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 have a dream” speech,
The Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-ins,
Rosa Parks and the bus boycott,
And the desegregation of Little Rock.

The fight for black rights is rehearsed for us,
Year after year.
But we never learn how it felt for the people fighting.

We are sheltered from the beatings they endured,
The arrests and police brutality they braved,
The constant threats and mistreatments they received.

Sure, we’re told some things,
But do we know to the extent at which this happened?
No. We can’t know what they truly went through.

It makes one wonder, “Why?”
Why put yourself through all of this?
At the risk of pain, suffering, or death?

It revolves around one thing,
The thing everyone strives for,
The thing people have wanted from the early days of the New World,
Freedom.

Freedom to eat where you want,
To sit where you want,
To be with whomever you want.

Freedom to not be scared for your children’s future,
To not worry about walking down the street,
To not cringe at the sight of your impoverished life.

They did not ask for this life,
They were given it,
Dictated by the White Man.

The same White Man who said,
“All men are created equal,”
And the same one to state,
“He is my equal… and the equal of every living man.”

The one man to stand by them during this time,
To petition their rights from the Big Chair,
Mr. John F. Kennedy himself.
“We stand for freedom.”

He fought for that freedom,
And even as he died,
He stood by the notion that every black man, woman, and child
Had the Right to be Equal.