The Civil Rights Movement

Fighting for enfranchisement and against segregation

Recognition from the government as citizens

Educational facilities designated to different races

Exploiting minorities and limiting economic opportunities

Deaths of innocent people fighting for their rights

Options to peacefully protest or fight back

Moving toward equality for all races

Death

Bombs set off in church

Protesters shot in cold blood

Bodies lost and found

The Beatings

The water jets out of the hose onto my delicate skin

The flower withholding a dream continues to grow inside me

I can feel the hatred in each drop

I hope it cleanses the eyes of those who are oblivious

Why do they call me names?

The one I have been given has been neglected

Rejected and forgotten like my freedom

The freedom of speech used to oppress the deprived

Will it hurt when they beat me?

Or will it hurt more to sit around and wait?

Their punches don’t bruise my pride

Only the skin they determine me with

The ropes of segregation tighten around my throat

Choke me until I cannot breath

But even if my body becomes useless

My spirit will keep on fighting

Keeping Corners

Let’s keep our boundaries

I want my toilets to be cleaned

Not soiled with the touch of your kind

Let’s keep our corners

There’s a reason our houses

Don’t touch each other

I only have love for my neighbor

Let’s keep our country clean

Following values of the past

“The good old days”

Let’s keep our segregation

A fence between our rights

Even if you were born with the title of

“American”

You can never be our kind

Walk With Me

Walk with me through the streets

I see a man wilting away

Beaten down by the privileged

But he doesn’t move

Walk with me through the streets

I see two women

Both holding a baby

But their thirst doesn’t determine

The fountains they drink from

Walk with me through the streets

Blood covered the ground

Shared by all races

But only few get to walk on it freely

Why do we walk through the streets

Knowing that the cycle is set

Yet wait till it will be broken?

Can it be broken?

Walk with me through the streets

Hand in hand, fist flying

We shall not sit quietly any more

Rise as we fight for freedom

Bystander

Justice fades away

Watching while the madness stirs

Should I help or watch?