Best American History Poems
A Black Man, a Noble SightIn the land of sun and sand,
Where the world burns hot and bright,
Stands a man with skin of onyx,
A black man, a noble sight.
He walks with purpose and power,
His stride firm and unyielding,
For he knows the weight of history,
And the challenges of his being.
Through the...
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Categories:
american history, africa, black african american,
Form:
Rhyme
We Ain'T Forgotton“WE AIN’T FORGOTTEN…”
You cried a smile
shadowing anger
beneath a canopy
of love
Your necks filled nooses
tied with Christian knots
that never failed
Your wombs challenged
the holding holes
of sanctified graveyards
You kneaded gospels
from the dough of pain
and fed starving souls:
You moaned songs
with groans echoing
echoes from the depths
of suffering spirits—
Suffering spirits
whose fortified...
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Categories:
american history, allegory, america, black african
Form:
Prose Poetry
Under God Is Given a Nation's BirthFrom the greenest acres of laden wood
The painted asphalt of a future's path
In breathless moments of events withstood
Upon the virtue of Jehovah's wrath
Founded a nation in united task
Brought forth the torrent souls of righteous gain
The restless embodied from shackle's drain
Grasped upon the mountains of western...
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Categories:
american history, black african american, history,
Form:
Ballade
In Memory of Emmett TillMy mind cannot erase the memory of Emmett Till
I often dream about his badly-mutilated body –
The fourteen-year-old Black lad mercilessly beaten
To death … for ostensibly flirting with a white woman.
A victim of the era in which he lived, he was lynched,
But the men who killed...
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Categories:
american history, anti bullying, black african
Form:
Free verse
Rosa Parks, a MaverickRosa Louise Parks
refused to give up her seat
“First Lady of Civil Rights”
back in fifty-five
civil disobedience
‘fore Martin Luther King’s time
courageous Rosa
kept her seat and caused a stir
faith told her she was right
created equal
in the colorblind eyes
of a Lord who loves mankind
desegregation
took decades to accomplish --
a Maverick...
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Categories:
american history, black african american, history,
Form:
Choka
Langston HughesWritten from black hands,
Innovative jazz poems:
Harlem renaissance....
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Categories:
american history, black african american, history
Form:
Senryu
Categories:
american history, black african american, history,
Form:
Free verse
Let's Lead the WayOver 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...
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Categories:
american history, black african american, history,
Form:
Rhyme
The Women of Tuskegee-Tuskegee Airmen
If you look behind his story
there’s a woman you will find.
Not in the struggle for the glory
but with a duty on her mind.
Now meet The Women of Tuskegee.
Tuskegee Airmen they are named.
Lost within the clouds of time.
Not a movie to their fame.
They served in...
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Categories:
american history, black african american, history,
Form:
Quatrain
The Check Is In the MailThe Check is in the Mail
Authored by Chuck Keys
At the beginning there was no rain,
Only the thundering...
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Categories:
american history, black african american, history,
Form:
Free verse
Woman of HonorErma Bombeck, Words of Wisdom.
Coretta Scott King, Peace and Reason.
Rosa Parks, Stood Victorious!
Betsy Ross, Our Nations Seamstress.
Mother Mary, Bore Jesus in Bethlehem.
Harriet Tubman, Lead Slaves to Freedom.
Queen Ester, Saved her Nation.
Amelia Earhart, Gave all to Aviation.
Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.
Joan of Arc, Martyred Standing the Test.
Florence...
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Categories:
american history, adventure, black african american,
Form:
Free verse
Categories:
american history, black african american, history,
Form:
Free verse
Oshun: African BeautyOh gracious mother of waters
beautiful woman has come
queen of joy pleasing to thy king
Oh green eyed silent beauty
Voice as sweet as a kind heart
Eye brows as straight as an arrow
Oh great mediator of divine
Fingers coated with melted gold
Shaped with a swan like neck
Oh princess among...
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Categories:
american history, art, black african american,
Form:
Epic
Blue Window Trim -sea island natives
living reminders of trade
cotton rice and indigo
gullah life is made
five benne wafers
cast into new daylight
the hudu spell is torn away
rest easy then this night
bridges came and baskets sold
the younguns moved to town
rich men came and stole our land
again to trod us...
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Categories:
american history, adventure, black african american,
Form:
Free verse
Categories:
american history, black african american, history,
Form:
Free verse