POETRY
Fannie Lou Hammer
the miracle: her black
breath telling how colored had a right
to vote in a place
that beat her kidneys : they
did not offer her water, either
For Joann Robinson
I remember Joann mimeographing
say another black woman been arrested
She say don’t ride the bus on
Monday December 5, 1955
I didn’t either, not for 381 days
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Tribute to Vernon Dahmer, Sr.
I hear it told
There once lived a tall man called
Vernon Dahmer, Sr.
I owe January of 1966 to this tall Mississippi man
He leant his store to freedom’s cause
So Negroes could pay the poll tax.
So Negroes could Vote!
He wanted them to know the right to vote.
Wailing to the way fearing saints his proposition:
He called:
Vote! Your forty in acres; vote your mule: Vote!
In Mississippi near route 66 in 1966,
The Negroes listened;
In ones and twos they journeyed down the road
To the tall man’s store—proud-- to pay the tax
So they could know the right to vote
A penalty the tall man paid on January 10, of year 1966
The Ku Klux Klan shouted loud: roused
A fire killing Mr. Vernon Dahmer, Sr.
Burned his body, but not his name.
I hear it told
There once lived a tall man called
Vernon Dahmer, Sr.
I owe January of 1966 to this tall Mississippi man
He leant his store to freedom’s cause
So Negroes could pay the poll tax.
So Negroes could Vote!
He wanted them to know the right to vote.
Wailing to the way fearing saints his proposition:
He called:
Vote! Your forty in acres; vote your mule: Vote!
In Mississippi near route 66 in 1966,
The Negroes listened;
In ones and twos they journeyed down the road
To the tall man’s store—proud-- to pay the tax
So they could know the right to vote
A penalty the tall man paid on January 10, of year 1966
The Ku Klux Klan shouted loud: roused
A fire killing Mr. Vernon Dahmer, Sr.
Burned his body, but not his name.
Click on picture to
learn about the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
learn about the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
