Best Abolitionist Poems
Let me be clear from the beginning
any honest discussion of peace
begins by staring into the face of evil
Not the cartoon mask of villains
but the slow systematic evil
Evil that traffics children like cargo
it teaches hatred until it feels like normalcy
until neighbors become executioners
Ordinary hands commit extraordinary horrors
Indifference calcifies to stone
and thought itself
collapses.
Marcus’s story does not end in triumph
At seventeen he was shot outside his high school
not because he joined a gang
but because he refused to
His funeral was filled with teenagers
They understood that sometimes peace
is a luxury they cannot afford
One in four women beaten
One hundred million displaced
Philadelphia streets— my streets
where children fear to play
rival war zones
in their statistics
And then the litany of mass shootings
Columbine. Sandy Hook. Pulse. Las Vegas.
Parkland. Buffalo. Uvalde. Grand Blanc.
Not distant tragedies
but the lived reality of families I serve
The young who ask me
“Why should I plan for a future
when someone can decide to kill me
while I buy groceries?”
Children conscripted as soldiers
Women sold like cattle
Populations vanished by decree
Young men with weapons of war
end dozens of lives
in minutes
Viktor Frankl, survivor of the camps:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing:
the last of human freedoms—
to choose one’s attitude
in any given circumstance.”
I see the aftermath
I sit with the grief
I listen
to the questions
that have
no answers
Every abolitionist knew this mathematics
Every civil rights worker knew this equation
Every protector standing between trafficker and child
They fought forces with more money
more weapons
more power
than they could ever possess
They fought anyway
Not because victory was guaranteed
but because surrender
was unthinkable.
Over 200 years of oppression
Now days are we paying for our transgressions
Doing slavery we used our bravery
Breaking the chains doing the inhumane suffering and pain
While being disrespected by being called ambiguous names
Tubman took us through the underground
Old spirituals and praising the Lord was our sound
Douglass reformed abolitionist as he became free
While up North he read poetry by Phillis Wheatley
Sojourner was all about telling the truth
While W. B. Dubois taught us about our history, is that enough proof
These heroes and activist trail blazed the way
They put their faith and trust in God every day
When racial tension became too extreme Father God gave us Malcolm X and Dr. King
Why doesn’t it feel like that the freedom bell still rings?
America has an unapologetic past
A dark cloud of racial hatred has been casted
There is no respect for what has been done
Our ancestors raised their voices and fist, while our youth has loaded their guns
From our past history we were showed how to lead
But we have to encourage with God’s love to our new techno-media breed
In unity and peace on bended knees we have to constantly pray
So come together as one, “Let’s Lead the Way”
“He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.” -Aristotle
Bearing a European polymorphism, I should be branded by shame.
I am the White Devil as they claim.
The Ciakara, a bipedal reptilian that fades in and out of gamma rays.
The Ivory Dragon with razor fangs.
He who breathes flames of artillery; consuming the indigenous cultures of men.
I who supposedly slaughtered, raped, and evangelized my own fen.
A Caucasian falsely accused, I must defend.
I sigh with Celtic lungs.
Long ago in antiquity, they cut my foreskin and Gaelic tongue.
Apprehending my crown and bride while the rebels hung.
Enslaved and hate I have not done, but due to this achromatic shell, their numbers I am among.
But I am the blank hero who is sullied and unsung, for an enemy of all is an enemy of mine
Yet compassion’s tide is on the rise, I am consumed by love for all races and all colors of hides.
Reds, blacks, browns, yellows, blancos and pinks.
An alabaster bastard I may seem to be, but in the utmost totatality, I am proud I am me.
Despite my lack of melanin; my reverence and acceptance of self sets all others free.
So I will slay the Neo-Nazi supremacists and ethnocentrisms, by nationalist and patriotic decree.
To reorient this cumbersome narrative; as such that I see fit in my mind’s eye.
The Maverick Abolitionist of Light, I let my skin audaciously shine.
So yet again, the fierce Anglo Saxon attacks; swiftly and valiantly one more time.
Only to redefine the phrase “White Pride” so I may make it mine.
“... The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate,
added to the number in the ship which was so crowded
that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost
suffocated us."
Olaudah Equiano, freed slave, abolitionist, merchant (1745-1797)
We were taken in by roundup-
legends of freedom, sold
heirlooms to pay for the privilege of being
crammed into a tractor-trailer like green-
ware into a kiln. The youngest
faithfully lifted her chin, Quinceañera
memories still fresh enough to almost keep
her balanced within that shifty,
blistering dark until she felt
another sharp shaft of air, a searing blast
of a bone-dry wheeze from the next pilgrim to hit
hot metal like he’d been shot in the head.
The chant began again, Santa María,
Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros
pecadores. Sweat stung our opened eyes,
clarified visions of diaspora, of coldblooded
coyotes packing cargo holds with cornered chattel.
We, the many, shackled by migrant irons. We,
a crop of people, survive only to swelter later
in tobacco rows, on countless estates, behind thick shop doors,
but each Day of the Dead, we will recount:
Mexicans lost to a hardened
geography where even breath is branded,
an absence of just one half-mast flag, anywhere, their star-
crossed national anthem, our costly escape
into undocumented slavery, how long-
suffering dreams either suffocate or hide
scars, why wheeled sloops blaze down border
highways with short-lived payloads, scammed commodities
as expendable as a shipment of spring lambs ...
Sojourner
Abolitionist. Slave. Women's Rights Activist. Mother.
Daughter of James and Elizabeth Baumfree. Wife of "Thomas", a slave
Lover of her five children, freedom, humanity, public speaking
Who feels passion, anger, and love for all people
Who fears injustice and the continuation of slavery
Who would love to see the emancipation of enslaved people
Who would love to see the end of slavery and inequality of human rights
Resident of Swartekill, New York, United States
Truth
Date written and posted: 03/12/2019
(10/25/12)
The black days of history that many do not know
And many refuse to accept - of how the black man
Helped AMERICA to be the greatest country yet.
They was brought here as slaves because the
Color of their skin !
But their minds was never searched to see
What lied within.
Every ethnic group that came to the states
Had many a hardship that they had to face.
Every race that came was given a derogatory name
Which they had to accept and had felt the shame.
But they all contributed to this great nation of ours
Which is now known as the greatest power.
These are just a few facts of what the blacks
Had given to this nation, and many of these
Became part of our salvation.
FACTS: )1) john love- invented the pencil sharpener in 1897
2) Joseph lee -invented a bread making machine that mixed
The ingredients and kneaded the dough in 1895
3) Thomas l Jennings was the first African American to receive
A patent in 1821 which was for a dry cleaning process.
He used the money earned from his patent to purchase
Relatives out of slavery and support abolitionist causes.
4) madam c.j. walker (1867-1919) daughter of a former slave
Who suffered hair loss in her twenties and created hair care
Products , and allowed her to open a factory and school to
Train hundreds of black women to be economically self sufficient
And become one of the first female millionaires in U.S. history.
There is still something that burns in my heart
And when I think of it -it tears me apart
Of all the people in this great nation
That have been put to the ground
There lies one race that still lives
Way below the poverty line and
The government says there doing fine.
The “AMERICAN INDIAN” who had
Most all treaties broken and of this the
Government hasn’t spoken.
Many families of five and more
Living in a shack without a door
Just a blanket to stop the wind
To me this is a crying sin.
The Indian charities having to buy
fifty five gallon drums for water
And many of them on “back order”.
I know that I started writing this poem for the blacks
But on the Indian nations - I can’t turn my back.
We have to help one another, for we’re all
Sister and brother.
GOD BLESS US ALL
© L . RAMS
Manacles suppress a beautiful mind
decayed by the stench of putrid bitterness
created long before Mr. Whitney
made you expendable
yet you loathe me
despite my relation to Harriet
uncle Tom was never relevant
nor did his cabin provide shelter
unto your bitterness
its wood burned food for thought
could one become a christian
to be born again
and return as an abolitionist
the absurdity of it astounds me
but chains will always bind us together
regardless of our ancestry
linked through the color of love
red hues splashed in anger
dipped in disdain
tainted by the past
we live to paint
the pictures shadows cast......
Bob Shank-Nov.20th, 2006
America, the land of the free, catering to the wealthy and pushing the poor.
Blacks are all but exempt; they are seen as property and nothing more.
California brought into this nation by gold, as a false equality,
Demanded by some to spread the systems of vast irrationality.
Extradition in compromise to abolition.
Fugitives thrown back to chains, complete pacification.
Grace, all too fallen from, that was this nation.
Humble as many others were, one woman changed the nation.
Illegal activities by abolitionist became the norm, in hopes to stop degradation.
Johns and Janes educated in the taboo subject of the naive.
Kings and knights replaced with tyrannicals and elderly slaves.
Liberty and freedom for all,
Men and woman, Black and White, all readying to fall.
Night falls, creating a stage for the quarrelsome show.
Oppositions face each other, their bodies ready to feed the coming crows.
Position between this and that,
Quarrelling over the proper way to skin a cat.
Runaways are forgotten for the time being,
Say it so, as many were fleeing.
Tackless politicians following a false tradition,
Utilitarian, one may say, on their decision.
Vicious out cries spread across the nation following
White men's decision to take a stand being,
Xecute the evils of the world.
Yells coming from each side, each saying they are more moral'd.
Zephyrs blow across the grasses, to contrast what is to come.
Born a slave in 1818 and escaped from slavery at the age of 20, Fredrick Douglas became a noted writer, minister of the Gospel, and an abolitionist. Toward the end of his life, Fredrick Douglas was asked for advice by a young man. Mr. Douglas responded with one word, saying it three times, "Agitate, Agitate, Agitate."
Believing that advice to be very appropriate at the time, I cannot argue against such counsel. Although I have an affinity and great respect for Mr. Douglas, I would not accept his advice today. Considering my 60 plus years of life experience and the struggle against the enemies of true democracy and civil liberties in the midst of troubled times, if I were asked for advice in my day, I would need at least four words. Those four words would be PRAY, ASSIMILATE, ASSOCIATE, and EDUCATE.
02132019MTFBPoSoup
OLAUDAH EQUIANO
OLAUDAH EQUIANO
Writer abolitionist
From Igbo region
Purchased his own freedom
In 1766, prominent in British movement
2/11/18
written by James Edward Lee Sr.
It's the most significant day in Black American history
December 6,1865 the legal ending of chattel slavery
It was 157 years ago
When they finally let God's people go
In the year 1619 was when it all started
Africans from the Motherland were permanently parted
And when in 1787 the US Constitution came to be
The southern states now wanted the slaves
To be considered more than property
Hence there was a compromise to that plan
Black slaves would be denoted as 3/5 of a man
But in 1810 an alarming trend America would then see
The slave population started growing exponentially
Also there were now many free Blacks as well
Who were educating the slaves and causing all kinds of hell
So in 1830 the white Americans enacted a law
That teaching slaves to read would be no more
But they didn't stop at that they came at the Black preachers too
To stop them from giving knowledge and preaching the gospel truth
The Abolitionist movement in America was then born
This mighty democratic republic then became torn
The Dred Scott Decision to Blacks was a devastating blow
Until Abe Lincoln came into power to now run the show
11 southern states abdicated and the Confederacy came to fruition
A Civil War erupted in defiance of the US Constitution
The Emancipation Proclamation was then handed down
Lincoln said I'm president and this conflict over slavery stops now
And in 1864 the 13th Amendment was drafted and enacted
It ended slavery with a lot of southern dissatisfaction
Abolitionists went to Congress on January 31,1865
To make sure that Amendment in session would not be passed by
Yet it took almost an entire year for enough states to ratify
Then legally & federally slavery in America did die
4 million plus Black Americans were now legally free
Abolition Day a momentous day in Black American history
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, born 1806,
Extraordinary Poetess, daughter, sister, wife, Abolitionist
Confined for a time yet her heart, mind and spirit
Roamed free beyond her environment, espousing, expressing
Love and devotion so eloquently in beautiful Sonnets
To: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Entry into Brian Strand's Vignette-Literary Love Affair Contest
How shocked the first man must have felt
Who saw the souls behind the eyes of slaves,
As they silently marched down crowded streets,
Making their way to market to be sold.
He must have thought he was crazy then,
To sympathize with such wretched, lowly creatures –
To find in them a piece of himself,
And feel within the growing pangs of guilt
How lonely then he must have felt,
When all his friends and family could not see
The very spark that he had seen,
And since could never make himself forget.
Lewis crept into Harper's Ferry
at cool dawn's light in '59
with angry John Brown,
pursed keen and unkempt
to bleed over his shawl,
then died for his wife
Mary, grew old and gray
and left that stained shawl
for grandson Langston Hughes,
to inspire him someday
Langston took Grandma's shawl
and took oppression to his heart
to rise up in other words,
"where people suffered
in beautiful language"*
© Goode Guy 2013-02-03
* Langston Hughes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Sheridan_Leary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)
JOHN BROWN
John Brown
Abolitionist found
Against slavery
Non-prejudicial nor in bigotry
1/9/18
By James Edward Lee Sr.