The Black Experience

The Black Experience

What will be written?

And what ultimately will be said?

Of who I am, my works, my accomplishments, my inventions, my many gifts to mankind, and of my very own experience?

Will I become a no face, absent from the mirrors of time?

Erased from the temples of a man’s memory?

Or will the axiom of “Who I Am”, “What I Am, and “All that I stand for”, firm with honor and perpetuity, and find a place for me to reside in history?

Who Am I You Ask?

I am the face of hundreds of thousands of souls past

Who wore sweat drenched lacerated backs, and blistered bare feet while kneeling pluck one of America’s most famous commodities,

I’ve inspired formality to “Rebel”, and Change to “Become”

Before me, there was simply a “Song”

But through me song now has rhythm and is filled richly with soul and a resounding touch of the blues

Who Am I?

I am struggle, character, and pride,

Mixed comfortably with a little bit of cockiness, attitude, and arrogance

I am the offspring of Kings and Queens a production delectable to the eyes

I performed the first open heart surgery and am the reason why red, yellow, and green means stop, pause, and go.

For years my voice was forcibly silenced and my very own existence neglected

And my rights……well I had none.

I was told that I had to ride in the back of the bus; so I boycotted

I