by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator
Daily Kos ran a piece yesterday marking the 56th anniversary of the 16th Avenue Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, a tragic event perpetrated by American terrorists (the Ku Klux Klan) which took the lives of four young black girls. The memorial piece was penned by Denise Oliver Velez, and she used a poem by the Harlem Renaissance writer, Claude McKay, to highlight the continuing suffering and struggle of black Americans to achieve a place of safety and respect in American society.
That poem, "If we Must Die," was written by McKay exactly one hundred years ago, during the time that became known as "Red Summer" when white gangs randomly and savagely attacked black communities creating large swaths of suffering and death. McKay's words were inspirational, a call to stand and fight.
("If We Must Die" has run in this space before - twice - but it is so good as to bear repeating on this, its centennial year. Please consider it as a reminder from our distant past that black lives really do matter.)
Poetry Appreciator
Daily Kos ran a piece yesterday marking the 56th anniversary of the 16th Avenue Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, a tragic event perpetrated by American terrorists (the Ku Klux Klan) which took the lives of four young black girls. The memorial piece was penned by Denise Oliver Velez, and she used a poem by the Harlem Renaissance writer, Claude McKay, to highlight the continuing suffering and struggle of black Americans to achieve a place of safety and respect in American society.
That poem, "If we Must Die," was written by McKay exactly one hundred years ago, during the time that became known as "Red Summer" when white gangs randomly and savagely attacked black communities creating large swaths of suffering and death. McKay's words were inspirational, a call to stand and fight.
("If We Must Die" has run in this space before - twice - but it is so good as to bear repeating on this, its centennial year. Please consider it as a reminder from our distant past that black lives really do matter.)
If We Must Die
By Claude McKay
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
No comments:
Post a Comment