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
W E E K L Y
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SPECIAL MLK RECOGNITION
4.4.21
Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely
Dr. Dorothy Cotton
This particular Easter Sunday is bittersweet...as millions around the world celebrate the Resurrection, the date of April 4 also brings a historical blow since today is also the 53rd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. Therefore, in Dr. King's memory, I wanted to relaunch my "Weekly Word" poetry with a special piece below in his honor entitled, Dr. King...Colors of Remembrance. Please also note that the National Civil Rights Museum is holding a commemorative event today at 5 pm CT, speakers include Rev. James Lawson.
FLASH!
The King is dead.
The color is BLUE
Blues of the south.
Blues of sorrows
Of night skies after
Days in the fields
Daybreak to nightfall
Our people so weary
The blues play on,
Music of insurrection…our deliverance.
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FLASH!
Our King died
The color is RED
Red earth...
Red clay of Georgia, Alabama
His childhood earth, his earth heritage.
Red anger is our people’s color
We bleed the blood of generations
Of Medgars and Malcoms.
The color of Mississippi River water
Runs blood red—dark
Murky from death and devastation.
FLASH!
The King lives on
The color is YELLOW
How it handles the light
After all the darkness
That will not last forever.
King will endure
His luminescence will never extinguish
Not be Passed-Over
But is Resurrected
His music will play on
Our Movement Music…our redemption.
© 2021 Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely. All rights reserved.
D R. K I N G...C O L O R S O F R E M B E R A N C E
by Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely