Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement

Poems by Julian Bond

LOOK AT THAT GIRL

Look at that girl shake that thing,
We can't all be Martin Luther King.

[This was written sometime in the very early '60s — or perhaps even '58 or '59, — when I was a Morehouse College student. From time to time, usually through the auspices of some religiously oriented campus group, we'd be invited to meet with our white counterparts at Emory or Agnes Scott. We'd wear our Sunday best and sip tea and eat cookies. Typically a well-meaning white student would say as we were parting — 'If only they were all like you.' That prompted the poem." — JBond.]

I TOO, HEAR AMERICA SINGING
[As published in the first issue of The Student Voice — SNCC's newsletter, summer, 1960.]

I too, hear America singing
     But from where I stand
I can only hear Little Richard
     And Fats Domino.
But sometimes
I hear Ray Charles
     Drowning in his own tears
     or Bird
Relaxing at Camarillo
     Or Horace Silver doodling,
Then I don't mind standing
     a little longer.

Poem about Connie Curry, 1990 (PDF)
[ Constance (Connie) Curry was a SNCC stalwart from its founding until her passing in 2020.]