Ida Wells (‘B. Wells,’ some spells)
was dubb’d “race
agitator”
because she
wrote against the rope,
opposed that segregation trope
then spoke, "Can't cope...? Life's hopeless...? Nope!"
A one-trick pony, she…? No soap!
A Founding
Black Lives Mater.
Sojourner Truth, grown long o' tooth,
remain'd a
truth curator.
Her swell “Ain’t
I a Woman...?” spiel,
one pitch'd with underdoggéd zeal,
urged
activists to "keep it real,"
thus making Truth,
from head to heel,
a Founding
Black Lives Mater.
Harriet Tubman, born enslaved,
heard words from her Creator
(poor gal'd got hit upside the head):
“If thou ain't free, thou’d best be dead.”
Inspired, she slaves to freedom led.
That's why she’s since been styl'd (I've read)
a Founding Black
Lives Mater.
Daisy Bates, black hist'ry states,
when but a
second-grader,
was told her
mother had been kill’d,
her blood by
three white rapists spill’d.
But Daisy curbed
her hate...to build
a movement, and become a skill’d
(and Founding) Black
Lives Mater.
Rude remarks rate Rosa Parks
a tot. (Tho' not a tater.)
Still, Parks defied bus driver Blake
to take her seat for freedom’s sake.
She sit-ins, too, did undertake.
All this, and more, does Rosa make
a Founding Black Lives Mater.
Famous Hamer, Fannie Lou:
of Jim Crow she’s a hater.
Still, Fannie read and Fannie wrote.
While white folks tried to gag her throat,
she black folks register'd to vote,
did Fannie Lou, a name to note,
a Founding Black Lives Mater.
(More Matres to come: a work in progress.)
