By Stewart Acuff
Time to celebrate independence
Freedom from tyranny
The long struggle to free all Americans
And to extend America’s promise
To all her people, right?
Without regard to race, creed, color,
Gender, sexual orientation, language,
Place of birth, choice of love
No, not this 4th, not now
But the 4th is not just about Independence
Its when Vicksburg, Ms fell to Union forces
Opening up the Mississippi River to the
Union from Minnesota to New Orleans
The 4th of July, the very same day is when
Union forces drove Lee’s Army of the
Confederacy from the battlefield of blood
At Gettysburg. That great struggle to free
African-Americans turned the irreversible
Corner on the 4th of July, 1863 and the
Union began to win ushering in a longer
Struggle for freedom and justice and
Equal rights for all finally realized in
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
And now it no longer counts?
800,000 lives in the Civil War
Numberless lynchings–do you know what
A lynching is? It aint just a hanging
Its hours of sadistic torture with whippings
And castration and burnings and sadism
Of every sort.
And now this Supreme Court says that’s ok
The states have the right to deny what so
Many died for and suffered for
Is the Supreme Court of these United States
That ignorant or that redneck, peckerwood
Mean. I’ve seen ’em mean and they enjoy it
Like the peckerwood beat Ann Richards
For Governor–if rape is inevitable just lay
Back and enjoy it.
Tears will run down my cheeks this
4th of July for what our own Supreme Racist
Court has cost These United States
And the folks who meant to settle these
Questions once and for all on the 4th of July
At Vicksburg and Gettysburg
And at Selma and Birmingham and Albany
And Montgomery and Greensboro and
South Carolina State in Orangeburg
And in the sears and scars in the hearts
And souls of so many Americans
Who struggled to make America real.
Really, this 4th of July you five men
Decide none of that mattered, not the
Midnight screams and babies without
Daddies and six little girls in church in
Bombingham. None of it mattered.
Not the integrity of a nation?
Mr. 5 Supreme Court justices may you
Hear the screams at Gettysburg and see the
Hunger at Vicksburg, may you see
John Lewis and his clubbing and
Viloa Liuzza and her shooting on Hwy 80
Mr 5 Supreme Court justices may you
Hear the screams of Chaney, Goodman and
Schwerner as they were tortured to death
Outside Philadelphia, Miss. May you hear
The wails of the parents of 6 little girls in
Bombingham, Al.
May your soul and heart rest uneasy.
This is sin of the most awful sort.
But your action is in vain.
We aint goin back. Never.
Take your best shot. Kill us. Our souls
Rise up. Throw us in prison. Our hearts
Sing out. We aint goin back.
Throw everything you got at us.
We will take it and keep on comin.
We are already assembled on the
Battlefield of justice and we will keep
Comin on until we roll you over.