To Our Failed, Resilient Leaders

Dear Our Revolutionaries,

We are failing...

You risked your lives

and we have taken our own for granted.

To Mr. Douglass,

Your words traveled miles.

Your actions stood as inspiration.

The 4th of July to the slave has not yet changed 

for the African American person in 2018 compared to 1852...

This is due to us failing you.

Ms. Harriet Tubman,

We have lost sight of your path.

The trail you paved has become blurred

and sight of freedom for all has slipped.

The night has become too dark

and we have become too blind.

To our beloved Juneteenth,
We have forgotten you.

The forty acres and a mule are no more.

Now, it is simply section eight housing

and government assistant traded for illegal substances.

Our responsibility has become ignored.

To the 1870's Negro Men's Suffrage,

We neglect you.

An immense amount of suffering came alongside your birth...

yet, we fail to utilize you.

Sir Jim Crow, we still see you.

Born circa 1871 in the state of Tennessee.

There has been no way to remove your fury.

Now, you lurk in the shadows waiting to oppress.

It is clear, you roam the halls of the White House and

it is your presents that has America in distress...

...but it is our fault.

We lost sight of ourselves and became divided.

It has been 118 since the song first began to 

Lift every voice and sing...

But now we are silent.

We have forgotten the words and the tune,

It is because of this equality will not come soon.

Back in our prime, we had men who took flight to save our nation.

These brave birds represented our race,

Even when we did not have a place.

The dear Redtails did all they could

and we neglect to praise them as we should.

Dear Mr. James Baldwin,

You told us to "Go Tell It On the Mountain",

Yet, now we barely tell it on land.

We failed to use all the advances your work had planned.

Mr. Marshall, the aftermath of you work has been taken for granted.

Our schools are intergrated.

Yet, we remain segregated.

We are failing and need you...

Mr. Marshall,

Board vs. Brown is done, but work in the school system is still not through.

Prominent Revolutionaries,

We need you once more.

Please come through America's front door.

In 1963, you told us of a dream.

You marched the streets until 1968 when we lost the leader of our team.

You walked, you ran, you climbed and soared.

You placed in the sky an illuminated torch.

We not only had a friend in Reverend Martin

but a stream of overflowing knowledge that we must now be submerged in.

We remain without guidance.

We are failing your notions, Sir X.

"By Any Means Necessary"... 

We have come up short. 

Please, send our race on a pilgrimage to equality.

Ms. Simone,

You sang to us about strange fruit.

They hung from poplar trees

and swung in the Southern breeze.

These bodies now lie dead by police bullets in the streets.

You attempted to teach us to be young, gifted, and black.

It is us who fail to prevail and under pressure crack.

We have burned Los Angeles in 1991.

We have burned Ferguson in 2014.

Time has not changed the things our race has done to captivate equality.

But until we fix ourselves within, we can not work to fix society.

President Obama,

America was simply not ready for you.

Tupac said it in 1992

and in 2008 as well as 2012 it was true.

It is Jim Crow who sits on the highest throne of the free world.

This is solely because we failed all of you as well as every little black boy and girl.

There was a time when you each had your fingers curled.

They were balled in a fist for equality...

To say we have reached that now would be a travesty.