civil rights;
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Born into a world that is filled with pain sorrow
They always make you wish you didn’t have to face tomorrow.
A little boy who experienced nothing but hate,
Grew into a man that spoke words and caused you to meditate.
And it's not necessarily the way you look at Jesus,
But the way I don't.
And it's not necessarily the way you know how to say every line,
Of every prayer,
At every mass,
But the way I choose not to.
(poems go here) A nation with an obsession of freedom
An obsession that was hypocritical
Tragedy that freedom required martyrdom
Only unified can we keep it from being cyclical
I stare out of the bus window at the bleakest of scenes
As the Israelites stared at the Egyptian desert
My thoughts are interrupted by the gruffest of voices
Demanding
Waiting
That I move
I will stay
What a shame, how we all were treated before,
False accusations, people judged the color of skin.
Our potential, needs, and feelings were forgotten, ignored,
Our worn and torn shoes, no one has thought to step in.
The roots of my hair
come from the roots of my background.
Though I am my culture,
I am not only my hair,
my roots, I’m free.
If anything, my hair is me.
Golden paths,
chocolate delights,
Timidly I walk into a diner for lunch
As they look at me funny like I don’t belong
Scowling their faces because we are different races
Thinking we are obsolete beings marked by black faces
Freedom? Is that something we can really say we have?
No. Our minds are trapped in the past
Holding hatred against those who harmed our great ancestors.
When really we are holding ourselves back from being truly free
They walked to school heads held high not
knowing what awaited them but they had to try
What you see are nine black faces, walking
forward towards a crowd full of hatred. They
From the back of the bus
To the front of the class,
No doubt such hate and fuss
Could ever last
Step, step, step—
I walk the streets of Selma to obtain the unattained.
Whip, whip, whip—
The bone chilling voices of ancestors of plantation owners quiver down my spine.
Bark, bark, bark—
(Also sounds appropriate as a rap)
"I had a dream" started all this buzz
they said "it ain't fair"
but they were right because--
