Tag Archives: Civil Rights Movement

Morrison on the Death of Emmett Till

In “Song of Solomon,” Morrison has the men in the community grapple with what the death of Emmett Till means.

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Tony Bennett, WWII, and Race Activism

Learning about late singer Tony Bennett’s life has opened up new insights into my father, also a World War II vet and civil rights activist.

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Integration’s Child Pioneers

Black children in the early days of integration report intense bullying from peers. Ozeki describes such childhood cruelty in “Tale for the Time Being.”

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His Word Still Burns the Center of the Sun

I recall the day I heard Martin Luther King speak and share a Gwendolyn Brooks poem.

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The Significance of Warnock’s Election

Let we forget, a black senator was elected in Georgia last week. Woodson’s poem honors the Civil Rights movement that made it possible.

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Mountains Loom and I Won’t Stop Now

Naomi Long Madget has just died at 97. Her poem “Midway” continues to inspire.

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On John Lewis’s Love of “Invictus”

The late John Lewis’s favorite poem was apparently “Invictus,” a problematic lyric but one can see how Lewis used it in the cause of social justice.

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Black vs. White Responses to “Raisin”

“Raisin in the Sun” was a hit with both white and black audiences when it appeared in 1959 but for very different reasons.

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Lift Every Voice and Sing

Both Martin Luther King and James Weldon Johnson, in “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” drew strength and courage from the Book of Exodus.

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