This image is of Peggy (R), then a 19 year-old SNCC member, next to future civil rights icon, Dr. Dorothy Cotton (L), after a 1962 church burning in Georgia—the state that Peggy's great-great grandparents, William & Ellen Craft, famously escaped from slavery nearly 115 years earlier...
MY
WEEKLY
WORD
9.26.20
Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely
Dr. Dorothy Cotton
With Ruth Bader Ginsburg passing on September 18 (also the start of Rosh Hashanah) and the well-deserved accolades that followed being countered by the vitriol as well as dashing of protocol to fill her seat, prompted me to step back last week for a moment of reflection... And below is what I would finally like to convey...
SHE. HER. HERS.
by Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely
In lace collar
Ms. Ruth
Brooklyn wordsmith that she was
Told us in no uncertain terms
“a cage is not a pedestal “
She never knew fatigue,
was never sidetracked by defeat.
I dream that in heaven Ms. Fanny Lou Hamer conspires with Ms. Ruth
And, oh, the raucous that they raise!
Justice Ruth, an energy unparalleled
A clear and persistent vision, courage at every roadblock.
She, born in 1933, influenced by the Holocaust
Was bourne to gift us in this new world
With her diaspora destiny
Was larger than her diminutive size.
On her shoulders …others will continue to stand
Up for this lady of legal brilliance.
Understood by and for the masses: Notorious RBG!
Weight-lifter, direct-gazer, no nonsense-taker
Finding in stare decisis a tool,
But only as it fit her own justice bound intentions.
She, our usher, our guide, our scout
Without any doubt
Blazing the trail
Creating a legal template with her life.
“Zedek, zedek, tirdof”—Justice, justice...did SHE pursue!
© 2020 Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely. All rights reserved.