AS A MATTER OF FACT...

GEORGE DAWSON (1898-2001),the grandson of a slave, was born in a log cabin in Marshall, Texas. He learned to read and write at the age of 98. He was one of the oldest men in America to learn to read and write. His autobiography, LIFE IS SO GOOD, with Richard Glaubman, was published in 2000. He died in 2001 at the age of 103.

AS A MATTER OF FACT...

KOKO TAYLOR (1928-2009) - was known as the "QUEEN OF THE BLUES". She had a musical career that spanned nearly half a century.

AS A MATTER OF FACT

STEPHEN BISHOP (1821-1856), A SLAVE, WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO EXPLORE THE DEPTHS OF A VAST KENTUCKY CAVE SYSTEM, AND HE INTRODUCED THE WORLD TO IT'S WONDERS.

BLACK HISTORY POEM PROJECT

PLANTATION  LIFE







Hard work in the fields
Was the way of life
Goes back to the sugar
Plantations of the island
Days then tobacco and
Cotton from southern
Plantations then the steel
Mills and refineries of the
Great migration to urbanization
On to sports and entertainment
Arenas we can't seem to escape
The plantation

BLACK HISTORY POEM PROJECT

JIM CROW IS ALIVE



Jim Crow did not die
With the signing of
The civil rights bill
Into law
Jim Crow is alive for
There are still unwritten
Laws used to subjugate to
Try and rule  Black people
To keep them sitting in
The back of the bus to
Keep them drinking
From the colored only
Water fountain to keep
Them in shackles forever
Enslaved

BLACK HISTORY POEM PROJECT

TEARS FOR OUR CHILDREN



Crying for them all
Especially for the
Children
Crying for things we
Lost in the fires of the
Struggle for humanity
Crying for the four
Little girls slain in the
Birmingham church
Bombing crying
For emmitt till
Brutally slain in Mississippi
On the early
Battlefield  of civil rights
Ruby bridges the little
Rock nine they were the sacrificial
Lambs our children marching
Dying for the cause
Crying tears for all our children
Done away with by those
Who saw fit to hit
Us where it hurts most
In our future generations

BLACK HISTORY POEM PROJECT

WAKE UP


Don't be shocked
Malcolm said when I
Say I was in prison you
Still in prison

I've left from where I've
Been but you still there
Malcolm said you still a
Prisoner of your own
Mind by the way you
Think you still sleep