Stand Up

I am starting this blog with a poem I wrote for black history month in 1978 while stationed at Ft Polk, Louisiana. I have recited it at gatherings many times since then, and continue to affirm the validity of its message.

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Stand up and be counted in place

As among those who are pleased with your race

Do not flinch from your identity

Or be doubtful of your integrity

Yes it is true our past is wrapped in mystery

And that we have had a painful history

But now that we have been redeemed

We must enhance our self-esteem

The whips and chains I need not mention

Since we are now in a new dimension

Now free as birds we sing at last

Our abject status is of the past

This is not to say that all is solved

And that we can afford to be uninvolved

Only that a new day has dawn

And that we should awake and grab the morn

The thing to see bright like a star

That the the toil of our ancestors has brought us this far

And I surely can assure you thus

In this country and world there’s a place for us