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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 Georgiathe 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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 V O T E   V O T E    V O T E   V O T E    V O T E   V O T E    V O T E

9.14.2021

Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely

Dr. Dorothy Cotton

If you're in California it is imperative that you VOTE TODAY!   All votes count, as we've seen with the last election cycle.  I and many others, put our lives on the line to fight for your right to vote, others lost their lives. Please don't take your vote for granted and squander an opportunity to have your voice heard.  I'm proud to say that my granddaughter, Kayelynn voted, while her brother, my grandson, Izaiah, 18, voted for the first time for this recall election!  It's surreal that I was his age when I was with SNCC ramping up my fight for voting rights...then at 19, I was down in the segregated Deep South trying tor register citizens to vote, who'd been too long denied... And now we see it all rearing its ugly head again...the only way to combat it again, is to vote... So, VOTE!  As extra motivation in honor of today's vote is my "Vote" poem that I wrote in recognition of the March on Washington... VOTE!

"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.

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