Between 1940 and 1980, African Americans were drowning in political turmoil. From the Civil Rights movement to the Black Arts Movement, black writers sought to expose political atrocities aimed at their communities. Poetry became a tool that allowed black communities to respond to national conflicts. Influential author, Amiri Baraka, radically characterizes the effects of political poetry in Black Art. It is through poetic styles and techniques that African American authors inspired revolution.
1) 1941- Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organizes protest
Margaret Walker- For My People (1942)
“Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second generation full of courage issue forth; let a people loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full of healing and a strength of final clenching be the pulsing in our blood. Let the marital songs be written, let the dirges disappear. Let a race of men now rise and take control.”
2) 1943- Detroit and Harlem Riots
Melvin B. Tolson- Dark Symphany (1944)
“They tell us to forget
Democracy is spurned.
They tell us to forget
The Bill of Rights is burned.
Three hundred years we slaved,
We slave and suffer yet:
Though flesh and bone rebel,
They tell us to forget!”
3) 1955- Rosa Parks arrested
Langston Hughs- Ballads of the Landlord (1955)
“Police! Police!
Come and get this man!
He's trying to ruin the government
And overturn the land!
Copper's whistle
Patrol bell!
Arrest.”
4) 1957- Federal troops went to Little Rock
Gwendolyn Brooks- The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock (1960)
“I scratch my head, ma**age the hate-I –had.
I blink across my prim and penciled pad.
The saga I was sent for is not down.
Because there is a puzzle in this town.
The biggest News I do not dare
Telegraph to the Editor's chair:
“They are like people everywhere.”
The angry Editor would reply
In hundred harryings of Why.”
5) 1964- New York Riot of 1964
David Henderson- Keep on Pushing (1970)
"The Police Commissioner can
muster five hundred cops in five minutes
He can summon extra
tear-gas bombs/ guns/ ammunition
within a single call
to a certain general alarm/
For Harlem
reinforcements come from the Bronx
just over the three-borough bridge/
a shot a cry a rumor
can muster five hundred Negroes
from idle and strategic street corners
bars stoops hallways windows"
Keep on pushing.
6) 1965- Malcolm X a**a**inated
Sonia Sanchez- blk/rhetoric (1969)
“who's gonna give our young
blk/people new heroes
(instead of catch/phrases)
(instead of cad/ il/ acs)
(instead of pimps)
(instead of wite/who*es)
(instead of d**)
(instead of new dances)
(instead of chit/ter/lings)
(instead of 35 cent bottle of ripple)
(instead of quick/ f**s in the hall/ way
of wite/ america's mind)
like. this. Is an S O S
me. calling… … …”
7) 1973- Clifford Glover shot
Audre Lorde- Power (1976)
“Today that 37 year old white man with 13 years of police forcing
was set free
by 11 white men who said they were satisfied
justice had been done
and one black woman who said “ They convinced me”
meaning
they had dragged her 4'10” black woman's frame
over the hot coals of four centuries of white male approval
until she let go of the first real power she ever had
and lined her own womb with cement
to make a graveyard for our children.”
8) 1978- The Rape Case in Aix- en- Provence
June Jordan- Poems about My Rights (1980)
“And in France they say if the Guy penetrates
but does not ejaculate then he did not rape me
and if after stabbing him if after screams if
after begging the ba*tard and if even after smashing
a hammer to his head if even after that if he
and his buddies f** me after that
then I consented and there was
no rape…”