Homegrown American hatred

Watered with the salty sea of the Atlantic,

fueled by blood of pillaged civilizations

A seed planted by white hands under the false claims of God

nurtured by the same white hands trading human beings 

like cattle or cloth 

Sprouting into tall oaks and spruces

with strong, long branches, meant for tire swings and hammocks

Another rope is tied along this bark

and swings heavily in the wind,

instead of shading the tired and feeding the poor

Powerful hands claw at the limbs of these trees,

in black suits and ties,

carving billy clubs and metal bars

Wood chips dance through the air,

scattering seeds of homegrown American hatred

Micah

I learned a lot of things in class, like the Movement’s reliance on the press to inspire national action, or how white resentment led to the “War on Crime” that put mass incarceration over societal reform. I was most shocked, however, to see how black people used Christianity—originally intended to oppress them during slavery—to liberate them in the Civil Rights Movement. While African-Americans may vary in class and gender, a big uniting force (aside from race, obviously) was religion.

Martin Luther King, Jr. himself preached at churches. Every morning, children would stop by and listen before going to school. They would eventually join the movement because of the inspiration his words ignited in them. Without Christianity, there wouldn’t have been a space for activists to inspire a larger audience to join the fight for justice, and, hence, exclude children from the movement. The loss of that demographic would’ve made the Civil Rights Movement significantly less effective because they made up its majority.

Churches also served as a “home base” for protestors when it came to their safety. On “Bloody Sunday,” for example, when marchers were running away from stampeding police, those whose homes were too far from Edmund Pettus Bridge would flee to the nearest church. In the Sit-in movement, where protestors would sit in segregated spaces, they were trained in churches with Dr. King’s principles of nonviolence. Protestors learned to resist engaging with aggressive segregationists, ensuring everyone mutually understood the importance of not stooping to their level for safety’s sake. Churches weren't just the houses of God, but places to fuel the Movement altogether.

Many may resent Christianity because of how it contributed to the African-American struggle. During the early days of the slave trade, enslaved people’s only way of learning English was a heavily censored “Bible” that promoted obedience to the slave master. Those with a more extreme resentment online argue that black people should not be practicing Christianity at all because it’s the “White Man’s” faith (despite its Semitic origins), so being a part of it makes you complicit in racial injustice. 

That argument completely ignores how empowering it was for black people to turn Christianity around and let it be the thing that “freed” them from civil struggle. Not to mention how elements like gospel and the hymns sung during the Movement are largely prevalent in black American culture. I myself am not Christian, but even I can see that you cannot oppose the black struggle without admitting that Christianity was a big factor in why we’re integrated today.

Lily

Water is scary

Like the ocean at night.

Do I need

To be lead

By a guiding light

Through the murk

That drowned the forefathers?

With the fear

Of a man

Pulling me under for wading?

I see this

Uncertainty in water.

A vast unknown

That can pull me

Under. And, yet,

Water is hope. 

It is the

Force of life

Breathing its holy vapor

Into our lungs

It flows through

The aqueducts of change

As a mighty stream.

Yet it is

Hindered.

Blocked by

A dam. 

As I wade

Into the unknown,

The water begins 

To raise over

My knees

Seconds later I

Begin to float

As the water overflows.

I hit the dam

Again and again

By the current

That knows the

Water needs to

Flow in the

Direction of change

Phinneas