“I am very worried about the state of the civilization which produced that photograph of the white cop standing on that Negro woman’s neck in Birmingham in 1963.”
– Lorraine Hansberry
Fifty years from now, when you do not see protests on the news,
sixty years from now, when George Floyd’s blood has dried up,
and Ahmaud Arbery is nothing more than a Google search,
when you no longer see your brothers and sisters marching and protesting in the streets for justice,
forty years from now, when there are no more hashtags
on which to hang your consciousness
and no Instagram to snapshot the revolution
when “black,” is no longer “trending”
will there be a fire next time?
When the news goes back to its regularly scheduled program
and the American flag is still soaked with the blood of the saints
their memory etched into the concrete we walk on
who will walk on?
When the history books forget to mention Breonna Taylor’s name, will we?
Did you know there were five little girls injured during the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963?
Did you know that the fifth little girl, Sarah Collins Rudolph, lived?
twenty years from now, whose legacy lives?
Who will Emmett Till Trayvon Martin’s memory?
When America’s anger sizzles into complacency
will there be a fire next time?
“History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.” – James Baldwin
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