this is a game
SOme people think poetry is lame
But to me poetry is life
A way to express my thoughts, and...
The front pew in church
We sit together.
Hold hands through a prayer.
Black and white
Color makes no difference.
We are...
Freedom
I never knew it was like to have my freedom stripped away
But I now I see it in their eyes that I can't even go to...
(This past summer I spent my time with a summer program "Writer's Block Ink" for my second year as a camp counselor and in...
We all think, but never speak
Our heart says one thing but our words say another.
We try and try but we always conform
Don’t...
What is a March?
What is a March?
Where is Washington?
What is the March on Washington?
Where is the white skin?
Where...
(poems go here) Not sure if this is the right way of livin’.
Because we’ve been taken from; more than we’ve been given.
We’...
No longer are we shouting "FREE AT LAST!"
We are now lasting free.
I am no longer judged by the color of my skin, but the...
There’s power in my words
Power stronger than the color you see on my skin
Power stronger than the stories you hear of my...
I can hear my Negro Sister sing songs of sorrow
Hoping that her child will experience a better tomorrow
I can almost feel...
Forever Strong
I hear that whisper, that snicker, that joke,
The heart inside me, you finally broke.
Although I never seemed...
Wounds wide open.
Scars strait showin.
Defeat amongst the face while the winds keep blowin,
Stuttering through fragments as...
They though you were this person who had no dignity because the color of your skin.
They though you were a person who...
It’s not easy being a man when white man calls you boy;
It’s not easy being a man when society keeps you down.
It’s not easy...
He had a dream
Together they all made quite the team.
She wanted a front seat
The system would be hard to beat.
They served...
People being treated unfair,
Being judged for their race,
For racism is cruel,
This is why we now have Civil Rights,
Freedom...
What's the difference between adding an A.
Taking away the "ER"
Now what is left to say?
We have so many rules as to when...
Two year olds – no – four year olds
No, seven year olds
Do not see
Anything different
Anything wrong
Anything out of the...
Kidnapped, Shackled, & Abused
For 300 plus years, hell was what our people went through
They're were a few brave ones...
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist,
Who became a civil rights activist.
When elected president of a predominantly white...
Do you see them now?
Seem happy and old.
Search their eyes,
Their anguish and pain.
Do you see yourself?
So whiney and...
This White American conscious
superior, benevolent, controlling our future
White heart, white mind, white hands
shape us,...
I see a sea of colors, the tide constantly moving and changing by the charge of the moon.
I see a sea of frowns, no...
Love is love,
It’s black and white.
People are people,
And these people don’t fight.
But there’s a long road ahead.
They’re...
Lost soul
Lost faces
One Color
Lost Races
Here but not in existence, just traces
Draws warnings on these spaces
Knows but...
Through the ages, people have learned to adapt to society however our own instinct won't let us be truly free
there are...
The sound of the chains still linger,
I can still see the scars on my finger.
These memories will haunt me forever,
But all...
I feel it. A sense of independence.
I feel it. A sense of strength.
I feel it. I no longer need the acceptance of others who...
All around this world is this word called pain. There is a lot of people causing it but nobody to blame. Love is the...
No one had thought it could be true
Seeing all these people on TV showcasing that there wasn’t anything they couldn’t do....
If you want to make peace,You don't talk to your freinds.
You talk to your enemies.Because Peace is a full time job.
Philadelphia it is my heart my soul it is my home.
It is the birth place of all evil and ghetto kids like myself.It is the...
This is not only an homage to the lives that were cut so tenderly short,
But a demonstration of the hatred, ignorance, rage...
I watched a lady full of age
Walk slowly down the sidewalk
She walked as though there was pain in each step
And I admired...
Shuddup and Siddown
Siddown
Sit down
Sit-down
It's easy to forget there are different kinds of sitting
The thesaurus reminds...
Justice comes in the name of Love
To teach us compassion and honor
That we may grow together as a community
Justice comes in...
Listen... did you hear that
Yes, what you heard was a crack
The crack of the whip on my ancestors back
or was it the crack...
Who’d know the color of my skin presents so much ambiguity in society?
A different angle in the light of the city
What am I...
Swimming Against the current,
Gasping for Equality,
Drowning in suppression-
The lesser they make of me.
Many blinded by...
Through day and night you fought for our rights
with every battle and every war you came closer then
Ever before. And even...
Together let’s play a game,
A game of Checker’s with two colors,
With squares both equal and same.
But something doesn’t...
I went to the bathroom this morning to see a sign that said…
NO BLACKS ALLOWED!
Just then I...
Ella Baker was my name and civil rights was my game.
Equality for all, that was what I wanted,
And that is what I would work...
I may be a woman
Who doesn't love a man
But who gave you the right
To tell me that I can't
Marry that beautiful girl
Over...
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...
Duality of Historic and Modern Black Women
-- 1957
Books, carassed in her arm,
Elizabeth, pressed on.
The tinted glasses...
I am often asked why i do it, why
I sit in everyday, when those cops throw us away
why i sit in jail, when no one ever posts...
As I aim to try, though I work and cry,
It's all just a lie which I will not deny.
I try to gain, in introspect,
A sense of...
Schools don't know,
They teach what is taught,
But what MUST be taught is taught with fraught.
No one recalls the days of...
Imagine walking shoeless with nothing to protect your feet
Being judged on the color of your skin
Or having to move to the...
I step out of bed, and I tie my hair.
I open the window and let in the fresh air.
…Actually this isn’t meant to rhyme
But...
To Be someone Again
For love and For liberity
Remembering the lifes of others.
Remembering the things...
I have a dream, but nothing as MLK, because those were his words & this here is what I say. Oppressed day after day,...
When a person can say.
They feel trapped at bay.
And they see beyond.
The rising dawn.
They know what it takes.
To create a...
Black,White,Black,White,Black.
My eyes open and see this.
Things have changed this year.
From slaves to freedom.
My people...
Back from school,
about to cross the road,
a car appears near me to turn.
his window down,
face pointed towards me
if I were...
What can be defined as an arena void of light?
An absence of Knowledge?
Where you cannot fight
Against the circumstances...
Martin Luther King Junior had a dream
For all people to be treated fair
In order to rid the world of despair
It was a part...
As their shouts and screams persist we walk
Walk for a better education
Walk for a better tomorrow
Walk to show no man nor...
She didn't go the back of the bus
Rosa Parks made a great fuss
His name was Dr. King
He gave the speech "I Have a Dream"...
There once was a man who led a march for his rights,
king was his name, his followers nonwhites,
his vision was clear,...
My brotha you have to atone for centuries of abuse, mistreatment and an eternity of tears.
My brotha you are your people's...
Who Am I?
As I wait at this bus stop
Hot and tired I think to myself what’s for dinner?
Thoughts of roast, mashed potatoes...
Come on down and have a Coke for a bit
Let me tell you a story here as you sit:
A story of courage and of changing the world...
(poems gThey were treated unequal,
Because they looked different.
They were made no space
To live together in their world...
Through multifaceted pieces, shapes and colors form,
Blending together to create a quilt that breaks the norm
One thread of...
How do I become the one of most importance
To be so coveted that my life is worth while
Or worth living
But guess that is...
Slavery is equal
Revenge is justice
Life or death
Where’s our breath
We run on feet
We curse with tongues
Hateful words we...
How far we've come
So far we are told
from the days Emmett Till was killed cold
from the Little Rock Nine's fight for...
As I walk down the street
I see children playing
innocence.
They don't care about you're
race, gender, or difference...
Rights, equal
Outstanding individual
Spoke through actions not words
Active participant in her own destiny
Praise came from...
If you say thought black was pure than your happiness was sin, life was based off the color of your skin. Born from royalty...
FREE AT LAST! FREE AT LAST!
Black America has been inspired
By these words from the past
But are we truly free?
This...
The words on the signs
and the threat of the whites
are what keep us out.
Stuck in a dilemma:
do we keep our heads down
and...
I gasp for breath
I couldn’t believe it was her. Amelia Boynton Robison accepting an award for ultimate braveness in Selma...
Never forget,
The bloodshed,
The battles fought,
To prove were all the same.
Never forget,
The hardships had,
The violence...
Give me Liberty,
or give me Death.
I have News,
It’s Not my last breath.
Decisions, decisions,
surround Our Lives.
Who says...
Dreams are realities waiting to be found
Martin Luther King made his dream into sound
And sound became action, action became...
I am not a man
Not my brother
nor father
was a man
for all us three together would not be a man
for all us three worked...
I sit quietly.
This is my right.
I face opposition.
This is my right.
Throwing bricks
Full of the hate of their fathers.
No...
The disease of men
That put us in pens
The beatings and bruises
That was so abusive
A disease of their mind
Our punishment...
The Civil War's long been over, and slavery's been abolished
Education is available to everyone so we can all get knowledge...
It wasn’t just me
It was 200 years being told we were less than human
It was 200 years of losing our culture
It was 200...
As an optimistic young African American lady, waking up to the world was a dream.
As I walked down hallways full of...
Across the Internet
Far and wide,
There are many flame wars
You can find
About this topic
(So taboo!)
Same-sex "marriage,"...
They refused to serve us lunch
Because our skin was black.
They chose our seating on the bus
Because our skin was black....
There is little that makes sense in this world,
But justice is something I understand.
The equality of all men,
And the...
People say we don’t understand because our ancestors haven’t gone through it,
because we haven’t gone through it.
But they...
I see them look at my dark skin
look at my textured hair
and my sad eyes
Little kids stare
while their Mommas scold them
“...
When you look at me, you might see a young woman..
Or a girl that's trying to find her place in this cold world.
Temptation...
Everyday WE prayed
Hoping for better days
singing the good ol' hymns
Praying for the Good Lord to show us the way
The way to...
I am one of the different, bright nine.
I was the first to finish and shine,
Central High School where I made my scene.
I’m...
A shadow in the night
Here comes the opportunity.
For some Old timer, trying to be Superman
to redeem himself.
A shadow in...
I stand for the people who walked down the street for equality.
Dr. King said it best in his “I Have a Dream” speech.
I...
Everyday, every hour, every way I turn reminds me about
the days, the ways, the people who paved
this path so I can walk...
have you ever looked up at the sky
and taken in the true size of it all
or hiked up a cliff
and stared at the drop below...
Listen to the voice inside, my mother always said.Listen to the voice inside.Does it come from your heart or your head?...
Others get that rhythm that untold song and
Although the beat is loud
I can hardly hear it coming
The little girl praying...
We've seen this all before.
Shouting, protesting what is strange.
Can't we all behave, the way that Jesus taught?
Hands planted on her lap, looking at the wrinkles
Reminds her of the days she spent on her knees
Watching the houses and the...
The ignorance will never lessen
When we thrive on cultivated misconceptions
The scars will remain
And the roots will decay...
I am Emmett Till.
I was beaten to death, so how dare you go through everyday life complaining that it's "pure hell".
I'd...
They say you will never amount to anything
That the color of your skin is too dark
You’re body too curved
Skin too tinted…...
Started from the bottom with so little to gain, No one will ever know what hides behine our pain. The Struggle that once was...
I am an African American Woman
And I was the lowest of the low in history.
Thank you Lincoln for helping set me free.
Thank...
Civil rights a movement that will forever change our lives.. Made it alright.. to be black and white.. together..FOREVER....
Freedom rings through out the land
People walking hand and hand
Songs that lye with in our hearts
Memories seem to never end...
Here I am
A product of Martin's plan
Resolute residue of Rosa's refusal to stand
Here I am
Here I am proud
Basking in the...
I stand here
Segregated, broken into pieces
I am Japanese
I am Chinese
I am Portuguese
I am Hawaiian
Yet they segregate me,...
Just because I walk like this
People want to stare.
Just because of the color of my skin
Or the coarseness of my hair.
Just...
Four men sit with pride and interrogation,
covered and painted, dressed in colors
reflecting the bravery seeping through....
She followed, the intent of adapting stood right beside
With courage, she marched the aisle and took her seat
She sighed,...
It started with a man and a dream
He held his dream high in his right hand, for the world to see
It screamed, it yelled, it...
Dark nights,
Loud noise,
Hateful words,
Ugly slurs,.
Through it all we fight through.
Knocked down,
we turned around,
rised...
Why?
Why must my people cower in fear at the hands of our oppressors who long ago promised equality?
We have sweat, bled,...
What happening to the world we live in...
As we turn on the news, their goes a child killed by the offcials that are suppose...
notice how things look now
all around
listening to the sound
children playing laughing and crying
diffrent races and genders...
Someone rather famous once had a dream:
A dream that all men would be created equal.
A dream that people could be who they...
He did not see his color
When he whistled at the lady,
But it boldly shone under
The white sun’s glare
Like blood drops on...
Man was created in the image of God,
Until sin entered in and it all became flawed.
Man looked upon man with discrimination...
This movement started with the lack of it
It being the change, shift, and evolution of vision
Rehabilitate you notions
Look...
I WAS LEFT ALONE,FORGOTTEN MEMORY, THANK YOU FOR THE MUGSHOT ON GOOGLE,Seraph MOST HIGH , THE LIBRA IN ME ,THE SCALE OF...
Equality.
Everyone is equal to each other.
Women are equal to men, and men are equal to women.
We couldn’t get much done...
Civil rights
Whats right?
For our nation has it mixed up
How can a black man be shot down
In the street by a white man
and...
Martin Luther King Jr was a fighter
He fought for love
Not only love for himself
But love for others
Not only love for his...
Whether it be at a desk
Or in a hot field
Work is Work
Determination is an abstract
Ambition has no regulations
Work is Work...
The scars
The pain in my heart
The tears in my eyes
Alone
Abandon
The feeling of confusion and anger
Its kills me that...
Because I was not white,
Because I was not pretty,
Because I was not a man,
I had to write this poem.
I thought maybe I...
You look inside the bus
You find a sea of people
Much like an ocean
Both filled with life
Colors are scattered about
As...
Breathe in.
Stay calm.
Fingers refuse
As they shake.
Reach for the door knob.
Take a moment to gather
Some valor.
Think of...
Dreams are the gateway to the heart and soul
Dreams are not to be taken for granted
Dreams are meant to be followed and...
I can hear America working
their shuffling feet and their clasping hands
I can hear America singing
with their tutting horms...
In the beginning,
There was a God for all
A fierce parent
Loving and righteous.
But men bent him
In their own image-
A lily-...
I can picture the soldiers,
Trying to swim in the pools of liberty.
Risking their lives,
Trying to make their mark in...
Please excuse my color...
White man that fears me,
excuse the color of the skin I was born in.
Im sorry that the dark...
Big people, loud voices argue in unison.
I squint up at angry Shining wet faces through the bright beaming sun.
They are...
It hurts
To feel like less
To have that terrible weight on your chest
When all you want is for it to be lifted
It hurts
To...
What does it mean to be Black?
Do I need to have my hat tilted to the side, pants sagged, grills shining in the sun, with...
What is that in which we do
Where i am white and black is you
Where created equal, is the call
Nothing we did, God loves us...
I look at you
I look at me
There is no difference
In what I see.
We are both people
We are both alive
We were both born
In...
I am a Jamaican.
You are a African American.
I walk down a path unknown,
You walk down a path unknown.
I am hot and sweaty...
Lift every dream in the air
That has been caught up in some snares
From people that said that u couldn't
That also told you...
The Bill of Rights
Freedom of speech
Religion
Press
The freedom to bear arms
Without this America would not be where it is...
There is no reason to separate you and me.
I am white, you are black, it is just a color.
There is no reason for this...
Who are we?
We, who razed down walls that kept us hidden,
Spoke firm words that altered the face of the nation,
We who stood...
Behold your face and mine,
Follow, rhyme, rhyme
Guide us?
Rhyme the tool of the common man?
Poets milk of the promised land...
“I pledge alliance to the flag, of the United States of America, and to republic for which it stands, one nation, under God...
How proud I am.
It shapes me
In more ways than I'm fully aware;
To know my Grandmother
Marched.
Among thousands,
In a tide...
One day in China there was a Christian,
And She wanted to read her Bible in public.
Along came the persecutors,
And they...
It seems that each and everywhere I turn there is a right taken
Are they truly mine or is it true that my rights are truly...
Color is only a perception
Only visible waves of light
Where equality was only a deception
Where 'seperate but equal' was...
To live and to breathe is what we seek.
Living in the moment; looking down from that peek.
Your mind is a puzzle, it’s your...
I am not a man
Not my brother
nor father
was a man
for all us three together would not be a man
for all us three worked...
When you look at me, can you see my invisibility?
Or is it all just in my mind, and is it me, myself, that keeps me blind...
poetry far and wide isn't judged by color or size
poetry isn't graded like a test poetry is graded from the chest.
Black and white
Would there ever be a gray?
Colors on a canvas can meld together
Become one.
Black and white
Would it stay...
Broken Dawn
Look me in the eyes and tell me everything’s okay
Smile at my naive face and say tomorrow’s a new day
filled...
How can one’s enemy be another’s
Savior, neighbors discriminated,
a brother dictated to fight a brother,
A whole existence...
Thank God for that red, white, and blue,
For not looking at the difference between me and you,
With an army at our side,
And...
A woman
A woman
who struggle through sun to moon
Who has million, trillion children
She doesn"t know none of them
Her...
Laughter spreads across their beings while pain fills my soul
I pray to God every night that numbness will take control...
ALL (except poppy):
A is for apartheid!
HAMILTON:
That has cursed us immensely in our times, Please hear out this poem as it...
Consideration
Integrity
Values
Independence
Lively-hood
Respect
Innocence
Generosity
Hope
Triumph
Success
How Would You Like It
How would you like it
If I told you
It’s not right to love who you want
How would you like it...
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...
Happy little village
People dancing full of life
Telling stories to the children
Momma’s cooking, go and play
Daddy’s...
somhow it came to other minds that we are all the same
but equality in itself has become a game
and everyone says that each...
A Million Voices Heard - Aaron Trimble
A few shades darker and you’re no longer free,
A few shades darker and you’re no...
I’m just hungry for some comfort food
But the officer is pacing because he wants to set the mood
Intimidation tactics leave...
My feet are tired and my day was long
The weight of this world I feel in my bones
All I want is a quiet ride back home
With...
This poem IS Gay
And not just in a childish and perjorative way
Cuz in a world where life is counted by the days
Who's...
Think, Focus, Open your eyes and realize that we should be together as one. The color of our skin should not define what...
The scenery of the land passes by as I look blankly out the window.
Black and white, white and black but never together in...
It is evident that the country is fighting for a change
Racial equality is still an issue in our nation
With the election of...
Down the street the march is about to begin
as we follow Martin Luther King
we clap and we sing
but the police only come to...
The sun sets over the horizon of hope
And I watch as it lies beautifully over our dreams
Each day is lived fighting for our...
They say choose your battles carefully, but our side of the starting line was chosen for us. Pick by some biased hand in...
No longer are we shouting "FREE AT LAST!"
We are now lasting free.
I am no longer judged by the color of my skin, but the...
Started as a vision of a free nation
then into a life of domination,
life as I knew it was about race
and the creators are...
My life is in pictures color and black and white. I hear the ocean roar and see my family's fight. Struggle to third floor...
Sitting in a seat
not accepting defeat
Rosa Parks took a stand
Speaking for the press
and being laid to rest
Martin Luther...
A stranger born in México, 1930s, desde el sur.
A supernova radio train that lets its branches
Disperse into the fog of the...
My skin doesn't make me who I am.
My skin doesn't give you the right to judge me.
My skin doesn't give you the right to...
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’...
What have we done to deserve such injustice?
No one else feeling our pain, it's just us
Being spit on and hurt by people who...
All we ever hear about are the gas masks and Dr. King. Or the buses and Rosa Park's. Oh they were there alright but they...
They say, "United we stand divided we fall,"
But through eyes equality isn't for all.
Help your neighbor, your future...
Civil Rights Black and White United
For a greater cause of equality
We must treat others with respect
Please united to beat...
Those hearts
They're beating with love
No discrepancy in rhythm
Hard, fast and true.
Those hearts
Should, would, can't be...
by Darlene Francis It is my understanding that the goals were : Two Million Bikers take Victory today in DC :One Million...
(poems go here) What is Your definition of Freedom ?
what is your way of life ?
is it in the words that you speak, or the...
When I do think of the past I think about what I would have done. I know that there weren't many opportunities for me but...
To live and let love die
That's the song America sings
When people are ruthlessly killed
And no one knows why
Listening to a...
Yell at me, throw stuff at me
I am allowed here
Don't point over there
Just because a word separates us
We are the same
I...
All men are equal,
Easier said than done.
Always thinking you’re just the same as everyone else,
Then being told you’re...
So this country is based on equality?
Think Again.
This country allows everyone to be free?
Think again.
Yeah we'll accept...
Sail
Together, I see,
The power of the wealth of belief
Though my friend just beside me has died in his sleep
Sand in his...
Fear and oppression
Our words shunned by those who looked down on our people
Hate, divided us
But our will was unbreakable...
Every color in every nation
Let me enlighten you my friends
And share some inspiration
Opression on these streets were'nt...
When you have no where else to go
RUN
Everyone is coming down on you
RUN
selfish acts brutal come backs
RUN
Counting down my...
You sit up on the bed you were sleeping on
The Pain inside of you shudders your every bone.
The youth that once was is now...
There is no equal
Whether thy be colored
Or thy be not
All asking when change will come
No answers
We stand must
Fight for...
I never knew I would be afraid to speak
So sick of each thought being made into nothing
No longer comfort I was trying to...
It is not freedom when we do not take action.
It is not fiction when we stand back.
The course that life gives us faces us...
Everyday we walk
Everyday we keep silent
Everyday we wait
We wait, for God gave us patience
We wait, for success comes in...
Breathing is easy until it is hard
Your conscience is pure until it is marred
Life takes its toll, it hurts and it drains
It...
Civil rights are more than just the right to vote.
It also means that someone believed that people needed to be treated...
I open up my eyes to these wrongful words
People judging yet again for the color of someone’s skin.
Why can’t they see that...
Why do you deny me? You know I'm here. Walking around pretending not to hear. hah keep trying! You think you're so smart,...
Black and White
Mixed
Mullato
and Anything in Between.
One part Hemingway, one part Gil Scott-Heron.
A revolutionary in need...
In time when there was civil unrest
The efforts of one man helped save an entire race
The works of this man, I must confess...
When will every being on the world be free? Free to succeed. Without freedom, people are empty. They don't feel like they...
Stand strong against discouraging, dishearting, demorilizing ways
Ignore the comments of a haters haze
Look into the eyes of...
(He slaved, he slaved,
he did this his whole life,
Man how he just wanted to get it right,
But he couldn't because of his...
She was sitting at the bar
her eyes were very far
and distant.
Two eyes behind the glass
they knew not how to surpass
the...
I cannot help but think why color even mattered in the first place
Close your eyes and we are all the same
The same human...
Sea of brown
On a beach of white
A future monument
On a great light
Words so powerful
Like bullets flying
Many happy
And...
I have a nightmare.
Twoscore and ten years ago, Mr. King helped revolutionize our country.
Equality for all, he said.
No...
Two score and eight years ago stood a great man
250,000 strong holding his hand
His words set fires
But not out of rage...
A cup has no identity
No characteristic that sets it apart
Surrounded by uniformity
Absolutely nothing unique
A light bulb...
(poems go here) Civil Rights
What is my civil right?
I am black but am I equal to a white?
Can I get the right to vote like...
Thou shall not take away our pride
By putting us down, or makin' us grovel in the mud.
You think you won by taking our...
Injustice but a word that was to be tossed around—
a swirl of colors in a pot that would not melt
the ingredient that would...
Pour her feet in emerald flames
Place her hands in ruby grains
They pulled his brain from the southern swamp
Clenched to a...
I was born by the river
In the shit-stinking tent of a tired sharecropper
The year was 1916
The year reeked of power
Power...
This world ain't no game this world is reality/
Crimes steady happening along with police brutality/
They put you in jail...
Free are we?
Surely not me?!
Free from bondage,
toiling dusk to dawn,
millions struggling just to keep on
who are they to...
Civil rights?
Are we still fighting or can this war finally end
Fighting the man or fighting each other?
Not sure if to run...
Who is considered an "American"?
Is an "American" based on whether you and your family were born on this country
or how...
(poems go here) From one side I hear
“I am nervous
I wonder if they will talk to me
I hear laughs of kids around me
I see...
It's like the moon it's always there
As day become night and the night becomes day it's still there
Even though it's not...
Two little ones hand in hand running
In the bright golden morning over Washington.
Their counterparts dancing in the Pool of...
They made us sit at the back of the bus.
They isolated us.
Different public places.
They didn't accept African American...
(poems go here) Not in a thousand years did I think I'd find someone so utterly and completely perfect,
Someone who makes me...
America the brave still fears of what they don’t know? A culture founded from
Oppression of stereotypical men and women,...
Young man shot in the streets
Young man bleeding from head to feet
The shootings of this young generation
Is on a repeat
18...
As we gaze into the merciless eyes
Of thy creature that is white,
We do not fight.
Our hearts are full of hope and serene
to...
The Movement is here, the movement is now. It's time to take action and let everyone hear. Let love be contagious and hate...
Rejected
Restricted
No.
Not anymore.
Their voices need to be heard, not ignored
No.
Not anymore.
They have suffered in...
(poems go here) The day the Civil Rights Warriors
Traded in their weary feet
For chrome-plated wheels
Was the day the people...
Holding hands
is not an easy thing to do.
It’s nerve-racking for the timid,
and even more so for the different.
Bound by...
I have acquainted myself with silence
I truly feel alone
I see the crowd of people conversing
My mind, what a humble abode...
Tear down your burgundy
Oh heartless one
As I reach forth to you
Fear me, as I have the atrocity of pain
For this insanity...
Though very different
God made us One.
Gay, Gender confused, Bi
We are One.
Together we can protect
Our brothers and sisters...
i see my self
rise out my sleep
trying see if i can compet
with this world where blacks
are getto and whites are ordinary...
I want to live!
Live without the suppression of who I am.
Live without the regret of what I should be.
Live without the...
My back may be bent, but I have fight, and drive, and a passion burning brighter than a thousand candlesticks. I will not be...
Travelling off the ship strong and as oneLocking up and holding tight was always doneNo break in these locks or lines took...
To be is not who I want to be
It is instead expected of me to be
Is not what I want to be?
For I want to be what I cannot be...
My tears run dry
As I look over the valley of hope
All I see is Death & Misery
With bullets flying by
The sound of...
Lift every dream in the air
That has been caught up in some snares
From people that said that u couldn't
That also told you...
DECiSIONS
I'm very upset right now...
But I'm not gonna let it show through
I feel like I could just cry saying boohoo
...
" I have a dream" is what he once said.
Because of that dream, Dr.King is now dead.
but now his dream has finally come alive...
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...
Her mind held dreams that obeyed no boundaries
Her dreams held a will that could not be broken
She could not be broken
She...
Since before the 1800’s women had a dream,
And men walked by head up high with a mocking gleam,
It finally hit the women...
I know I'm the same, but they won't treat me that way
It's not fair.
I know I have what it takes.
It's not fair.
My skin...
I was there
And so was red
It flashed so violently in the serene night sky
I could taste the burnt air on my tongue
Feel the...
I am no sock in a drawer
to be left seen but unseen.
I am no block
misplaced without purpose.
I am no person
to be unnoticed...
Seventeen and in pain.
I swear im going insane.
Im living in a society where you'll never be accepted.
You better count...
Sometimes we go through tough times
To expose peoples true sides
Sometimes we go through calamity
To bring together two or...
Walking down the street humming, listening,
I hear the pitter patter of my own feet.
My heart does not skip a beat,
No...
Second Sunday of May my father brought my brother, mother, and I
to our favorite breakfast place to celebrate the holiday.
I...
(Also sounds appropriate as a rap)
"I had a dream" started all this buzz
they said "it ain't fair"
but they were right...
I watch the depot shrink as we begin
The sweat now starts to form behind my knees.
The vinyl seats make patterns on my skin...
What's hard about being an american,
Is when I see a fellow brother begging from a can,
When people pass by just because...
(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...
I had a noise
A noise that rested in
the fingertips that
worked silently.
I had a noise
A noise that rested in
the...
An object in motion stays in motion
Isaac Newton’s first law
A movement in motion stops
Can a movement defy physics?
Civil...
Now we are here TODAY,
And still so far away.
Thinking about the PAST,
And the world TODAY.
See the world told me,
It...
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...
I am black and white.
I wonder about the past.
I hear the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I see discrimination.
I want...
A war that rages from north to south,
A war that pours blood from thy mouth.
A war on how much it hurt to be a slave,
A war...
We all deserve a chance right?
To fight with all our might for what we believe is right
Why should we let people tell us who...
Where are the artists like Marvin?
Where are the messengers for my generation?
Who is asking "What's going on?"
Who will...
As the day died and the night awaked
I went out only to smell something half-baked
The cross bond fire illuminated the skies...
A broken watch lies in my hands
It seems to have died the day I found my fate
Like the burden of knowledge I must act
In...
Equal people, same in hand and face,
but outcast quickly when not the chosen race.
Die for beliefs that should self explain...
E - Everyone is loved in God's eyes.
Q - Quietness about this issue is not needed.
U - Understand how important it is to...
(poems go here) Shut Out by Injustice
The only way I will ever feel in this empty world of hatred is belittled.
The whiplash...
Am I not human?
Do I not deserve equality?
Was I not created the same as white?
There is not a day that goes by
In which the...
I am not a man
Not my brother
nor father
was a man
for all us three together would not be a man
for all us three worked...
Looking down from heaven the angels sing
Black men, white men let freedom ring
From the north to the south to the east to...
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...
She holds her ground
Never giving up her seat
Even with the great sound
She took her stand and stayed around
Throughout all...
Different
From them
Women and men
Black and white
But we need to fight
Fight for our rights
To vote, to pray
Don't look away...
I never understood why we couldn't be friends.
I thought segregation is over...
Isn't that what Martin, Rosa, and Malcom...
Shouts in the streets again
My pulse wakes from its slumber
With all risings, it says "amen"
Oh Lord, just let me get home...
Strong are those who rise from weakness,
Faithful are those who hope regardless of hardship,
Loving are those who empathize...
Remember those slaves who paved the way.
The north and the south screamed their cause aloud.
The south sang slaves while...
I am the man who killed Jim Crow.
We Were separate but equal./
Armed with education and soul,
A nation free as an eagle./
I...
I remember way back when, when people use to love one another without being friends. I remember way back when, when we would...
Negro, dark skinned or black.
They know not my name, they don't know jack.
Basing their opinions on me,
Off of solely my...
What Language do you speak?
Is it mine? Is it yours?
Is it with a club or with words?
Is it Humanity yet insanity to have...
We are all once alone
Beaten shaken to live in fear possibly
Some of us living the gold standard
dancing to the thought of...
Scenes are shooting down
a block of neighborhood
A moving busy streets
Acts are striked every passing
hours of streaming...
You tell me to remain objective,
To keep my emotions out of it,
To speak in a calm, steady voice.
You ask me to remain...
They walked and walked and walked. With bruised feet, they walked. With bruised souls, they walked. With bruised hearts,...
One man stood up and said it all
There he stood at the Lincoln Memorial spilling his heart
There he stood so proud and tall...
To fight the great white suppression,
baffle the minds behind our oppression,
leaving only them to the disgusting aggression...
I remember,
As probably everyone does,
The days when the dark men were kept in cages-
Cages only fit for dogs.
I remember...
They marched, protested, and faught just so I could live the life I'm living today.
They marched just so I could go places...
America? The Home of the Brave? The Land of the Free? Not my AmericaNot the America that fought for FreedomNot the...
"Pull up the caboose," hiss'd Moses, moonlit
And fierce, the bandana like a red flag,
Signal of something si lent ly -"Don't...
With my shoulders weighed down and my body drained I push to overcome all obstacles. With whips and a lash my back heavy...
I walk past again,
So silent observing.
Their eyes trail my movements,
Watchful and wary.
Why am I any different?
Is there...
The civil rights act of 1964,
we stopped discrimination and ended the war.
This was a dream, this was like heaven,
counted...
Unbought and unbossed
Two words that meant more
Then what anyone would've thought
Born in Brooklyn, consumed in poverty...
What’s the meaning of pursuit of happiness when I can barely exist
When I’m treated like a quarantine disease
When they’re...
The moon, big and free, above our heads
was surrounded by flickering stars
our feet dragged on the cracked, cold soil
as our...
I am human, So are you
Lets see eye to eye, lets not tell lies
Color me black, color me white
either way we all should have...
Opportunity is a simple word that means so much. It can bring dreams, hope and aspiration in our lives, but can also make us...
My culture breathes ignorance into existence through slave tongues;
Infatuated by chains that ancestral pain used to hang...
It wasn’t about striking back
Or even fighting the power
It wasn’t about the politicians
Or those who emanated their
Hatred...
She listened, she felt, she saw
She stood up proud and she stood up tall
A leader of a pack
who always looked forward, never...
It all began with a fretful dream,
nightmares of never being free.
Waking up in cold sweats,
startled by screams.
And we...
Who Am I?
As I wait at this bus stop
Hot and tired I think to myself what’s for dinner?
Thoughts of roast, mashed potatoes...
White tears, or black tears
From misunderstood fears
White God or black god
From heaven we are all abroad
In this big pile...
Street UniversityMath’s- money making abilityGeography- know your territory and your enemies territory too, Art of...
I am bound to my chain
Never to be set free
The state of my confinement is one that is definite
A constant reminder that...
Skin prickles as the door opens, check the
oven, make sure the inside’s hot,
please let the roast be done, no time to put it...
Little T was murdered, beaten with a stone
For whistling at Carolyn, whom he’d hardly known
R.J. killed the boy, and...
how can you say
because he is gay
love isn't an option?
how can you say
because she is a woman
abortion is out of the...
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...
I, the Obelisk,
see all.
Ambition, Corruption
Sorrow, Hope
Damnation, Rejection
This time, it's different--
Hate seems...
Whippings, beatings, sickness without cure somethings they just had to endure
The pain and suffering of being beaten to the...
Equality...
Feeling of acceptance,
for who you are.
Looks...
Just on the outside.
An illusion to confuse.
Fear...
The fear...
every day of your life,i’ll tell you that you’re a king.place a dignity-studded crownon your head so you’ll have no choice...
My Brother and I will fight.
By: J.A. Palluconi
I see through his eyes and into his soul.
I then look at mine.
I hear his...
Fighting for the thing that is moral.
Changing history for what is right.
Making things believe using oral.
Create a place...
When you take a closer look at me
As, I take a closer look at you.
We look the same
We both like the same sports.
Think...
Inspired by Maya Angelou's "STILL I RISE"
TITLE: I SHALL STAND
Though You try to erase my footprintsfrom the sands of...
At first just yelling.
Spiteful cries,
Words like cleavers,
Got under her fingernails,
and the mahogany skin on her cheeks....
Oreos. Zebras.
There are jokes about both
That are funny to even the most welcoming of people.
When two races mix,
Two races...
We live in a land of kings.
Looking upon the world,
they sit on thrones of broken glass
that distort the world for what it...
HOW CAN WE COME OUT A SITUATION THAT HAS NOT ENDED?
HOW CAN WE EMPOWER EACH OTHER?
POWER ME, EMPOWER THE LITTLE LIFE I HAVE...
I heard about a brave lady,Rosa parks her name is.
The mother of the civil rights movement;
the lady who gave segregation a...
We do not need to fear.
We have no need to fear.
They can not take away our sprit.
They can not take away our hope.
Years ago a flame was lit,
a world divided, all people split.
Moves were made by those daring few,
some from bus seats, some...
Caucasian individuals are expected not to say the word
Us African Americans say it as it's a friendly greeting
Nigger is a...
We ride along in fading daylight,
as the moon slowly begins to face us,
it speaks to us,
"go forth and show them!" it shouts...
Strange Fruit
Strange Fruit she sings hanging from the poplar trees.
Withered bodies. Lacking the juice which is life.
The...
The hands that wrote that letter
Sitting in that cell from Birmingham jail
The hands that reached out and pushed against the...
Everyone needs a hero, someone who will speak and be the voice of those who are in need.
Many times people rise trying to...
(Civil Rights make it possible for me to attend this school...thanks...
to go learn and make better life
to marry a red blue...
black or white
purple or pink
every color is
great I think
who are you
to steal a life
using degradation
like a knife...
And I'm so different from you? Please elaborate how.
Your slander and hatred won't bring me down.
My voice was small,...
It all started with a bang
a gunshot to control the masses
the abduction of a nation
and a trip across the Atlantic.
Then...
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. This clergyman, this activist, this...
who is we
where does this we reside
is it the same place as where we’ve come from
have we progressed at all or is here to...
(poems go here) Remember when our world was new?
When Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.
We've come so far, that much...
Everyone should take the bus to get to where they work
Everyone should go to school without fear of being hurt
Everyone...
I come from the fire
I come from the sea, the burning beat of my African drums
I come from me.
I come from chains, shackles...
Can't stand another fight, I should really have my right
I'm going to break free and your in my way,
theres got to be...
To enter, or not?
Inside an empty room
Is where it stays
Behind that door is what
Some say could amaze
To enter, or not...
sudden realization of the sin
wondering where to begin
i open my eyes and see the difference
yet closed eyes, in my mind,...
The time has come for all the nations to gather together.
This has happened once in history, why not again?
As centuries...
I am one.
One being, trapped within the confines of skin so imperfect-
-bones so stiff
-In a world so...
I saw upon a dying street
Beneath the trees' barren
Humiliation,
A young man
(who reminds me of my grandfather)
Raking all...
I hear the sound of guns
"Bam" "bam" “bam”
I hear the screams from afar
The horrified screams like nails
Nails screeching...
Slam goes the door that the government has shut on the blacks
they don't care they don't worry, they think we are here to...
I hide behind a curtain of my hair,
trying to be invisible and not cause a scare.
They stare at me with eyes so cold,
I can'...
Through strife they lived,
the chains, the fury.
Through strife they lived,
the beaten and weary.
Naked and chained, the...
In a world where color meant everything
Struggles and battles were fought
Soon the segregation began fading
And color meant...
We buy our sterotypes off of tv subconsciencely we feed our ignorance without a black face and watermelon red lips but with...
In the eyes of their mothers
Justifiable fear,
driven by the monsters in the dark that do exist
She can't tell you it isn't...
BOOM BOOM BOOM through the night
the fire is shown way to bright
another has lost their life
but why?
why with a knife
...
He entered the bus
requested a seat from her
she said no with a fuss
he made a stir
she said there's a seat over there Russ...
Can you hear them
Fighting society and what fears them
Can you hear their thunderous voices
Bellowing out for equality and a...
We take for granted the motions that we are allowed to make
For granted that every breath we take
Is owed to another who...
She's had a long day at work and so
she decides to sit in the first row
unbeknownst to her 5 blocks away await
more whites...
We are not born with the inclination to hate
But throughout the years, we still develop those traits
Not because we’re...
In school we learn about events.
We can recognize names, faces, dates,
And perhaps even recall facts
Or lean powerful...
Love life, love hard, time moves on, whether you were apart of them at all. Can't move so stop trying, hearts bleeding, eyes...
Dreaming of a new age which
Requires all of us to work together for a brighter future.
Montgomery Bus Boycott leader who was...
Today I don't really understand why we kill
because we use to fight for freedom now we fight for an appeal
we use to be the...
(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...
Rosa Parks
A strong figure
refusing to move.
Why discriminate?
She was the same
as us
as everyone.
Love all people
and all...
Lives that were ended
Before they’d begun
Songs that were silenced
Before they were sung
Dreams that were shuttered
Before...
When I was born I used to play with dolls
My dad never understood my “issue”
Not like a normal boy who plays with balls
He...
A glance around
Turning of the head
Looking at the faces of others
Different
Our history and culture
Of where our ancestors...
Do we reside in a world of fair trial
is living here even worth our while
Or do we stay in land far away
From the time that...
This is not the life that I asked for
When looking at me what do you see?
How, Why, When will this ever end
Why should my...
Walls keep them from the game.
Eyes peer over the barbed wire.
The ref uses his stripes to keep them lame.
They peek over...
As the body rose up-
From scrutiny, prejudice and hate
Marred from Invisible Evil;
The fist of equality shot up in spate...
Knowledge lifts us up
Hatred holds us underground
Grace expels darkness
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil Rights Activist
Fought for Equality and Justice
50 years ago
People came together for action...
Is it the motion in which we move?
The slip of the tongue,
The dialogue that foreign language so happily sung,
Humans are...
I was sitting at the kitchen table
when I heard talk of the news.
A black woman on the bus in Alabama
had refused to get up...
I look in the mirror and I am afraid of change but I want people to know my name
I have to be patient and don't act...
So you tell me I have THE RIGHT. They fought for THE RIGHT-MLK, died for THE RIGHT-Frederick Douglas, bled for THE RIGHT-...
Tell me; do you know the colors of the rainbow?
Tell me; have you ever sat and watched all the people as they walk by?
When...
Do you hear it?
The voice?
The voice of the million cries,
Agonized by pain
The voice of the children dying from hatred,...
A movement that needed the bloodiest war on American soil
that pitted brother against brother
cousin against cousin
to die...
I was born in the south
Mom is white
Dad is black
Eighteen years later, I realize
I must struggle, what race to choose?
I...
One body and one mind,
born to live apart from judgement,
all given what we deserve,
Freedom.
Color matters to no other...
Three out of four was the turn out.
Growing up in a single parent household,
College Park, Ga 30349 was my hood until my...
Racial Discrimination, just as it was back then it is again
The fight is not over
It may not always be known, but sometimes...
I know what it is like to not have a voice. I lived it for twelve years. People all around me did not not have a voice. The...
I am here
or maybe there
I don't know or
maybe I do know.
I look at you
or maybe the side of you who doesn't think twice...
lost lives lying amongst the floor of gettysburg battle
rifle shots and cannon rattles
labor and slavery,
confederates and a...
Who gave you the right to use us at your disposal?
In the end,
you'll be alone---
like an empty vessel
stuck with...
The Civil Rights movement began over 60 years ago
It was very influential, as you may know
One important man was Martin...
Suffering
Pain
Injustice
It is all we have known
Long have we allowed the whip to crack
Saying nothing
Just bearing it
Long...
Marching, stomping as signs are raised.
We wont stop, they cant keep us back.
Joined together young, old, some white most...
Let me be the first to state that Hoodies Aren’t The Enemy. Let me be the fourteenth to reiterate that this was a different...
One day in Tennessee
Died a man who had a dream.
The words he spoke in D.C.
Will live on in high esteem.
Fighting for civil...
For years blacks was mistreated
Wondering when there'll be a time where they can believe in
Then out came something in 1909...
It began snowing gently,
When I looked around and realized I was alone; in the center of the crossroads.
A sudden feeling of...
It gets darker as everyday comes to an end,
The flesh is so weak, some cannot help but sin.
Day in and day out, we try to...
A story about my Uncle Sam who doesn't seem to get enough money, and it's hurting every single person out there.
Before you...
(poems go here)
The doors open swiftly now,
A new dawn is approaching.
With cautious steps and distrustful eyes
the soul is...
Our America sees us as inferior
different skin same interior
so they mistreat but we're not weak
anger builds up feel it in...
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...
You think you're in control.
I am your flexible sapling,
easily bent to your will.
I take in the sunshine on my own.
I soak...
I'm going to take you back in history and I don't just mean yesterday's history.
I'm talking about to the history of our...
I can change the world,
Starting with a dream,
One building block,
Upon another,
I just want a change,
I am not an automaton...
The black mother could only shed one solitary tear.
To see her only son locked up for having no fear.
For being proud of his...
Looking into the sky, what a shame what a lie. Waiting for a hero, that can save that can fly. We want to be saved from...
White
Who taught you
And you
Yeah
You too
To
Hate yourself?
Your eyes
Your ears and the lips on your mouth
Your nose
The...
Did you hear? Did you hear?
Hear it from me, don't mishear!
The war is over, we've finally won!
Hitler is dead, the good...
Speak your mind
get shot.
Speak your soul
off with your head.
Millions of people
and you're upstage.
You're speaking your...
The long and painful march stopped by the batons and dogs,
Some attempted to flee, while others struggled brutally,
Jim...
Knocked down
We were the forgotten sons
We fought against Jim Crow and the KKK
We took their hate
Transformed it
Into a...
(poems go here) On December 1st 1955,
Rosa Parks sat in the middle of a Storm,
And refused to move.
It was a Storm that had...
Dear No One,
In sorrow am I.
Let live have I, this forever-long lie;
Of love. No love.
Fallen have I too many a time;
Have I...
it's our time,
not just to rhyme,
but to become prime,
to let the world see us shine,
not just doing crime,
and wasting our...
A black panther
Hides in the
Concrete jungle.
The water
Washes away
The dirt, the blood,
And the words.
But water can't
Wash...
(poems go here)
The struggle of pain can make you feel like your nothing, It felt like that during the civil rights.
People...
In the eternities of
pain and tears,
dolor y llanto,
how can anyone find paz?
Mi Raza, it struggles,
Through losses of...
Blood.
Sweat.
TEARS.
Tears for being TAKEN
STOLEN
from Home
Happiness
Family.
Tears for being stripped
of power
but not...
Tension fills the air
They beat him, but you stare
Colors should not be the reason we pick fights
But all the more reason to...
Martin Luther's dream,
helped us through, thanks to you,
We now live freely.
What does it mean to be free? Free is when you're allowed to do as you please.You are given the privilege to be who you...
At one point she had enough
where times for her were very rough
she sat down with a smile on her face
and the bus still ran...
Our time is now,
Our time is now.
When words are not enough
Great men stand tall
And society’s instrument
Becomes victim to...
A protector from discrimination
You come for my salvation
In your eyes there is no difference of color
No shame in sexual...
Poor young man
Just loving wasn’t wrong
And still they took your life
They said “You don’t belong”
Not only did they take...
Some say, They are opposites
They cannot survive together.
But it's not true.
The sky is most beautiful
When decorated...
They say we are equal.
Why the bullying?
Do you think it's fun?
Is it satisfying?
The way you treat them?
They say we are...
They saw what they wanted.
Fists in the air,
Panthers in the Ghetto,
Invaders in the schools.
They denied what we are:
Men....
As I look around all I see is false images of what we were supposed to be
I see the false image that portrayed on television...
Words spoken long ago
Yet are reiterated to this day
words proclaimed long ago
yet still are being enacted today
we pray for...
Oh Rosa, Born Rosa Mcauley ended Rosa Parks.
Oh Rosa, Born Strong and Left her Mark.
From a Segregated school you know she...
Civil Rights, an act to be free
i look to my left i look to my right all around segregation i see
Disrespect, treated like...
Whether he did the crime or not
His body deserves and chance to rot
From normal decomposition
Not from flames he was...
"MLK died for this"Funny how time can change murder into punchlinesAnd make martyrs out of men who didn't mean to die for...
Fear the root of power of deception
Unclear of understanding
reaching out to dominate
nothing but consummate of
our...
Freedom
This kinda bread is kinda sweet, kinda bitter, kinda salty
kinda smelly, kinda frightening but kinda loving
And now...
You’re not white.
You’re black.
That’s not right.
You live in fight
With supplies that lack.
You’re not white.
Keep out of...
We stands alone, the awkward silence of our shadows but a toll in to the next step. Scars of hidden memories, tears of past...
I waited for a thousand years
That looked just like the skies that are painted
Of black.
Cold thats holding ferociously,...
You never got to know me.
You would never even try.
You told me that you would rather
I just go home and die.
You pushed me...
Why did they do it?
What was truly in their hearts?
Why did it become the norm?
Many questions still linger about “why”
Why...
I ran not from the Klan as they drove through the Deep South
I ran not from the man with his hand in a Nazi salute
I ran not...
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
not a definition of a physical substance.
Beauty is a color,
a multitude of colors,
a...
Is it fair
to comply
to the bad use of the law?
Is it fair
to uphold
that which should not be believed?
Is it fair
to find...
Cold is how I feel,
For love of mankind there
seems none.
We stand and fight
together,
Praying to be viewed as
one.
Each day...
There were screams and shouts all around
The judge had found nothing wrong
The year was 1992 when it all went down
"Can we...
Freedom is one of life's many virtues.
Possibilities in endless numbers.
Creativity, through freedom, flows true.
Stagnation...
What took years upon years to even be considered
What people saw but never really admitted
Race doesnt make a person better...
Years of work,
years of tears,
hundreds if not thousands of lives lost,
for what, I ask?
for what?
Our children still fight...
What our we fighting for
Can anyone answer?
The battles is on going just like the fight against cancer
But why do we travel...
Dream, Dream
That's all I ever knew
I have a few
Dream, Dream
Don't you see
We are one, not three
Dream, Dream
My skin is...
King was not afraid to make his stance
That we all sat in a racist trance
Were their laws just for placing him in jail
Or...
It was on an icy morning when
I hurried back inside --
To grab my coat and money --
Then I scurried back outside.
I walked...
Civil Rights is the movement for all of us to be free
All the races together is what we want to see,
No disrespect, but...
first foot, second foot march.
here and there everywhere just march.
to get where we half way are today they had to march....
One mind,
Same heart,
Why are we blind
to see that,
But yet quick to see color,
Black, White, Orange, Green, Red,
We all...
it sho would be nice ta live ina big house
with ma own fields a cotton an a handsome young spouse
wi' ma own servants to...
"I have a dream"
he said loud and clear
"I have a dream"
broke through the thick air
many applauded in hope
hope that one...
"King pointed to the mountain top and we ran up...His power was the people." -Common. They judge based off the melanin in...
I AM,
Somebody.
Initiating the vigorous montage of syllables sliding down our tongues.
corruptedly speaking
our words of...
From the celestial dawn onward
Hate of difference, hate of others.
Ignorance gives way to ignorance
Love gives way to love...
African American did not have rights
All of them suffered from the lies
Until Martin Luther king Jr wasn't afraid of heights...
i was raised between the bricks of government housing.
the family next to me was black. the family next to them was black...
Look at these people
Look at their faces
Before us they are standing.
Broken
Bitter
And denied
It's time to stand with them...
Let’s Go Back!!
Let’s Go Back, back in time, where we began to rhyme
Singing hymns to kill times, of inequality,
let’s go...
Born to be one of you
Programed to act as you do
Civilized by your instruction
To bring on self destruction
I have no rights...
Civil rights are for you and me,
for we need personal liberty.
Whether one is black or white,
freedom of speech is worth the...
Is like something no one can contemplate
No one expects it
Yes, we secretly do
But we try to forget because they remind us...
The ground was hard, hard as coal. The earth was cold as the dew of night. The black back bent over in shame as the white...
Darkness on the stage
everyone and everything in its place;
The show is about to begin.
In the center stage
Henrietta Lacks...
They walked to school heads held high not
knowing what awaited them but they had to try
What you see are...
It was a cold and dismal day unlike any other,
The streets were flowing with people running into one another.
A lady cold...
Pride
What made some weak, made others strong
pride
The sole purpose of the segregating and the wrongs
pride
a country...
Beaten, battered and broken
Through hell and back,
We stay alive,
The torture, the hate and lack of respect
From Emmitt Till...
It was December 1, 1955, after a long day at work,
When I hurried to the Cleveland Bus, not anticipating the bus driver’s...
A woman that looks like me,Angela Davis I believe,Standing on her own two feet,Her skin and curls the same as mine,Only, her...
Hungry hue-mans were in caves driven to consume and feed a tribal network, we made weapons from stones because survival...
I say im gon spitt pour out my soul write out heart see through my flow rhyming so slow
Get better with time my essence...
Many a man has lived that has given his life for another.
Not many a person, though, who has changed the world forever.
The...
America is constantly put up for praise
Freedom, opportunites. Yeah, we have our days
But is freedom really freedom when...
Some say there's a place, over the hills and far away
Where the privileged listen to whar mere mortals have to say
They...
To sit back and watch
That is not how I do it
I stand up and say aloud
I am who I am
A gay man
I do not hide anymore
I do...
In today's world, we hear about the civil rights movements in history class.
We think, "that was so long ago, does it even...
A month after I was born, in 1955,
Mother told me
Of the beginning of the bus boycott
Because a woman of color
Refused to...
Way down south below the Mason Dixon, there lies
A man who is blind and covered in hatred,
A man who can see and is covered...
I had just finished my climactic battle with a cockroach this morning,
When I froze to look at the sight of its body in a...
Who are we to judge based on a person’s skin or based on what they like and their sexual orientation
“Equal Rights” is a law...
Have you ever been sprayed?
Sprayed with iniquity
Sprayed with hatred
Sprayed with your identity
Sprayed with a hose
Because...
It is hard to believe how far we've come
this journey is hard and long but still undone
through pain and sacrifice rights...
We are the people of this world
We are the people of America
What are rights?
Does rights have a color, a ethnic a gender, a...
Look up
Up where? Up there!
That man in the sun’s light.
Is he white?
Would a white man stand in this fight?
No, that man is...
Cuban soil, a land that may never be free...Free
for us to roam as our ancestors once did or for
me to visit as I please....
I left the Home, a shabby lumbering shack,
Taking only the clothes on my back
And the chime of Symmetrical thoughts,
And...
My Land
Civil Rights Poem
By: Paoly E. Ozuna
Education is key
To open the door
You need a dream.
To sit, in front of...
I open up my eyes to these wrongful words
People judging yet again for the color of someone’s skin.
Why can’t they see that...
so many thoughts course through my heart
it feels heavy, a burden, so i want you to take it, and keep it safe
i look at the...
I see what your scared of,
that thing inside that you want, the burning fire,
te desire for change,
you thought you could do...
IN THE 1960’S WE HAD OUR SAY
BUT DID WE REALLY PAVE THE WAY?
WHO ARE YOU?
BLACK OR WHITE?
CAN WE PASS THROUGH THE NIGHT?
IS...
"But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that [humanity] is still not free."
In a land that devotes time...
(poems go here) RECOGNIZE
The contributions of my people are no longer a mystery.
Our achievements...
Centuries of oppression,
Second rate, second-class existence,
Judgment not by character but the color of one’s skin,
Biting...
We are here it took hard work to be here equally. And Our ancestors carry the scar.
The color of your skin doesn’t describe...
When that I was a little tiny boy,
Me daddy said to me,
’The time has come, me bonny bonny bairn
To learn your ABC’.
Now...
So many blackbirds in a tree,
But not Cindy and her family,
They’re on the ground, collecting seeds
For all those birds up...
I am a Dream
That one day was gunned down on the Balcony
In the city of Memphis, In the State of Tennessee
Bluff City, The...
-Revolutionary in Uniform-
In your time they held picket signs
wore black pants tucked in black boots with black berets as...
Colors dripping down the canvas
Blending into a solid line
A gentle breeze rushing the drops
To one side
Then the crosswind...
To the left of me, are the misfits:
The kids who do not belong, but seem to stay here all along.
The the right of me,...
A man once dream t the world to be,
But it was cold and dark.
So to give his creation meaning,
He gave it a little spark....
Who am I?
My voice is heard.
My fists stand high for my country.
I was once shot down for bearing a child and having bosoms...
whispering wind will pass
the booming thunder will overpass
your voice will shutter and ever-last
but i wonder who will hear...
Martin Luther King jr. fought for the termination of segregation.
In every establishment and in every foundation
He fought...
We aren't what we think,
We aren't perfect,
Life isn't perfect,
I'm not perfect,
You're not perfect,
We aren't perfect,
Its...
I do not wear the same skin as youbut our struggles, they are similar.You see, while you are outcastfor the way you look,...
The Bible reads
"All Men Are Created Equal"
So why do you detest me so?
My heart beats
My brain thinks
I have emotions
Just...
"Listen to me,"
A kid asked of you
"Listen to us!"
They begged you
"Listen to us!"
We have to demand.
You see nothing
In us...
Racism why is it even here
all it does is bring us tears
Whatever happen to a world of peace
its time we bring a new life...
Change
If there was something I could change
What would it be
The mindset of so many
Displaying their animosity
Loathing...
We came in chains, torn off our land.
Never was there a hand to bite, because nourishment was not given
Packed like meat in...
A time of tears
A time of fears
Pain and Misunderstanding
No communication
No love
No acceptance
Marches, Murders, hangings...
The smoke burns
My throat is sore
Daddy says run
But they’re doing more.
I never knew
How bad it was
How much hurt
Came from...
I've overcome…
From the whips and chains..
I've overcome…
From the bitter taste and sinking pains..
I've overcome…
From the...
Marching
A march they took part of to be part of the fight,
A group of individuals come together ,
Marching in hope for...
Birds have beautiful colors.
Their feathers of red and blue and golden yellow
ruffle together against the sky.
Birds have...
Late in the evening when the Magnolia tree stops blowing;
The smell of sweat and hate emerges;
Sounds of incoherent flour...
And they said it would never be..
that is, the voice of equality
Who ever thought a right to vote
Surely not those who in...
Encircled by a group of guyfriends
gathered like scholars circles back in medival times,
news about a girl comes up....
Forgive me father for I have sinned
America says my color is my transgression
Yet they say our society moves with constant...
It was cold that night
Love was gold that night
"Twentyfive to life," the judge screamed
He added an extra 25 because we...
I always say, I am an American. But I am human first.
“My question is- why is there only an “American Dream”? What about...
Freedom
America has invested hundreds of years of its time, fighting for equality.
Every morning, children throughout the...
Women are just a different type of man
without one, neither would exsist.
we both have two arms,
two legs,
and two eyes.
two...
If it weren’t for the Civil Rights Act of 1964
All I’d be doing is cooking and cleaning, nothing more.
It allowed men and...
Water fountains, buses, and diners built as barriers to hold us apart. The men and women of a country built on morals that...
Run.
Stand up.
Fight.
Or die.
Die for what's right or something that brings hope for a better life.
"We shall overcome" the...
In Selma they start
Hand- in- hand
With love and warm hearts.
To be able to vote and be equal someday
This is their cry,
To...
John sees it,
His muse, his love, the one,
The features of an angel,
Golden hair with misty eyes,
Fit, tall, and...
Freedom came
Freedom left
Freedom is not a game
Freedom was at theft
Freedom we rang
Freedom we thought
Freedom we sang...
She needs protection.
She is just weaker.
This is a man’s world.
His ego is the leader.
He believes he’s in charge.
Speaking...
even though I'm white
and you may also be white
we are so different
Difference is hard
it's not depicted on one
or two...
(poems go here) Rosa Parks and The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa boarded a Montgomery bus one December afternoon
Paid for the...
Rage burning in the souls of my ancestors.
Their sprits wandering around the stake....
"Who will avenge me? Who will tell my...
I’m color blind
What can I say?
Under the sun’s rays
We are all the same.
Black or white
Does it truly matter?
Rosa Parks...
I may not be your color
I may not be your kin
I may be the oppression you think you’re fighting against
But I sure am not...
Search for truth.
Don't tell us who we are.
We are people.
We are all people.
I walk for truth.
I walk for them.
For the...
I look out at the street and see a mixing pot of people
But we still don't notice all the pain and unfairnes
1964 we created...
There is a life. A life of a new age in which all men are free. I never dreamed that I would see this day, ho how my soul...
In 1789, there was the start of the French Revolution
Everywhere in France, battles were about to ignite
The country was in...
Civil rights...
Civil rights?
Civil rights, what is this?
When people say civil rights
Do they know what it means?
Do they...
Times Filled with darkness, sweat, motivation, and TEARS!
Thank God... Things have progressed over the past years…..
From...
White men had the right,
Just pass a test,
And fill out the ballot,
But African Americans and women could not,
Why were we...
There is a path just found behind the school
Rumors say what happened there was very, very cruel
I go to see the famous...
Discriminate synonymous with hate
Judge me based on a physical trait
Does my skin define what's within?
Can you not... See...
What does it mean to be free,
To live without restraint.
These are the questions asked by the people,
The people who where...
We live in a place
Filled with promises
That are disgraced
Where some are privileged
and others oppressed
While our...
Power rushed though my veins as my hands reached towards the golden skyline
I could feel freedom's warm, welcoming breeze at...
you looked me right in the eye
I could see the burning embers of hell
reflect in those
damn blue eyes
and maybe I shouldn’t...
Side by side and hand in hand
Individuals from different races stand
In an attempt to make the world equal
So everyone can...
I am different, you are nothing like me
I am an individual, I never follow the crowd
You judge because you cannot truly see...
My Color
Your Color
Back then it wasnt the same
His Color, Her Color
Back then it brought shame
I wish it werent so
such...
dark skinned on my face
born and raised in a white community
living in a house with black customs
but going to school...
As I close my eyes
Avoiding the darkness of the black smoke surrounding me
I envision a place
Where children laugh and play...
While you stand there are scream, I stand here and cry.
While you burn a cross in my yard, You burn a hole in my heart.
I...
I've seen my people enslaved by these monsters
I haven't seen them escape very far
Still trapped by their masters, or the...
First Amendment-
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, as long as said religion is...
Don't fall on tough roads when your all alone
Watching your sister's brother getting stoned.
Live a long way
Start if off...
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...
We are the Quiet Cattle
Always in some insignificant, internal battle.
Distracted, we let them hop right in the saddle,
Cast...
Together we will stand.
Forever holding one another's hands.
We will not fall.
We will never sway.
We will never budge.
It...
There's no one here to talk to,
yet you're around all the tme.
When comfort comes to call,
constantly drowning it, is your...
I know that we looked different
I knew it all along
But treating us this badly
Seems like it should be wrong
You say...
He prowls the lands in search of residences.
One, does he cozen.
All but one habitent is ornate in his presence.
This cub,...
Bent over
blades pierce through
carcass meat
Like a pig
in a butchers back room,
ready for slaughter
Coughing up sludge and...
A synopsis of intermissions because of a lovely existence
We threaded back to our lineage's tool box
Containing proof of...
Do You Remember,
When Martin Luther King Jr said he had a dream to be considered equal to white people?
I Did once...
The valleys and hills, tumbled and tall,
With ants that scurry up the wall.
The red ants march, bold and pride,
While the...
I don’t know everything. I’m only a human being, and I’m willing to admit such, but I ask of you to heed my wisdom of which...
I have no idea whats the difference
Why you and me are so different
Or what gives everyone clearance
Im of African descent...
Look at me and look at you we’re both the same
you don’t have any clue, you signal me out
and I say I will never be like you...
The back of the bus
is the place of loud school kids.
The back of the bus
was were you made me stay.
The back of the bus
was...
Black or white,
colors fade to gray,
we stand together,
United as one,
nothing can break determination,
no one can stop our...
Although some think it is ridiculous, others think it is true.
Appearance makes all the difference.
What are we without the...
never thought that this white man would be mad
i would have thought he would have been glad
im somebody that you wanna be...
The cracks get longer as the work gets harder
Looks chain you down as you pay by hand
Judgment looks you down to your...
I praise every Black mother who raises her son,
Having to warn him of the dangers his beautiful skin has won.
Teaching him...
Stuck up I'm a stuck up Filipino
TNT livin cus my life is so illegal
And All I wear is brands
But give no fucks about my...
(This poem was based off of the 1960s time frame & what still remains for women today. It shows my emotion towards women...
Foundations of these lands were marked by the free and the brave.
Through history of the past, fights were fought to make...
Freedom? Is that something we can really say we have?
No. Our minds are trapped in the past
Holding hatred against those who...
The Black Sheep,
Forced to adapt or fall into the trap of oppression and descrimination against itself,
Being sold bleach...
Please see me
As a friend, and as a common skeleton, for ebony is a strong wood.
I am too a son, look past the flesh you see...
Fear
Filled within their hearts
Individuality, discouraged by the Xeroxes
Adversity, scorned
Change, frightening
The Unique...
Actions that transpired to bring us a better today,
From the past to the present, paved the way,
The likes of you and I and...
There once was a man named Fred Korematsu,
There was no aspect that made him different from you,
But one day his life...
To be strong or weak,
That's a choice you have to make.
But remember this,
either you stand for something,
or you fall for...
You see the sun
as do I
You feel the wind
as do I
You were created and loved by God
as am I
The feeling of pain and...
Justice denied at fourteen
Beaten, shot, dumped
Death finally claiming to end your pain
Where is justice I yell
An eerie...
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...
Smash
The ball leaves the stadium; the crowd stands up in awe
A perfect hit
The round baseball soars high into the sky...
By the time I matter, Will it be too late?
Will people debate my soul's resting place?
Will they predict who I could have...
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...
They force us to the back of the bus,
They make us go to different facilities,
They treat us as if we dont belong.
Who are...
Black jacket, oh black jacket which hides my scars so well,
however do you mask my discolored blood from Hell?
Every day I...
Roses are Red Violets are blue Martain Luther King lead a march on Washington and changed civil rights forever and so can...
(We're all fighting to achieve the same "american dream"
and even still to be free
free from others criticism but more so...
Let's think a minute
about the things
that
won't ever leave:
life
yourself
your right to happiness
If it's not good, it's...
No one slips through the cracks?
“All men were created equal.”
“We are our brother keeper.”
“No man is above the law,
And...
These Broken bones I pass,
Finally broken at last.
Broken dreams, broken hearts.
All is done, now in the past
Rekindles...
When there were not enough Native Americans left to do our dirty work
We kidnapped and enslaved you.
While you were of no...
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I got sued,
How 'bout you?
He was a nice fellow,
if you like mellow,
I can't believe it,
He...
Don’t walk on Sunrise!
Don’t look in our eyes!
Don’t shop where we shop!
Cut cane and don’t stop!
Life is a challenge --...
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...
You’re going to kill us all
There are people in this world who still think that because we have a black president
We have...
United as a nation, Divided we stand blacks vs. white, man vs. man.
The picture painted here is allured into the depths of...
Had a sporadic moment of brilliance today
This extra-terrestrial brown skin
Bronzed with historical significance
Scarred...
I am black
I am beautiful
I am black, and beautiful
I am smart
I am independent
I am black, beautiful, smart, and...
Sometimes I see,
Things that I should not.
And sometimes I do,
But then I get caught.
I am never alone,
When I am near.
But...
Nigger, to me, sounds like nooses and hangings.
It sounds like, "Whites Only," and "No Coloreds Allowed."
It sounds like, "...
I rode the bus again today.
Took my seat in the very back.
I didn’t want to be seen.
It’s not like what I wanted would...
how odd, to be a woman and a girl
to wear the dresses but concern about cleavage
more than meets the eye: because.
and so we...
Brown v. Board
And they thanked the lord
Rosa -- Separate but equal,
Even if you’re feeble
NAACP/SNCC/CORE
All started...
Pain on their faces
Agony in their voices
The people who perished
Are the people who paved the way to be free
Women, African...
How far? How far have we come?
Freedom riders and the freedom rides on, what lie are we living in when discrimination's...
Looking,
Searching this world for explanations
Not only explanations,
But evidence
As to why anyone would make someone feel...
Soldiers overseas fighting for our 'delights'
Aliens bathing in citizens' rights.
No food on our table
Thanks to our taxes...
Stop now, hush that fuss
Everybody move to the back of the bus
She sat there without a fuss
Refusing to move to the back of...
Eevrybody wants a change If you want that you should show it right Why keep walking and looking strange And with freight Why...
I take
another short breath,
preparing for my death
sentence.
My fingers grasp the door,
anxious, cold,
and black.
Through...
Civil Rights, an act of liberation
when all we see is discrimination,
Mistreatment is all around,
Segregation keeps us bond...
Here I dissociate, alone in awe I am taught
I see what the silence has tried to show me all along
occasionally blinded by...
Lift every voice and sing
‘Til earth and Heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of…
Liberty.
That’s what our ancestors
Gave...
Everyday the same dream
A rightful progression we must esteem
And should we forget how far we've come
Wake up, pass the...
I am not the only one
In my house, my school, my town, I can’t be the only one
Thought it feels as if I am sometime...
Man, who thinks himself above she
Man, who holds all control
Not one who let her choose
She had no choice until all shouted...
is your favorite color blue or is it pink?
are you gay are you striaght? well maybe your bi...
why does it matter my sexual...
"Stand tall," mother reminds
"So people look up to you."
Stand tall so you demand respect
Then, they will listen: give...
Hurting eyes
They all saw it as they walked on by
On the ground, ready to cry
But in their hearts, they were ready to rise...
Many greats before us have come and gone
Many have fought hard and have won
Their effort has come with great reward
They...
Their faces patched
Strings holding them up
While a man holding a wooden cross
At the other end of the strings
Pulling at...
A slash whipped a chain broken, tears trembling as the sun peaks to its early dawns.
Every soul is twisted as the sea but as...
I am from years of injustice, decades of tragedy,
from lack of the truth I was set aside for future years to handle.
I am...
(poems go here)" From Segregation to the next Generation"
As time progressess ,I se that change has came however, is that...
James T. Brown , did his all for him
His all which helped me
His all helped all men and women
All blacks who wanted to reach...
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...
This is the public, right?
Than why shall I be set aside.
This is wrong, we will fight!
We just want to eat.
We all need to...
A whistle to myself,
I whistled a song,
A song about a woman,
frightened by the black night,
frightened by what she don't...
Through mushy puddles she wears a tranquil stare,
Brows furrowed in ambition of getting there,
Little steps, one by one,...
I'm not who I am.
I'm not who you think I am
I've changed
I want more then this life
I've died to my old self
And now I've...
When I walk up to that podium
I look down among the people below.
I cast aside my papers.
We will cast down our buckets...
A rose of red must be with a rose of another color says the botanist. It is only moral. I want to wed a rose of red says the...
Every time I collapse onto the ground
From a bomb that blows up from behind me,
Palestine picks me up
Every time I cower in...
One Constitution
provides equal rights for all.
One court
One Congress
One president
decides what this means.
All people
are...
I am a Women of Many colors, I wear the rainbow with pride
To the days I ride
Red I wear upon my face, Walking at a pace...
I'd like for you to rewind to a time when
Something as innocent as the color of your skin
Could earn you a severe and...
Why are we here? Tell me what is the purpose?
Our fathers, grandfathers and children hang from wood.
Some of our leaders...
I know I'm not dreaming
I focus on a woman in the crowd
Next to her is another of varying color
Alone these two are easily...
Knowledge is Power
Heart beats fast, a ticking clock
Echoes in the cries among us
As we watch the crowd surround the block...
From the middle passage, shackles, whips, auctions, cotton fields, negro spirituals, secret church, rape, abuse, scars,...
My Rights ARE Your Rights, Quitting Slavery and Discrimination
The misconception that began in 8000 BC, of how people could...
Beaten.Broke.Bleeding.
Still fighting. Still believing.
I keep on going.
There was a time when I used to be embarrassed of who I am.
Embarrassed to walk the halls full of people with fair skin...
It must pass this day, this day it must
we have fought as a nation; in God we Trust
This day long awaited through trial and...
For the justice of humanity.
For the justice of Fong Lee.
For the justice of all casualties
of racial ideologies.
For the...
I am the man that’s different
I am the one you notice first in my law class
I fought for my rights here where I don’t belong...
A raised hand, waiting to be selected, equipped with my answer correct
My posture, correct, my attitude, correct, my...
Stomped Jumped, kicked beat
We suffered
Fighting for what we believed in
We suffered
Not being recognized by our hearts but...
To be seen is to let the world view what your about
If they like what they see, they'll welcome you without a doubt.
To be...
Just because "daddy" ain't in my life don't mean I'll commit a felony
Just because I am a Filipina don't mean I want to be a...
opinons clash like air in a hurricane
we own our words
and keep our thoughts
when words are discouraging
its as if a storm...
This is the story of a divided nation.
In a time when industrial revolution, bondage and hierarchy was the norm.
1861 the...
My mama tells me they don't belong
They're different
Foreign
Disgusting.
My mama tells me I can't share
Anything.
I'll get...
To see how many showed
To see how many smiled
To see the many People
Stretch out a million mile
To see how happy
To see now...
Freedom
A dream of no control
Everything as you want
No more pain,tears or, hatred
But peace, joy and equality
Let the...
A test
A simple test
God created man in his image
A creature filled with life
Blood flowing and
A heart beating
Each being...
Nothing.
That is what is expected of me.
No,
That’s what I am expected to be.
So I am.
Nothing.
And if I am more,
I am still...
Trough colorful eyes I see the hate, discrimination, rude looks, and shame fullness.
I see the world as an black and white...
(poems go here) You will not go here they said
You will not sit here they said
No desegregation of schools they said
White...
Nations crumble as blunderbuss reign
Life withdraws as we fall to rest
The continuity that is our being slips
A bottomless...
Equality isn't real,
some people don't even feel.
Her I am sitting alone,
looking for anyone to take me home.
One night I had a dream that Dr. King sat next to me, and asked me why is this society his dreams destiny? And see at first...
(Repetitive struggle
Overrated & overused looked now as a cliché
Harsh realities bundle
Looked over by society, but 99%...
Darkness all around and they hated it
I walked in the room with my success and my
head held high, with strong words coming...
Racial discrimination was still on
The Blacks decided to get things done.
They moved out the South
For the whites didn’t...
The black crust along my Oreo,
So crunchy and fullfilling,
So delectable and delicious.
The satisfaction leaves me wanting...
Watching those around and I don’t care who sees
My pride and my effort to live being me
Why do they judge when they have no...
I walk to the door,
the door that all
America is now watching.
Why is America watching
this door?
Why does that man standing...
Bitten, but not broken down
Beaten so low to the ground
Falling but never weak
Standing for these rights, CIVIL we seek
The...
Looks of disgust, of hatred
My skin, my hair, my eyes-giving me away
They see the past
But I didn’t do those things
The one’...
The crushing blow restriction
Not whereing to turn
What could I do?
Are my options through?
I will find a way to break free
I know what the caged bird felt
Now flying free from his oppression the warmth casuing his heart to melt
Flying through the...
I want to see the world at large
Where right people are always in charge
A world where I can marry and speak
Where racism,...
We had to fight
We prayed at night
We hurt inside
We built with in the pain
The discrimination of our name and race
We...
I am a product of the Earth, much like you.
My people blossom in the motherland, soaking in the bright sun.
Our vines weave...
Burn the house, burn the meadow
Everything but sky turned to shadow
Using flames while being rash
Turning the memories back...
It shapes me.
The pain, the suffering.
The men and women who lost it all.
Who lost their identities,
Their passion.
Who...
Why stress the events that hurts you most?
You can go out and out do the crowd
Who cares if black or white, we are all one...
Yank out the boundary and grip the independence.
Point out we can do whatever we want.
We the people, are trapped, but we...
Who are we?
Women.
Strong, smart and bold.
Were we always like this?
No.
We were treated quite cold.
Who are we?
Women.
We...
Here I am, once again
Chains that shackle my feet
To an ideal,
To a model,
A model with such small features,
such crimson...
Let’s be clear about one thing.
Our government is in the midst of devils in disguise.
We played advocate in the classroom,...
No.
No.
No.
That's all I've ever heard.
All. My. Life.
No.
All anyone ever told me was "No."
"No, you can't sit here."
"No,...
White men rode on white horses,
For they feared the dark steeds,
They fought for superiority,
Instead of the acceptance this...
I a citizen,
Free to think,
Free to be.
I am a student,
Given the ability to learn,
About justice, civil rights, liberty.
I...
Your petals posses a rich vibrancy that glows within,You remind me of my dad,He has a beautiful complexion and rich tan skin...
The streets flooded
With the cries of the oppressed
The energy flowing
of humanity regressed
Eyes open
tears run down each...
I’ve got the world
In my ears.
Whistling,
Whistling,
‘bout tides and cities
And peaks suspended from
Diamonds in the storm....
Waking up with frustration,
unable to see,
unable to be heard,
unable to change,
Going to bed with frustration.
The cycle...
In this world, there's good and bad,
There's love and hate,
There's truth, there's fallacy,
Be free be mad
This is our fate...
Children,
Windows are now doors
Streets are now sidewalks
They are now history
D-day,
Don't forget your toothbrush.
Flying...
Racial discrimination is there a color associated with me?
Or do you look at my face and dark roots is all you see?
Will the...
We live in a world that has been teeming with hate,
Our ancestors have endured much pain and hate,
Our ancestors have...
Long ago, you drew lines in the sky, Then you broke our wings so we couldn’t fly, You made us weak and painted us black,...
"After working all day.."
Tired, i bet,
All day had she worked, worked up a darn good sweat,
Oh Lord, this woman said no....
I want a boyfriend
but I also want feminism
Does that make me so awful?
Does it make me any less of the woman that I am?...
The few, the proud … the black
And they said black couldn’t be in the military
Because we’re only equivalent to monkeys...
Oh little bird
How I long to set you free
From the imprisonment seize
Let you spread your wings
Go beyond the mountains...
Two brothers, identical, both with the kindest of heart,
One was a holy man, one was was smart,
Children they once were,...
When they saw the verity
That lied within their reach,
They had to make a choice,
Leave it or close the breach.
When they...
When life gives you struggle you can deny what happens but you MUST realize that mishaps develop you to become
beyond...
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...
They walked and walked and walked. With bruised feet, they walked. With bruised souls, they walked. With bruised hearts,...
Martin Luther King once said, “Darkness does NOT drive out darkness; only light can.”
Then why do we choose to hide behind...
You've looked down at me
You've hit me
You've treated me as if i didn't have the right to exist and spit at me
Tormented and...
Drew Bailey
The Shepherd
He himself,
Is but a faithful gardener,
Who he himself gives hope as a beacon
To the people.
Not...
Darkness was all that was there
Black, the color of a rising movement
Hate, the feeling that overflowed the nation
White,...
I awaken to a cloak of skin
Pigments dark and the world deems it a sin
Ashamed of these features I struggle between hatred...
People walk day by day
Faces are unreadable and hide a person's story
We are all people created by God
You think we would...
Everyday I give life my all,
Even when I feel like today will be my last breath I give it my all. Throughout my trials and...
Your views do not define me
The past has made me strong
I don't need your approval
So please carry along
As I look deeply at life as it is,
I think about how although our country has dramatically changed since times of...
Do you know what year it is?
What century we’re in?
You say racism is gone
You say we all have rights
Is it right for me to...
Jim Crow was a bad man
He ruled through out the Southern lands
There he existed on the walls
To impose terror and fear but...
Hate, a small word by size
and it is so easy to recognize.
Hate, so wrong but yet so sheltered
so strong and is used as a...
In a time of hardship,
Many fear the fight,
Many face the fight,
Going day by day struggling,
Many face the fight,
Trying to...
I.B.L.M (If Black Lives Matter)
I Hear This Time AND Time AgainWhen Will THE Killing ENDCome Together AND WINBUT Rather...
Cells bound together,
Made to endure any form of weather.
This skin is judged and is judged for one reason.
The color of the...
Pause: We've come to a point in history in which blacks have established a higher status in society. Throughout all of the...
Let’s be hipstersRule breakersLet’s be rockstarsOr bank bank robbersThe night is young and we’re in controlLets forget...
Dr.King had a dream that people would be equal
as for me i still feel fearful
walking down the streets he took on critisism...
Uh. Uh. Agency. History. Word. Here we go:
United States, United States
Tryin' to show the world its pretty face
But 'merica...
Black…
A word that
instantly
brings about
negative
connotations…
Its denotations
just as bad.
Full of anger,
wicked,
harmful...
Hatred
fire in your eyes abrupting like
an angry volcano.
Hatred
The sick to your stomach feeling when
you see us walk by....
I warned that boy
I begged him please
I told him not to blink an eye
I told him not to look their way
I told that boy so...
You do not have to be a sophisticated person to appreciate words
; poetry is not sour or tart
; don't let the them tell you...
(Power of the pen, power of the mind we are able to learn, seek, and find. Education is the key to success, but when it's...
I stand bound before you because of the iron that runs through my veins...
It feels a lot like slavery with these modern day...
My father will never understand the constant frustration
that runs through my mind when I think to chase him.
To run after...
Who am I? Separated from my hometownPut into a concentration campWas imprisoned and persecutedI want freedom from the Nazis ...
A boy taken from his family.
Murderers acquitted by the jury.
Tears wept for the horrible crimes against a mother,
who will...
My body shakes
I am an ice sickle
On the roof of a winter day
I am wet
Like the deep under
The ocean floor
Streams of red...
Dreams are the unconscious desires of the heart,
Our nation knew this from the start.
Freedoms from dictators and anarchy,...
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...
Gay.. Fag... Homo... Queer,
Everyday we live in fear.
Fear for our rights,
Fear for our lives,
Everyday is a new surprise....
Defend, don’t end
Stand up, not down
Persevere, don’t fear
That’s all us colored folks can adhere
Liberty and justice
Y’all...
Rosa parks and Civil rights
It was a cool winter evening on December 1, 1955.
I has just finished a long hard day at work...
What did they fight for, Those brave souls marching in the streets?
They wanted equality and justice, These two freedoms...
"All of you boys best move right now!" yelled the officer.
I did not move, for I was unafraid.
Dr. King said we must not...
The winds of change!
It blows my hair,
It picks up my skirt,
It floats me on a beautiful dream!
They say we must be patient...
You fought for peace
yet we hate.
Thinking of you as a beast
we didn't think about our fate.
King Jr., Rosa Parks,
Mr....
We live in peace with each person and every other, but why did we fought because of ones color. Looking back in the past...
I rise till I'm down, I stand as if I'm a million.
I see you,lets' walk as if we'er a million,
let's cry,sing,laugh and walk...
The days of darkness
Eclipsed the color of our freedom.
"Run"
By tracks, or by the wings of our King.
We yearned for the...
Walking within the microcosm of Wall Street,
One will find an extraordinary feat,
That of money keeping people going,
As if...
Dreams lined up like cocaine
Ready to blow away with the wind
I set my hopes so sky high
Just to see them fall again
And...
I want to peer into this book and pretend
I don't have a problem
Please excuse the fact that I am black
And that my words...
Love and Acceptance broke through the chains of Hatred and Prejudice.
They fought long and hard and finally gained power,...
Crushed ant hills smashed into the earth
By large and clumsy feet
Only I see the tiny lives being changed
By the feet not...
Why are we doing this?
Why can’t I sit in front of the bus with my friend?
Are we too close to the driver?
Why do we have...
How can you speak for a time that hasn’t even touched you?
Or has it?
Sitting there with your curly brown hair with eyes...
Once united
Now divided
Forced to move
For the greed of whites
Stript of their pride
Stript of their freedom
Forced to leave...
Civil rights has been a fight all through time
Always different people always different things
The 1950’s & ‘60’s was a...
I am the hairy Mexican girl your daughter makes fun of at school
The one whose mother you don't look in the eyes when she's...
Our ambition to grow, be free
Led us on to opportunities
But people are still racist, being mean
We will still fight
Its...
The brutal whippings with sticks and stones,
even though sometimes they broke our bones.
it was all just sensless hate,
we...
The time was now
No one would change her mind
She threw in her bonnet
Into the pile of hats
And dared to run for president...
Love is Universal
Its ecceptance for the things
That make us diffrent
Not change who we are to suet others
But living so...
A movement struck our country not too long ago,
Racism at its highest but some hope for low,
Everyday it was always black...
I was just another girl born in Tuskegee.
But I was different because of my skin.
Others were considered better than me....
You laughed the day I walked into class,
I was a number, expecting to pass.
You wondered and questioned. How can it be?...
I see the photograph: you -- black, beaming, full of bravado
off to fight a war on German soil, not of your own making
the...
Rejected
I put my time and effort into you and all I get is a painted canvas that’s washed away soon after. You make not...
A dream is only a dream
if it never happened. Blacks
rose to a staggered oppression.
Faces weren't unseen but truly heard....
I run and hide from
people, people
that I can't change.
I need somebody else
who can lead. Who can lead
this fight for...
The sound of screaming in the distance sends a cold chill up my spine,
as I wait, silently, for the sound of a midnight hymn...
Day by day the leaves brush against my dress the dust fills my lungs causing me to cough for hours and all I can think about...
Isabella Baumfree, known as Sojourner Truth
Born in 1797 in Ulster County, New York
She was one of 13 children
Born to...
To explain to me that we breathe differently,
That we fuel ourselves differently
Makes me wonder what makes you believe so....
You tell me something.
Whether your black or white
whether you're wrong or right
we are all people
We all come from the same...
They come to see the man
The one who they say has the plan
For he gives them hope
For they can no longer cope
You see,
He...
Who are the brave?
These words from a song
mean so much more than they seem.
But, who are the brave?
To me the brave are...
Once there was a woman named Rosa Parks
Her famous action created a spark
It all started long ago
On a bus ready to go
She...
They want to badmind me because I’m a sodomite
Everyone else, they try to backbite
Creeping up, out of the light
I will not...
I have lost my voice in the crowd of thousands
from the top of my lungs I screamed down from the mountains
my vocal cords...
Too often, we are judged by the color of skin,
and sadly, we are not judged by what we hold within.
Our abilities are...
Left without a life to spare
From birth on this earth without freedom
Shattering my blood on dirt with the same color of my...
(something I never envisaged in a sticky Catholic school classroom
of stifled Central Illinois,
tracing the hate contorted...
To have humility is to think less
Of ourselves ‘cause we are God’s creation
Red, yellow, black, white, tell that to the...
Life as we know it has always been corrupt, unjust
but life as we know it has always gave us some sense of security
young...
Sins of a fatherthe love of a daughterequally blindbut no one misunderstands the crimeHe was a drunkhis morals suffered and...
Blood runs black eventually
quickly was the pace
that man found himself responsible
to put the other
in place
Who saw the...
If it's not my skin tone, its my hair type.
The one thing a bus ride just wont hide.
Like why I am looked at upon just one...
I am ashamed to be in America. Have I gone back to where race and status matter more than the life we live? I am already...
People have fought to see the light
They have finally got their right
Now the future is bright
Like diamonds on a kite
The...
Met a man on the street today, black shoes, black glasses, black skin
Talked a while about this age we're living in
Told...
As I look around
I see before me
A world of beauty
A world of peace
I see a sea
Of all colors
All races
Hand in hand
All...
As we look towards the future. As we try to teach our youth.
If we want a stronger community, we must first show them the...
They call us by the color of our skin
These labels are rooted from deep within
But why or yet how can I meet these standards...
Brother versus brother
In the fight to bring us together the nation
The emotions run high
So help other oppose
Yet when set...
I am lost in a sea of white,
I am just a black speck.
All the hatred surrounds me,
Making this my biggest regret.
I can...
We are consumed,
The living fire that rages in our souls,
Banked and tended by the trespasses of old,
Fueled by the fresh...
Why does skin color matter?
We are people, arent we?
Black brown or white
We differ but its alright
We’re all humans? Arent...
Because stillness is too stale To be fresh,Find peace by the waterAnd bring your own ripples Pollute the silence with the...
Pardon me, if sometimes you watch as I rip the wings off butterflies
For this world is full of misery
It disgusts me how...
My name is Sa’rabie, let me be your African Barbie
You see growing up I played with Barbie’s like they were a way of life,...
NO…don’t go there. You might run into someone with darker skin!
They will all be high on hard drugs. They will all be...
A great man once said:
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…every step toward the goal of justice requires...
The buildings echo with the chant of our drums
The voice of our people, the cries of our sons
And the buildings are home to...
The pen has hit the paper, the paper has been passed saying in the United States of America, slavery no longer lasts. But...
You sticks and stones .
may break my bones,
Your words may at first
Hurt me,
But When United We Stand,
Hand in Hand:
We...
I come from
Sobbing sirens & broken traffic lights.
Hangings in the daylight,
Hooded figures breaking Bones,
Bodies,...
People of today see America as prosperous, a land of the free,
And criticize others for being different and not being free...
Look at all these presidents,
They're all the same kind of gentlemen.
Wearing their suits and ties.
I wonder where are their...
I am black,
I am a woman.
I wake up every day a black woman.
What does that mean?
You tell me.
Those that place inevitable...
I am me and you are you.
We didn't choose who could be who.
We are born to be, to see.
But this doesn't mean to be…
Angry....
It's a hard fought beginning.
Reaching, teaching, and preaching,
We're working to survive.
It's not about the trivial things...
It’s more than a march on the capital,
It shines a light on all that gray
It lives and breathes and makes all things...
(poems go here) America, like a beautiful piece of tapestry has been woven together to create a unique patter like no other...
We all can read. We all have the right to do as we please. But have you read your history books. The ones that described...
Women's rights
The right to vote
The right to work
The right to equal pay
The right to education
The right to serve in the...
When I look at life I see the hardships of others
I see the love of the world
I see the struggles of those trying to survive...
We will fight today
for the rights that were taken away from us
the tree we hung from for saying what was right
to the blood...
From the safety of my window
I look out and view the world.
A harsh, cruel world is what I see,
Looking back with scorn at...
We Stand as One
Walking the streets to feel complete
No more segregation
We have now formed a whole nation
With a man that...
Why do you stand there alone,
with a colored shirt to symbolize your meaning?
Does it really stand for who you are?
Do you...
There it was, the same bus I rode every day.
There he was, the proud driver, drunk with power over us—like a predator...
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...
According to history, slavery ended in 1862
and yet, one hundred years later, it still was not through
Everywhere you looked...
My favorite color is gray.
Why? Gray is so boring, so neutral, so.. dead. Right?
Gray is what happens when you mix the polar...
It would’ve been an honor to be a Freedom Rider
To be able to fulfill my desire
To sacrifice my life for a change
For the...
The struggle was hard,the struggle was rough
they fight for us just to get a little trust.
It wasn't easy ,it caused a lot...
We've seen the moment
and now set the future
we've already past the torment
and can now pick our suitor
We suppressed the...
Freedom lies in the heart
says many
but how true
can something not true be?
Freedom can lie within the heart
it's true
But...
People have fought to see the light
They have finally got their right
Now the future is bright
Like diamonds on a kite
The...
Land of the free?
Free from tyranny and oppression
In the white man’s case yes
A struggle remains though
No rights for the “...
(poems go here) The Fight
The whites sat on their elevated throne
Protected by Crow Laws
Written in stone.
They looked from...
Recognition will not be televised, recognition of those every day slaves, those modern slaves, those daily slaves forced to...
Day in and day out
By Jamyva Lagout
Day In and Day Out
A place where I need not fear
because of who I am
Because of...
I am weary
I am tired
I am sick
I am weak
I have tried
I have seen
I am weird
I am terrify
In here I stand .
Freedom, around the corner,
On the tips of my fingers,
It's so close I can taste it.
I'm ready to fly.
I stand as a new...
The Power of a word,
of a few simple letters.
Good or bad,
they inspire a nation.
The Power of a phrase
so righteously said...
If I were a dog in 1963,
I’d be nervous
As I saw my owner plea
To have service on a train.
I’d be confused if he were hosed...
I wonder if she knew what she was doing
with all the hell she raised,
all due to the education she was fighting for and...
White is the absence of color
Black is every color combined
Everyone else is somewhere in between
White is the absence of...
Clink...Clink...Clink
Can you hear them?
Clink...Clink...Clink
Can you see them?
Clink...Clink...Clink
Can you feel them?...
We bled
For him, For her
But never for you
For I
Never for yourself
For myself
Why must I die
Is my life
My existence
My...
August, mother earth invites me in.
Yet her inhabbitants tell me no, they say I will never see the light, because I am...
The power of the right,
Was not acknowledged by the Might.
They fought and fought,
Yet they were left distraught.
No one’s...
A free verse, amongst each other, we too will one day be.
I am your average everyday girl
Who’s world has flipped upside-...
What makes you different from me?
You think you have more rights because the color of your skin?
We are all the same when it...
Humans
Our rights have come slowly
Truman with equality
Brown vs. Board mixing races
Things are changing for humans
Emmett...
Given the opportunity to share my point of view...
I wish my professor can see that i am more than just a mere name on a...
When we take over the wheel,
in this twisting road of life.
We start to make the change,
that will one day end all strife....
Did the end of inequality start in Vermont in 1777 or
Did it start in at the end of the first month in 1865. Can we
put a...
Civil Rights, a hope to be free
when all around, is segregation we see
Disrespect, no justice all the time
Segregation is...
Real bright-eyed I dove fist first, kicking and screaming until my chest hurt to thwart these machines that had consumed me...
The line was drawn, which no one ever saw,
It was the doing of the devil's claw.
The beatings, the meetings that came with...
And marching-
in this sea of dreams
as the sight folds over-
The pressure burns
our skin blue
with red peeling underneath
A...
Brave hands of all shape, color, age, and size
intertwine to form links of hope and light.
Thousands saying, “Brother,...
A March that led a civilization
a fight for our rights
side by side to protect the negro nation
bringing the unjust to the...
How long will we wait
The sun's burnt on us and you won't do one goddamned thing
but you were never here
We'll get along
It'...