Description
Book SynopsisWords of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to Americas turbulent Civil Rights era.
Trade Review“Editor Jeffrey Lamar Coleman has combined scholarship with art. There are 14 sections to the book and each is preceded by an essay as educational scaffolding for the poems. Each essay, a small exegesis of history, describes how the poems relate. It’s a masterwork of organization and strategy. Not only African American poets are represented here, the editor points out, and the 82 poets make up a roster that could fill any poetry hall of fame. Some are dead, some venerable, some unknown, but the poems are each honored with context and framework.” - Grace Cavalieri,
Washington Independent Review of Books“This marvelous collection of poems written from 1955 to 1975 brings back the emotions and memories of those times as only poetry can. The short, informative introduction to each section serves both teenagers and adults well. Teachers will want to share these fine poems with their students. . . . his is a perfect title to highlight during Black History Month or Poetry Month, and a terrific addition to school library collections all year round.” - Karlan Sick,
School Library Journal“Poetry is an ideal artistic medium for expressing the fear, sorrow, and triumph of revolutionary times.
Words of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to the American civil rights struggle of 1955-75. Featuring some of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century – including Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Langston Hughes, Sonia Sanchez, and Derek Walcott – alongside lesser-known poets, activists, and ordinary citizens, this anthology presents a varied and vibrant set of voices, highlighting the tremendous symbolic reach of the civil rights movement within and beyond the United States.” - Dennis Moore,
Electronic Urban Report“[T]he collection gives readers a unique access to the poems as artworks. Due to the consistency of subject matter, each section highlights profound differences in poetic sensibility, technique, and voice. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.” - R. K. Mookerjee,
Choice"America's ongoing civil rights movement reflects the triumphs and travails of struggles for citizenship, equality, and social justice. Jeffrey Lamar Coleman's insightful and illuminating work redirects our gaze toward the power of poetry in transforming the nation's postwar civil rights landscape. An essential book for students and scholars of the civil rights struggle."—
Peniel E. Joseph, author of
Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama“[T]he collection gives readers a unique access to the poems as artworks. Due to the consistency of subject matter, each section highlights profound differences in poetic sensibility, technique, and voice. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.” -- R. K. Mookerjee * Choice *
“Editor Jeffrey Lamar Coleman has combined scholarship with art. There are 14 sections to the book and each is preceded by an essay as educational scaffolding for the poems. Each essay, a small exegesis of history, describes how the poems relate. It’s a masterwork of organization and strategy. Not only African American poets are represented here, the editor points out, and the 82 poets make up a roster that could fill any poetry hall of fame. Some are dead, some venerable, some unknown, but the poems are each honored with context and framework.” -- Grace Cavalieri * Washington Independent Review of Books *
“Poetry is an ideal artistic medium for expressing the fear, sorrow, and triumph of revolutionary times.
Words of Protest, Words of Freedom is the first comprehensive collection of poems written during and in response to the American civil rights struggle of 1955-75. Featuring some of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century – including Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Langston Hughes, Sonia Sanchez, and Derek Walcott – alongside lesser-known poets, activists, and ordinary citizens, this anthology presents a varied and vibrant set of voices, highlighting the tremendous symbolic reach of the civil rights movement within and beyond the United States.” -- Dennis Moore * Electronic Urban Report *
“This marvelous collection of poems written from 1955 to 1975 brings back the emotions and memories of those times as only poetry can. The short, informative introduction to each section serves both teenagers and adults well. Teachers will want to share these fine poems with their students. . . . his is a perfect title to highlight during Black History Month or Poetry Month, and a terrific addition to school library collections all year round.” -- Karlan Sick * School Library Journal *
Table of ContentsPreface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction. Journey toward Freedom 1
"Had
she been worth the blood?"
The Lynching of Emmett Till, 1955 15
Remembrance / Rhoda Gaye Ascher 17
The Better Sort of People / John Beecher 17
A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon / Gwendolyn Brooks 19
The Last Quatrain on the Ballad of Emmett Till / Gwendolyn Brooks 23
On the State of the Union / Aimé Césaire 24
Temperate Belt: Reflections on the Mother of Emmett Till / Durwood Collins Jr. 26
Emmett Till / James A. Emanuel 27
Elegy for Emmett Till / Nicolás Guillén 28
Mississippi—1955 (To the Memory of Emmett Till) / Langston Hughes 31
Money, Mississippi / Eve Merriam 32
Salute / Oliver Pitcher 33
"Godfearing citizens / with Bibles, taunts, and stones"
The Little Rock Crisis, 1957–1958 35
The
Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock / Gwendolyn Brooks 37
Little Rock / Nicolás Guillén 39
School Integration Riot / Robert Hayden 40
My Blackness Is the Beauty of This Land / Lance Jeffers 41
"The FBI knows who lynched you"
The Murder of Mack Charles Parker, 1959 43
Poplarville II / Keith E. Baird 45
Mack C. Parker / Phillip Abbott Luce 45
For Mack C. Parker / Pauli Murray 48
Collect for Poplarville / Pauli Murray 49
"Fearless before the waiting throng"
The Life and Death of Medgar Evers 51
Medgar Evers (for Charles Evers) / Gwendolyn Brooks 53
American (In Memory of Medgar Evers) / R. D. Coleman 53
For Medgar Evers / David Ignatow 54
Blues for Medgar Evers / Aaron Kramer 55
Micah (In Memory of Medgar Evers of Mississippi) / Margaret Walker 56
"Under the leaves of hymnals, the plaster and stone"
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing, 15 September 1963 57
Escort for a President / John Beecher 60
American History / Michael S. Harper 61
Here Where Coltrane Is / Michael S. Harper 62
Birmingham Sunday / Langston Hughes 63
Suffer the Children / Audre Lorde 64
Birmingham 1963 / Raymond Patterson 64
Ballad of Birmingham / Dudley Randall 65
Ballad for Four Children and a President / Edith Segal 67
September 1963 / Jean Valentine 68
"What we have seen / Has become history, tragedy"
The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 22 November 1963 71
Belief / A. R. Ammons 75
Elegy for J. F. K. / W. H. Auden 76
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy / Gwendolyn Brooks 80
On Not Writing an Elegy / Robert Frost 81
At the Brooklyn Docks, November 23, 1963 / Dorothy Gilbert 81
Verba in Memoriam / Barbara Guest 82
Until Death Do Us Part / Anselm Hollo 85
A Night Picture of Pownal, for J. F. K. / Barbara Howes 86
Before the Sabbath / David Ignatow 88
Jacqueline / Will Inman 89
Down in Dallas / X. J. Kennedy 89
In Arlington Cemetery / Stanley Koehler 90
Four Days in November / Marjorie Mir 92
Sonnet for John-John / Marvin Solomon 92
Not That Hurried for Grief, for John F. Kennedy / Lorenzo Thomas 93
November 22, 1963 / Lewis Turco 94
The Gulf / Derek Walcott 95
"Deep in the Mississippi thicket / I hear the mourning dove"
The Search for James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, 1964 99
A Commemorative Ode / John Beecher 102
Mississippi, 1964 / Marjorie Mir 105
The Book of Job and a Draft of a Poem to Praise the Paths of the Living / George Oppen 106
The Demonstration / Gregory Orr 112
Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman / Raymond Patterson 113
Speech for LeRoi / Armand Schwerner 113
When Black People Are / A. B. Spellman 115
For Andy Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney / Margaret Walker 117
"We are not beasts and do not / intend to be beaten"
Riots, Rebellions, and Uprisings 121
Riot: 60's / Maya Angelou 125
Attica—U.S.A. / Keith E. Baird 126
finish / Charles Bukowski 127
Heroes / Karl Carter 129
Revolutionary Letter #3 / Daine de Prima 130
A Mother Speaks: The Algiers Motel Incident, Detroit / Michael S. Harper 132
Keep on Pushing / David Henderson 132
Poem against the State (of Things): 1975 / June Jordan 138
On the Birth of My Son, Malcolm Coltrane / Julius Lester 145
The Gulf / Denise Levertov 146
Coming Home, Detroit, 1968 / Philip Levine 148
If We Cannot Live as People / Charles Lynch 149
Kuntu / Larry Neal 150
Watts / Ojenke (Alvin Saxon) 152
In Orangeburg My Brothers Did / A. B. Spellman 153
"Prophets were ambushed as they spoke"
The Assassination of Malcolm X, 21 February 1965 155
A Poem for Black Hearts / Amiri Baraka 158
For Malcolm: After Mecca / Gerald W. Barrax 159
Malcolm X (for Dudley Randall) / Gwendolyn Brooks 159
Judas / Karl Carter 160
malcolm / Lucille Clifton 161
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz / Robert Hayden 161
Portrait of Malcolm X (for Charles Baxter), Etheridge Knight 163
Malcolm X—An Autobiography / Larry Neal 164
At That Moment / Raymond Patterson 166
If Blood Is Black Then Spirit Neglects My Unborn Son / Conrad Kent Rivers 167
malcolm / Sonia Sanchez 168
For Malcolm Who Walks in the Eyes of Our Children / Quincy Troupe 169
For Malcolm X / Margaret Walker 171
That Old Time Religion / Marvin X 171
"In the panic of hooves, bull whips, and gas"
Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March, 1965 173
Ode to Jimmy Lee / Jim "Arkansas" Benston 176
The Road to Selma / June Brindel 178
Selma, Alabama, 3/6/65 / Louis Daniel Brodsky 180
The Sun of the Future / Thich Nhat Hanh 181
Race Relations / Carolyn Kizer 183
Alabama Centennial / Naomi Long Madgett 185
On a Highway East of Selma, Alabama / Gregory Orr 186
Crumpled Notes (found in a raincoat) on Selma / Maria Varela 188
"Set afire by the cry of / BLACK POWER"
The Birth and Legacy of the Black Panther Party 193
The Black Mass Needs but One Crucifixion / Kathleen Cleaver 197
apology (to the panthers) / Lucille Clifton 199
Revolutionary Letter #20 / Diane di Prima 200
For Angela / Zack Gilbert 201
May King's Prophecy / Allen Ginsberg 202
Black Power (For all the Beautiful Black Panthers East) / Nikki Giovanni 204
Newsletter from My Mother: 8:30 a.m., December 8, 1969 / Michael S. Harper 205
[let the fault be with the man] / Ericka Huggins 206
The Day the Audience Walked Out on Me, and Why / Denise Levertov 207
One-Sided Shoot-out / Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) 208
Revolution
