Best Civil Rights Poems
From the grounds of the south during the sweltering summer
of Negros in America*, came white violence and murder. The
suppression and degradation of decades. Americans treated
as less then a dog because they were not of a certain color.
For a country founded on “All Men are Created Equal” it is not
The truth or reality for many. When a voice came from angels
Dancing above, of a man with purpose and of dignity, standing
Strong in the body of Martin Luther King Jr. He walked degraded
ghetto streets with others of his purpose. From the steps of Abraham
rang out his voice in glory. His Dream, Our Dream. His Courage
became our Courage. From Rosa Parks to black student protests
to sit ins, marches and songs. John F. Kennedy, little black girls
and Lynden Johnson. A peaceful fight for civil rights was taken
to the White House ~ they won. Then the angels wept when
Martin was gunned down in the middle of our dream. His
Dream is not lost. He sings angels’ home, a warrior’s
call to Rise again in peaceful dissent. The white robes
of little minds are on the rise against civility. Angels
danced when he was born but we cannot dance yet….
gentle minister
freedom, peace, equality
born to show a dream
written 8-21-2019
for PS Contest:
Write a new haibun on the theme:
"Angels danced the day you were born
and they wept when they welcomed you home"
They're knocking at me door
In the middle of the night
They're knocking at me door
Giving me an awful fright.
They taking me
To a camp where
Ashes fall like black snow.
I'll not be overjoyed
By goose-stepping boys
With boots to their knees, oh hey,
And brown shirts and billy clubs
Cheese grater belly rubs
Coming to take me away.
MULTILAYERED: THE CAUSE IS CIVIL RIGHTS!
How time has changed.
I am a colored woman by DNA living in a country of diversity.
I can remember my first day of school when my teacher asked me to self-identify.
“I am Native American”, I said.
In truth, my great-grandmother was Native American and I felt it was alright to
claim her as my racial identity.
Nevertheless, an N was written on my cumulative record.
Later I found this meant *****.
The third Monday of each January Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday is
celebrated.
This poem is in commemoration of his cause.
***
I have the right to express myself in the United States of America.
I have the right to self-identify the best way for me.
I am mixed-blood from all borders of this part of the universe.
I have the right to be heard and to seek a meaningful life that is vested in a liberated
mind.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is there
to eradicate.
This has not been done as to this day.
I have the right to Civil Rights.
Therefore, I shall not be moved when the movement did not breakthrough.
***
The tribulations came from slavery time.
History of the white man crimes
Equality, equity, and identity deprived.
Crusaders depicted the cause.
Assembled for their voice to be heard.
Unity was formed.
Sources with civilian purposes
Equality is only the foundation that has been scaffold.
Cause I am endowed with inalienable rights
In a nation of diversity and pride,
Vigorously I dramatize
Issues of my civil rights
Legally being denied.
Right to a fair trial
I represent self,
Government and justice are on my side.
Human rights are in all minds’ eye.
To this country, I bring forth my freedoms... Preamble.
Statue of law exemplifies in that I have "the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of
happiness because all humankind are created equally".
Issues today are in a manifold
Sequestered by the lack of applicable law.
_________________________________________________|
Penned January 18, 2015!
Revised July 1, 2015!
I cant breathe
Because you do not hear
My voice pleading.
My heart bleeding
A brother, a sister grieving
For the loss of life
That you have taken
Not in mistake
But in wanton evil
I can't breathe
When you should understand
my plight. my suffering, my blight
At your hands, your fists, your knees
Choking, thumping then deceased
In a swift act, another life is stolen
And then the mourning
I can't breathe
When I am anchored to the bottom rung
No hope of stepping forward
Only way is down
My future finished, before it began
My destiny drifting in a cloud,
In uncertainties
In soliloquies of redemption songs.
I can't breathe
Of the heartache caused
Newsflash!! another live lost.
To the hatred and indiscretions
Of an evil, dated in the past
Of post colonial dominance
Hoping, slavery will last
I cant breathe
That from the cradle to the grave
You denied me
Opportunities and growth, that defines me
Brutality and pain you prescribed me
An in the stench of my suffering you plied me
With pain and hurt that riled me
Not thinking of the consequences
You start
to
squeeze
holding my breath,
my uttering,
With my last breath, I plead.
Mommy, hear my prayer
He is killing with his knees
Sinking to oblivion, with my last breath
I yield,
Let me breathe,
Let me breathe.
Mamie Till Mobley demanded and open casket,
to let the world see,
the bloated, beaten body of her baby boy,
who was lynched in Mississippi.
His name was Emmett Till,
a 14 year old black boy,
who came from the state of Illinois.
It was 1955, the Jim Crow laws were very much alive.
They said he was flirting with a white woman in a store.
The facts of the case, the jury chose to ignore.
That a child was murdered,
his body thrown in the Tallahacie River,
a guilty verdict they chose not to deliver.
Over 5 days, more that 50,000 people lined up to see,
what had been done to Mamie Till Mobley's baby.
Mamie's message to the world
was that what happens to any of us,
was everyone's business.
She devoted her new life, her new beginnings,
to civil rights,
to public remembrance of how Emmett died.
Freedom to learn
A rewarding career that will help one to earn
Opportunities to explore
Given rights that no one should ignore
Academics focusing on one’s Civil Rights
The constitution of liberties that would excite
The whole concept is for nationalities of varying creeds that we all should unite
Lectures in one being that individual person
Theories having no specific conditions
Civil Rights College
A devoted Ed for short
Stimulate one’s mind with no abort
Civil Rights being a wake up from the norm
An educated advocate being an intellectual alumni
The order of the day of continued respect being the buckeye
Respect being the code with no question of why
Civil Rights College being an honest education
Not a Political vibe of one’s indication
Civil Rights College, a multitude of voices being with an educated right
The theory behind Civil Rights College encouraging the world not to be uptight
The motto of Civil Rights College, “Take charge of your career and let knowledge help you to preserver”.
If your legal counsel on civil rights
is Jeff Sessions,
then you most certainly learned legal precedent
for validity of crossing your fingers
or your toes
or even just imagine doing so
while denouncing economic and political racism
as evil
and likewise evil,
perpetuating enslavement to fear
and anger
and hate-mongering
among Just Us Good Ol' Boys,
Locker Room Talkers and Marchers
favoring White elitism,
Well then Jesus,
and Trinitarian SuperDivine MightMakesCapitalismRight Patriarchy Incorporated,
will legally and morally absolve you through immaculate partnership,
naturally and spiritually forgive you,
And you shall remain among the select redeemed
despite your Only White Lives Have Ruled The NestBest
alternative rhetorical fact marketing
required, for now,
with fingers crossed
behind your Counselor's two-faced lie.
You can no more stand pre-millennial idly by
while a Civil Rights Movement
was, and still is, marching through your capital-investments,
without making a part of the post-millennial problem statement,
any more than you can stand innocently by
while White supremacists
are marching through your massive media exposure
without already having mentored
a source of the racist self-denial of anti-patriotic supremacy,
our extant great trans-millennial ecopolitical problem.
Do you realize that your "LIFE IS IMPORTANT": SO BE IT AND SO IT IS!Will you in your understanding realize and try to have some "Happiness" and have "GOOD INTENTIONS" for your fellow human beings? Bad intentions for your fellow human beings ,no matter what their "Religious Faith" sends "The One With Bad "Intentions to "Hell for "Eternity"!!!!!!! Your "SOUL and SPIRIT "is "IMPORTANT",so strive and keep that thing in.........tact.......run and tell that!!You ought to run and "TELL THAT"! Jesus Christ came "OUT" from "GOD"!The "HOLY SPIRIT"came out from "THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY": THERE IS "ONE SPIRIT"and that is "THE SPIRIT IS THE SPIRIT THAT CREATED THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF THE LIVING GOD WHO IS JESUS CHRIST!THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME OUT FROM GOD JUST LIKE JESUS CHRIST!"The "ONE HOLY SPIRIT"is going to "TAKE OVER""EVERYTHING" FOR "THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY"WHOES "HOLY NAME IS "JEHOVAH" WHO "ALLAH" PRAYS TO!ALLAH PRAYS TO JEHOVAH WHO IS "SOVEREIGN",as "LORD GOD ALMIGHTY OVER ALLAH OR ANY WHO CALLS THEMSELVES "GOD"!ALLAH OR ANY GOD GETS ON THEIR KNEES ,AND "PRAYS TO "THE HOLY NAME OF THE OF GOD "JEHOVAH" !LOOK up the names of god and you will find that ALLAH is "NOT" a name of "GOD"! ALLAH is a GOD that must pray to"THE HOLY NANE OF THE LIVING GOD"WHO IS "JEHOVAH"!LOOK up the names of god,and allah "IS NOT A NAME OF GOD"!Your "BODY is "Important",and you may drink so you must think,and be concerned about that body,aqnd keep it healthy,and not let it stink from too much drink!!!!!It is "IMPORTANT" to be ,,"LOVING",SINCERE,COMPASSIONATE,and "HAVE GOOD INTENTIONS"or you will "DIE"!!!!! BAD INTENTIONS LETS YOU DIE EARLY FOR THOSE WHO TREAT YOU"GOOD"!!!!!!!IT IS "IMPORTANT TO HAVE "GOOD INTENTIONS FOR THOSE WHO YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH OR "THE BAD "INTENTIONS THAT YOU HAVE FOR THOSE YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH WILL COME TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WITHOUT FAIL FOR SURE!"ACHIEVE SOMETHING GOOD" SO THAT "YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL BE A PART OF THAT WHICH IS "BEAUTIFUL"!!!BAD INTENTIONS FOR A PERSON WHO IS ACHIEVING SOMETHING GOOD WILL SEND THAT PERSON TO "HELL"FOR SURE :NO MATTER WHAT THEIR WORK OR PROFESSION! THAT IS GOOD!TAKING AWAY "WOMENS RIGHTS" BY "REPUBLICANS" WHO TRY TO MAKE "THE U.S.A" LIKE AFGANISTAN IS REALLY WHY REPUBLICANS WILL BE VOTED OUT OF "POLITICAL OFFICE FOREVER!
The march and Chant
We Shall Overcome and we can
We must be on the mission shall
On Dr. King’s Birthday, we must do more than just reflect on his accomplishment and establishment
A call for action
Civil Rights call
Dr. King’s vision is still among us
His Legacy reigns
Stand Up with Head Up
It’s dignity and Reality
We have abilities and assurance
We are the strength in endurance
Dr. King’s influence
There is a cause and we are the effect
It matters when and how
We are the now
A need for change and rearrange
No time to blame
Civil Rights aim
Bulls eye right on target
Dr. King wants us to wake up and not pause on his dream
Waters are flowing and we can’t just let go dry
We are America
Be ever proud
This is all Races time
Dr. King wants us to all to come together and converse
His message is clear in how we will preserver
Dr. King is looking down on us from Heaven and wondering
Did his cause die in vain?
The mission he couldn’t finish must be continued
There is work to be done if we intend to be among
Dr. King was the purpose and we are the supporters yet to walk in Dr. King’s footsteps
Step by step ever Civil Rights closer
The Lord says, “I am the world’s firm foundation”
The creation being Mighty
Don’t settle, but speak out
Don’t be still, but have a determined will
Civil Rights is still needed to fulfill
Dr. King’s birthday I couldn’t let go by
Let us all fight for Civil Rights and have courage in the movement to try
Dr. King wants us to stand with him and in honor of him
I still hear the echoes of “WE SHALL OVERCOME”.
Remember September 11th
Signed legislation, equal access, public schools and mobilized troops.
Supreme Court Justice Warren, controversial some would say, provided a goal of unity,
the removal of stigmas, fair competition, birth of global recognition and a future for the
spirited ambitious, the motivated and the entrepreneurship.
911
Terrorism, tragedy, illnesses, women and men of good deeds, financial wills, heirs , war
and mobilized troops indeed.
A blow to it all, the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the working, the unemployed… the
skilled, the unskilled, our service members and our vets as well as some committee bills,
but mostly the future of America’s youth…. onto a system of restructuring wages and for
some of us enduring exploitation to make up for the loop.
Ranking 27th, Lower five, a time for the nation to realize, status quote can be no more for
the circle is full and it has closed.
The future is your vote like a Clef Sign on the staff and the rest will flow like a great
symphony from the past , yet to be numbered because it’s not the last and the people’s
opera will take the stage…we will restore the two decade old history page.
To participate, to live, to fight for the already established route, come one, join all, rally
and acknowledge your rights.
Copyright@2010by Carrie M. Love-atkins
In 1963, Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.
What he asked for should not have been a far reach.
Dr. King was rather unique
And boy did he like to speak
He spoke on equality and racism
And spread his message through activism
He was one of the most prominent activists during the Civil Rights Movement.
He was hoping for enlightenment
He led nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience
Based on his years of experience
Dr. King was against discrimination and Jim Crow laws
They didn’t align with his cause
For this, the FBI deemed him a radical
That just wasn’t practical
He won a Nobel Peace Prize for combatting racial inequality
A major step for civil rights in American polity
In 1968, Martin Luther King met his demise
His assassination led some to theorize
Would he be surprised to how little we have come
Or would he be thankful for improving equality some
I shall weep for fallen angels
I shall weep when there are no more
my thirst cannot be quenched from empty wells
I shall weep for fallen angels
their deeds will leave this story to tell
ships to heaven can’t run ashore
I shall weep for fallen angels
I shall weep when there are no more
this still excist
so don't miss
put up a fist
stand up
fess
get it done
go after that sungun
do't run
stand your ground'
this is your town
do't be put down
to see a better light fight
CIVIL RIGHTS
What is life like as someone who society despises?
It is living as a human,
with unalienable rights,
endowed by your creator,
but not recognized as equal.
The right to freedom,
but not to be recognized as who you really are,
underneath your skin,
a child of the Living God,
who deserves equal respect.
How ironic is it that in America,
"the home of the free",
You are eating at home,
rather than the lunch counter,
because your "kind" isn't accepted there,
because of federal law.
Some freedom!
Going to school to learn,
but not intermixed with white students,
because your "kind" isn't allowed to do that,
according to federal law.
Some freedom!
Tell me,
When was it proven that being a human,
depends on the shade of your skin?
What kind of world are we living in,
a prejudiced, cruel, and fallen one.
Losing your rights means you're being disregarded,
it doesn't matter,
that you have dreams,
it doesn't matter,
that you have hopes,
it doesn't matter,
that you have feelings, too!
Scientifically,
physically,
mentally,
emotionally,
and however else you want to call it,
People with brown skin are equally human.
There you have it, equal rights has no one color.
RIGHTS
A poem by
Jerry May
We all like what we like, but that's no reason to hate,
But our idiosyncratic prejudices can't decide others fate.
Regardless of anyone's beliefs, preference or likes,
Everyone needs without exception to have every human and civil right.