YOU CAN'T KILL A REVOLUTION; YOU CAN ONLY KILL A MAN!

"Shoot, you cowards! You can't kill a revolution. You're only going to kill a man!"
--Che Guevara, Bolivian revolutionary

The Daddy's new book, The Sixties? Yes, I Remember, was written in memory of Emmitt Till, the 14 year old black boy from Chicago, Illinois. While visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, Till allegedly whistled at a white woman in a grocery store. Later that evening, he was pulled out of his bed, beaten to death, and his body was thrown in the Tallahatchie River.

This act angered Americans, white and black, and galvanized the country. Many blacks who had refused to register to vote out of fear, now registered in droves. American had had enough.

IN MEMORY OF EMMITT TILL,
ANOTHER MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND
CUT DOWN MUCH TOO SOON

Black male, curious youth
Galvanizer of a movement to reclaim humanity
Sometimes, when I walk along the banks of the Mississippi
I hear your hands push above the water, makng waves still

I see your muscled black right arm
Jump out of water, soar above the fog
Clinch your right hands tightly and
Thrust it high into the sun
(But only for a second) then
Descend just as quickly back into the hole
From which you came, making waves still

Above the hole
I see the wind gather steam, spin in circles then
Skip across the water and circle the shore as if to say:

"I'll never let you forget."