Preface  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

Revolutionary Suicide / Huey P. Newton  210

We Called Him the General / Melvin Newton  211

The Panther / After Rilke / Craig Randolph Pyes  212

From "Ghazals: Homage to Ghalib" / Adrienne Rich  213

"America, self-destructive, self-betrayed" The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., 4 April 1968  215

Martin Luther King, Jr. / Gwendolyn Brooks  219

Riot / Gwendolyn Brooks  219

the meeting after the savior gone, 4/4/68 / Lucille Clifton  225

A Poem to My Brothers Killed in Combat or Something about a Conversation with My Father after Rev. King Was Killed / Ebon Dooley  225

How to Change the U.S.A. / Harry Edwards  227

Reflections on April 4, 1968 / Nikki Giovanni  228

April 5th / Donald L. Graham  230

What Color? / Nicolás Guillén  231

Words in the Mourning Time / Robert Hayden  232

Rites of Passage (to M.L.K., Jr.) / Audre Lorde  238

Two Walls / Robert Lowell  239

Assassination / Haki Madhubuti  239

April Fourth / Robert Mezey  240

Martin Luther King, Malcolm X / Muriel Rukeyser  241

Elegy for Martin Luther King / Léopold Sédar Senghor  242

Black Thursday / Victor Manuel Rivera Toledo  247

White Weekend (April 5–8, 1968) / Quincy Troupe  249

Amos, 1963 / Margaret Walker  250

Amos (Postscript, 1968) / Margaret Walker  250

"A gun / Struck, as we slept, a caring public man" The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, 5 June 1968  253

Assassination Raga / Lawrence Ferlinghetti  256

The Assassination / Donald Justice  260

Season of Lovers and Assassins / Carolyn Kizer  261

For Robert Kennedy / Robert Lowell  262

For Robert Kennedy / Al Purdy  263

A Flower from Robert Kennedy's Grave / Edward Sanders  264

Elegy / Derek Walcott  267

Freedom to Kill / Yevgeny Yevtuschenko  269

"Mighty mountains loom before me and I won't stop now" Struggle, Survival, and Subversion during the Civil Rights Era  273

Black Art / Amiri Baraka  280

Poem for HalfWhite College Students / Amiri Baraka  281

Free World Notes / John Beecher  282

George Scene: 1964 / John Beecher  283

War and Silence / Robert Bly  284

Passive Resistance / Margaret Danner  285

Revolutionary Letter #8 / Diane di Prima  286

Revolutionary Letter #19 / Diane di Prima  287

Freedom Rider: Washout / James A. Emanuel  288

Adulthood / Nikki Giovanni  289

Nikki-Rosa / Nikki Giovanni  291

Mississippi Voter Rally / Bruce Hartford  292

Grenada March #107 / Bruce Hartford  293

The Last River / Galway Kinnell  294

Poem, Small and Delible / Carolyn Kizer  309

Revolutionary Mandate 1 / Julius Lester  310

A Note to Olga (1966) / Denise Levertov  311

For the Union Dead / Robert Lowell  312

Midway / Naomi Long Madgett  315

Be Nobody's Darling / Alice Walker  316

Selected Bibliography  317

Contributors  327

Acknowledgment of Copyright  349

Index of Authors and Poem Titles  355

“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

“These are wrenching and demanding subjects, and poets struggle for the
transcendence of artistic expression, of grace and distillation, honed and channeled emotion, candor and courage, reason and wisdom. How to translate incoherent pain and outrage into poetry of protest and solace? The distinguished roster of those who accomplished this feat include Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, Allen Ginsberg, Nikki Giovanni, Robert Hayden, Haki R. Madhubuti, and Sonia Sanchez. A striking, resonant, and invaluable gathering.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist

“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

“These are wrenching and demanding subjects, and poets struggle for the
transcendence of artistic expression, of grace and distillation, honed and channeled emotion, candor and courage, reason and wisdom. How to translate incoherent pain and outrage into poetry of protest and solace? The distinguished roster of those who accomplished this feat include Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, Allen Ginsberg, Nikki Giovanni, Robert Hayden, Haki R. Madhubuti, and Sonia Sanchez. A striking, resonant, and invaluable gathering.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist

"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

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