To the Legends of Our Past
To our ancestors,
Our spiritual intercessors
To the legends of our past
Thank you
For allowing us to walk
a clearer path.
As we walk these hallowed halls of time,
Memories of you come to mind.
To the pioneers that blazed freedom’s trail,
That through faith, prevailed;
To those such as Abraham Lincoln,
That wrote proclamations,
declarations, and civil rights bills
Trying to cure society’s ills;
To those who fought to right the world’s wrongs,
To give us a place to belong,
To those who fought to eradicate
Injustice, bigotry and hate.
You sacrificed.
You paid the price.
To those who carried the burden of race,
Died for being in the wrong place.
To Martin and John,
Malcolm and Medgar;
To Rosa Parks,
Who was the spark
That ignited the flame to the
our nation's emancipation
From the bonds of discrimination;
To Jane Pittman, Harriet Tubman,
W.E.B. Dubois and
George Washington Carver;
To the firsts at schools such as Yale,
West Point and Harvard;
To those who paid their dues,
Sang and played jazz, gospel and blues;
From Billie Holiday
To Cab Calloway,
Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong,
Pearl Bailey, Tommie Dorsey;
To Bo Jingles, the Nicholas Brothers,
Sammie Davis, Jr. and all those who tapped
And came in through the back
To perform their act.
To the pioneers of movies, television and radio,
Hattie McDaniel, Eartha Kitt, Josephine Baker
Sidney Portier, Diahann Carroll, and Bill Cosby
To Lena Horn
Who took America by storm,
Paving the way
For the Oprah Winfrey’s
Halle Berry’s and Kerry Washington’s of today.
To those men who pioneered fields of biology,
Geology and astronomy.
To the legends of music, literature and poetry,
Without you there would be no record of our
history.
To the legends that led this country in sports
Such as football, basketball, boxing, track
And on the courts,
Athletes like, Arthur Ashe,
Jesse Owens,
Jackie Robinson, and the Jack Jacksons
Of our past, who showed everyone how to
Play with class;
To those for whom justice was blind,
To those who fought on the front lines
And stepped on mines;
Commanded the seas and commandeered
The skies; to brave black men like
The Tuskegee Airmen, who soared the clouds
And made us proud;
You sacrificed,
You paid the price.
We can never thank you enough.
No, we can never thank you enough.
To all those who died with unfilled dreams
And wishes, wanting to do more than clean
Toilets and wash dishes,
To my brothers and sisters of African soil
Who died on slave ships and were
Thrown away with the spoils;
To those who survived to be captured and
Chained, sold and renamed
For America’s gain;
To those who awakened at the rooster’s crow
Working to pay a debt they never owed;
To all the slaves
Buried in unmarked graves;
To those who died hanging from a tree,
Never knowing what it meant to be free;
From the greatest of these to the unsung heroes
That this world will never know.
To the legends of our past,
Because of you the path has been clearer
The vision, nearer
Than ever before,
You led us to the door.
Now your dreams are ours to conceive.
Because of you, we can believe.
You endured the pain
You suffered the blame.
We can never thank you enough.
No, we can never thank you enough.
So, we celebrate your creativity.
We thank you for our history.
To the legends of our past,
Thank you for creating a clear path.
To the pioneers that blazed freedom’s trail,
That, through faith, prevailed,
You sacrificed.
You paid the price.
To our ancestors,
Our spiritual intercessors,
To the legends of our past.
Thank you for allowing us to walk
A clearer path.
This poem was written and inspired by Oprah Winfrey's celebration of our
Legends.
To the legends of our past, thank you for being the wind beneath our wings.