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Hello. Come on in. The daddy writes about current events, literature, music and, once in a while, drops something on you from back in the day to make you pause and ponder, stop and stare, and begin to wonder. Who knows? You may start to pace the floor, shake your head from side to side, then fall down on bended knees in a praying position and cry, "Lawd, have mercy! What is this world coming to?" Check yourself! But this blog is NOT about the daddy. It's about you: your boos, your fam, your hood, your country...our hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow. So let's make a pact: the daddy will put it on the track if you'll chase it down and hit him back. Together, we can definitely take it to another level. Shall we?"

Monday, September 1, 2008

Fannie Lou Hamer by June Jordan

"Whether you have a Ph.D., or no D, we're in this bag together. And whether you're from Morehouse or Nohouse, we're still in this bag together. Not to fight to try to liberate ourselves from the men -- this is another trick to get us fighting among ourselves -- but to work together with the black man, then we will have a better chance to just act as human beings, and to be treated as human beings in our sick society. "
--Fannie Lou Hamer

Poem for Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer
by June Jordan*

You used to say, “June?
Honey when you come down here you
supposed to stay with me. Where
else?”
Meaning home
against the beer the shotguns and the
point of view of whitemen don’
never see Black anybodies without
some violent itch start up.
The ones who
said, “No Nigga’s Votin in This Town . . .
lessen it be feet first to the booth”
Then jailed you
beat you brutal
bloody/battered/beat
you blue beyond the feeling
of the terrible

And failed to stop you.
Only God could but He
wouldn’t stop
you
fortress from self-
pity

Humble as a woman anywhere
I remember finding you inside the laundromat
in Ruleville
lion spine relaxed/hell
what’s the point to courage
when you washin clothes?

But that took courage

just to sit there/target
to the killers lookin
for your singin face
perspirey through the rinse
and spin

and later
you stood mighty in the door on James Street
loud callin:

“BULLETS OR NO BULLETS!
THE FOOD IS COOKED
AN’ GETTIN COLD!”

We ate
A family tremulous but fortified
by turnips/okra/handpicked
like the lilies

filled to the very living
full
one solid gospel
(sanctified)

one gospel
(peace)

one full Black lily
luminescent
in a homemade field
of love
------------------------------------------------
*from The Collected Works of June Jordan (2005)

Autobiography

To Praise My Bridges: An Autobiography. Jackson, Mississippi, 1967.


Books about Fannie Lou Hamer

1. The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (Women in American History) by Chana Lee.
2. This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer, by Kay Mills.
3. Fannie Lou Hamer: From Sharecropping to Politics (History of Civil Rights Series) by David Rubel.

Play

1. "I Question America" by E.P. McKnight
2. The Long Road to Freedom (Scholastic.com).





6 comments:

All-Mi-T [Thought Crime] Rawdawgbuffalo said...

june is the truth

Mac Daddy Tribute Blog said...

torrance: Yes, she's the real deal. She was a great poet and a strong advocate for social justice. Also, it was June Jordan who made me appreciate just how great a poet Walt Whitman. She wrote a brilliant essay about him, hailing him as a people's poet and the father of American poetry.

I'll be a doing a post on her soon. Blessings.

Anonymous said...

I liked your sidebars, MacDaddy,on this Tuesday after Labor day...Did you know that there were fewer arrests in the entire time of the Democratic convention than on the first day of the RNC!? Says something about the disgrntlement of the people with the Republican leadership of the past 8 years....People need to be HEARD...Too bad they have to resort to violent acts before they can get a hearing...
Once again the 'Good Man' scored high in my estimation in not allowing the press to pry where they are not welcome.....
Thanks for the updates....

Somebodies Friend said...

Yes, June is the truth.

I have been jailed and Beaten, battered beyond recognition, and all I was doin' was doin' what I have a right to do.

No white man should be able to determine what us black folk have rights to.

And I would do it all over again, if the need arised, I would be there, to stand up for the brotha's and sista's who can't stick up for themselves, to be there for them.

Mac Daddy Tribute Blog said...

nun: About the sidebar, I try to use it to address current events and posts to deal with less current things, such as the story on Fannie Lou Hamer. Thanks
somebodiesfriend: Thanks for sharing your story...You sound like the real thing yourself.

rainywalker said...

Fine series on Fannie Lou Hamer. Nothing fake in her life.

Received my Maxwell Street MultiPac and am playing it several times. I do not hear well. Love Daddy Stovepipe and his wife Sarah.