They beat us
Abused us
Made us feel like we were nothing
But one day,
One regular day
A woman decided no more.
She would no longer allow herself to be belittled
And forced to sit in the back
Unknowing that her pure exhaustion
Would cause a movement that would later change America
They told us we couldn’t do
Called us names like
Nigger, Negro, porch monkey
Instead of what we really were
People…
We showed we had feelings
We showed we had emotions
And we showed that we would fight back
We marched
We picketed
We boycotted
Instead of taking the easy racial transportation provided
We walked and car pooled
They hosed us down and released their dogs on us
We marched
We picketed
We boycotted
They burned our houses
Killed our men
We marched
We spoke
We made them realize
That we would no longer be silenced by their oppression
And their racism
We fought back
Proving that we would do what they said we couldn’t
We fought back