Maya taught me what it takes
To be a Phenomenal Woman
She made me proud of my curves
And my sassy attitude
I'm more than meets the eye
They can't seem to find
"my inner mystery"
And while our history was written
With the pen of dark and despair
"up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise"
My future was written
"In the hope and dream of a slave
And just like air I rise"
They may shoot me with their words
And kill my brothers with their guns
"But still I rise"
Was their ignorance bliss
"I didn't know I was a slave
Until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted"
Like a bird whose wings have been clipped
"If there is no struggle there is no progress"
But thru all the distress
And the ignorance
They understood all too well
Why the Caged Bird Sings
Songs of freedom
That they longed for
That seemed so far out of reach
but giving up was never an option
"sometimes goin in the dark
Where there ain't been no light
so boy don't you turn back
Don't you set down on the steps"
From Mother to Son
"life for me ain't been no crystal stair"
"so hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird"
A philosophy of nonviolence
The great reverend doctor
Had a dream
"A dream that we would not be judged by the color of our skin but by the content of our character"
A dream we all shared
With different visions of achieving
A dream "to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by ANY MEANS NECESSARY"
So with our fists raised
Continuing the legacy of
Huey P
And the Black Panther Party
All black everything
The untold stories of Emit Till
All because of a whistle
A lynch mob caught him
With a noose around his neck
A face his mama couldn't recognize
A black man lost his eye
Because Jim Crow
Couldn't stand the sight
And justice is blind
3/5 of a person
Being black added a new definition
To second class citizen
Brought to this country on ships
La Amistad
Packed like sardines in a can
Used as entertainment like clowns
Beat with the whip
In white massa's hand
Assimilation forced upon us
As master tried to turn Kunta
Into Toby
Scars on his back
Evidence of his pride
But when massa gives you something
You take it
So he gave the women
What was between his legs
But massa ain't claiming no nigger baby
No matter how light he be
The color of our skin
A gift and a curse
But we are the lining behind a dark cloud
The Souls of Black Folk
Just can't break us down
The courage of the Little Rock 9
Hosed down
When trying to fight the ignorance behind separate but equal
The voice of Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial
First (black) American at the Metropolitan Opera
Daniel Hale Williams
Saving the hearts of white men
We never knew
Existed
Crispus Attucks
A black man
First casualty of the American Revolution
Inferior
Contrary to popular belief
The White Man's Burden is not our story
History is our story
