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
W O R D
SPECIAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON RECOGNITION
8.28.2021
Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely
Dr. Dorothy Cotton
On this day, August 28, 1963, at just 20 years old, I had the honor of being at the historic March on Washington (more here). This was a seminal moment for me, not just because of my participation there or my work with SNCC and other activist work, but also representing my family's civil rights legacy line that includes: my great-great grandparents, Ellen and William Craft who escaped enslavement to freedom in 1848, and became abolitionists; my great-great grandfather, James Monroe Trotter who fought in the Civil War; my great uncle and civil rights stalwart, William Monroe Trotter, who stood against racism everywhere, even from a U.S. president; and my mother, Ellen Craft Dammond, who was part of the "Wednesdays in Mississippi" movement. I also had the honor of personally knowing and serving with civil rights legends, such as Bob Moses... In all their honors, and others who have fought the good fight and got in "good trouble", I dedicate my new poem below, "VOTE" that is also an homage to the March on Washington laying the groundwork for the 1965 Selma marches, that led to the 1965 Voting Rights Act literally just two years later... Grassroots work, don't let anyone tell you otherwise...indeed, it is why voter suppression is rearing its ugly head--again...
"VOTE"
​​by Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely
There it is
That ancient call to reach forth
To stretch against the tide
To ride the wings of promises
Made In darkness
In the chains that bound us
In the holds of ships
In the cabins of bondage
In the arms of captors
That we would arise
Find ground on which to forever stand
Be the people who
Face harsh winds
Spurn the fears
Ride the rails
Run through forests
Beat the drums
Call the ancestors
Carry one another
Dodge the bullets
Outlast the hatred
Outrun the dogs
Resist the hoses
Endure the jails
Organize the people
With heads high
With hearts intent
To voice a thought
To select a leader
To choose a destiny
To right a wrong
To make our mark
To check the box
To lift a hand
To pull the lever
To mail the ballot
To brave the cold
To sweat the heat
To stand in line
To talk the talk
To walk the walk
To take a stand
To find the rainbow
To set the compass
…and just carry on.
© 2021 Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely. All rights reserved.