Mississippi On My Mind
Mississippi
Michigan
Massachusetts
Maryland
Mississippi made Nina curse
Mississippi
On my mind
Natchez
Macomb
I’m sure leaving your mother mind
Leaving your mother behind
Was the hardest thing ever to do and be
All week in prayer on the high watch
Returning to places I have never been
Learning about people I didn’t think I knew
Bravery
Courage and adventure
I wish the story was not true
Fiction would be well suited
Fannie Lou Hamer
The women in dresses that never left or allowed anyone to be left behind
My friend and I have more than one
Continue to have Mississippi on their minds
On their hearts
This week
My integration story
Began and end
When on your first day at work for five cents more an hour
You were martyred
Bombed you in your old truck
Where your children could see
As if the plan to go back to Africa
Would work
And we are still here
Standing watching
And driving long long
Into the night
Mississippi midwives heard the call
No wonder they are so fierce
They did what they came to do
They showed up
https://www.pbs.org/video/american-reckoning-assg68/
https://worldchannel.org/episode/america-reframed-fannie-lou-hamers-america/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/02/20/mississippi-black-africa-mccallum/
