… a history lesson

… (american) [black] history …

America We Are

Unsung

Refers to more than a song

Lost along the windpipes

Of our most esteemed artist

It calls attention to the many fighters

Of the most gruesome of wars

Risking their lives for a result

Of no favor to them

Who did so in the most unworldly of conditions

Without so much as a mention of their names

Heroes who fought in battles

Started before they set foot on this earth

For a struggle

That lasted years past their final breath

America,

We were your adopted children

Sailed here on a sea of tears

Uprooted and dethroned

For Mommy Dearest’s Dream

[the unofficial prequel to Dr. King’s]

Tobacco made your first presidents

Defined your first slaves

Tilling much more than 40 acres

With much less than a mule

Empty promises left us

Wading in the water

Whispering well wishes

To help quiet the footsteps of fugitive chasers

And the pounding hearts

Of the brave Harriets reaching from Under Ground

For the North Star

Vesey purchased Death

Disguised as Freedom

While Douglass earned his Free Pass

But Lincoln couldn’t sign nearly enough letters

Or untie enough nooses

Before they slipped tight and snapped necks

Like whips

After Nat Turner’ed everything out

And scared the Masters

The leaders of the Home of the Brave

America,

You tried your compromises

But MissOUri and LOUisiana

Pointed out that the Land of the Free

Didn’t “OU” anything

And after constant toeing

Of the Mason-Dixon Line

Popular sovereignty created a war

[And the Republican Party]

Emancipation was proclaimed for the Right states

Setting the dogs free

Just in time to fight The Union’s battles

When Black and White mixed

To make Confederate Gray the enemy

Focus on the uniforms numbed the fact that

Just a year prior

All of the surrounding faces

Would have looked like Slavery

But when the war ended

The colors became their own again

And little did we know

The choking coffles

That we donned as we marched

Off the boats

Onto the trading blocks

And over state borders

Would, in the form of our skin

Keep us chained

For generations to come

Decades after we foraged food from troughs

Like the domesticated animals

You bought us as

Reconstruction proved to be

A much due process

And even though equal protection

Was penciled into the Constitution

We still had to Dred Scott and question our citizenship

Because Jim Crow made the codes into laws

And segregation

Became the sequel to Slavery

America,

You assigned us fountains and toilets

But we built our own churches

Where we prayed for strength

And civil rights

And for the Scotsboro Boys to be acquitted

For an alleged crime

That wasn’t a crime

When you were busy creating your own Mulatto population

Behind closed doors and in open fields

Too far for the overseers to catch sight of

We preached nonviolence

But our sit-ins and marches

Were met with dogs and fire hoses

Making our clothes heavy with doused dreams

Leaving puddles of blood and tears in the streets

As a reminder of being gassed

And the stifling blow of Billy’s club

MLK’s Bombingham

Gave a different definition to Bloody Sunday

When the churches blew

But still a Million Men Marched

Little Rock became known for its Nine

And Rosa

Too tired to stand

Gave the freedom riders something to stand for

All while hiding our necks

And crosses

From the Katch’em Kill’em Krew

America,

We waited on the color line

To get a chance at equality

But you affirmed that we needed to take action

Malcolm X was Little before

The Nation of Islam

And the People’s Champ

Didn’t fight his rounds for the Cassius

He did it to remind you to call him by his chosen name

Muhammad Ali

Which meant he was worthy of praise

Marcus Garvey urged the redemption of Africa

And to make the world our own

So the Panthers threw their fists skyward

Clenching the notions of power and pride

Because our lives depended on it

W.E. we B DuBois’

Niagara Movement towards an education

And creating a community

Of more than just a Talented Tenth

By writing books and participating

In the social change we wished to see

Because we all learned that screaming

“Get your hand outta my pocket”

And making noise

Only leads to premature death

From cotton gins

Now sipping gin

In jazz and blues bars

Drinking culture from our glasses

As we read literature and consume art

Depicting heroes

Both spoken of and unsung

Descendants of your adopted children

Sailed here on a sea of tears

Who left a lasting imprint

America we are