1923 New Year's Day
A bloody, bruised
white woman
stumbled from her home
in Sumner, Florida
claiming assault by a
negro man
1945 Auschwitz
Under an ashen sky
white men gathered
bloodhounds, guns, whiskey
and went after him
1955 Mayflower, Texas
Rosa Parks arrested
for refusing to give up
her bus seat to a white man
By the time it ended
seven people died
unknown dozens of blacks
driven from their homes
into neighboring swamps
1968 Montgomery, Alabama
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
assassinated
A once thriving
black community
called Rosewood
burned to the ground
1995 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
White supremacist Timothy McVeigh
bombs federal building
Satisfied
as if they'd simply
eaten a hearty meal
the upstanding citizens
of Sumner, Florida
staggered home
for a good night's sleep
1998 Laramie, Wyoming
Matthew Shepard beaten to death
for being homosexual
In the smoldering rubble
that used to be
Rosewood
the incessant ping of rain
echoed off tin roofs
2010 Brotherhood of Klans'
response to immigration:
“The racial war is among us.
It is time to fight.”
Who's next?
photo & text by leh
