(poems go here) The day the Civil Rights Warriors
Traded in their weary feet
For chrome-plated wheels
Was the day the people realized
That if you sped change down a highway going 60
Then racism couldn’t keep pace.

“The Journey of Reconciliation, Part Two”
Didn’t roll off the tongue
So they embarked on their Freedom Ride.
White and brown sardines
Packed side by side in tin cans
Speeding towards the gulf, heart-first.

The day the Civil Rights Warriors
Fought their first battle
Was mother’s day, 1961.
There were no mothers waiting for the freedom writers in Alabama.
Only stitches, slashed tires, firebombs,
Blood pouring from cuts like mama’s homemade stew.

But the ride continued
Leaving a trail of blood and heroes.
The Nashville sit-ins who took over the flight
Jim Zwerg, John Seiganthaler
Throwing their bodies in between bigotry and hope.
The 300 arrested trying to push change forward.

The day the Civil Rights Warriors
Ended their charge
They fell short, New Orleans gleaming in the distance
A beacon left unreached.
But the damage had been done. The Freedom Riders
Found change in the dust under their chrome-plated wheels.