Equality

Separate Has never been And never will be Equal. Paging through the textbooks of history and time The white, clean pages Have been bleached of any color. Black history relegated To nonexistence. How demeaning. People today And the ancestors of the cause Fifty years ago, They saw this. And they saw it was wrong. It was un-American. Together they reclaimed History, Identity, Humanity. They sat where they should have been able to, Drank where they wanted, Talked to whomever they pleased. And for their bravery, Were sprayed with fire hoses, Hung from the branches, Arrested in the streets, Denied an atmosphere of comfort. Special people burning like a flame In the blinding white of the darkness. Martin Luther King Junior. Rosa Parks. The unnamed masses gathered on cold mornings Listening earnestly to passionate speeches, And emotional appeals. Feeling as one A great yearning for the social And political change They knew and felt they deserved. To be equal. The fight for the cause gave them many martyrs Some more well-known than others. But all brave, And all purposeful. The rights won Written in blood and apologies, But also in a hearty resolve For change. The fight continues on today Though in different ways. The ghosts of atrocities past haunt modern history Specters of a crueler time. But it is thanks to these tangible phantoms We see what needs to be done today. Where improvements can be made, For equality. So that the past may never happen again, That we don’t see each other as White and black . Two separate communities communing in the same environment. But as a country, And as equals. And it’s all thanks to those souls Who dedicated their time, Their hope, Their lives, To the civil rights movement So that we might have a better today. Thank you for filling in the blank pages of history.