my backyard

Books by Terry O'Neal

Motion Sickness, The Poet Speaks In Black, Ev'ry Little Soul, Good Mornin' Glory, and novel Sweet Lavender

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The Poet Speaks In Black

By Terry O'Neal

my backyard

in my backyard

green grass grows

and flowers bloom in the spring

and little black girls sing

freedom ring…freedom ring…

in my backyard

tip toe to full blown

the minds eye wanders

to places unknown

and little black girls sing

freedom ring…freedom ring…

in my backyard

fluffy dandelions blow

linger in the air…

then fall like snow

and little black girls sing

freedom ring…freedom ring…

in my backyard

weeds sprout year ’round

golden strands sway like hips

to a moroccan drum sound

and little black girls sing

freedom ring…freedom ring…

in my backyard

long thorns shoot

from berry bushes closing in

with poison at the root

and little black girls sing

freedom ring…freedom ring…

in my backyard

stretching tall i stand

in search of the promise land

i peek through cracks/stare through holes

beyond the fence where nobody knows i exist

and little black girls sing

freedom ring…freedom ring…

in my backyard

peaks the sun

after five nights of pouring rain

the day anew begun

and little black girls sing…

from The Poet Speaks In Black

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Terry O'Neal -- Author of Motion Sickness, The Poet Speaks In Black, Ev'ry Little Soul, Good Mornin' Glory, and novel Sweet Lavender.

Motion Publishing P.O. Box 2551 Elk Grove, CA 95624

Phone: 866-552-2211 email: mpublishing@emai.com www.terryoneal.com terryo@poetic.com

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Go, Tell Michelle
African American Women Write to the New First Lady

Edited Barbara A. Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram

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Weep Not, Child

By Ngugi wa Thiong'o

This is a powerful, moving story that details the effects of the infamous Mau Mau war, the African nationalist revolt against colonial oppression in Kenya, on the lives of ordinary men and women, and on one family in particular. Two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau, stand on a rubbish heap and look into their futures. Njoroge is excited; his family has decided that he will attend school, while Kamau will train to be a carpenter. Together they will serve their country—the teacher and the craftsman. But this is Kenya and the times are against them. In the forests, the Mau Mau is waging war against the white government, and the two brothers and their family need to decide where their loyalties lie. For the practical Kamau the choice is simple, but for Njoroge the scholar, the dream of progress through learning is a hard one to give up.—Penguin

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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America

By Melissa V. Harris-Perry

According to the author, this society has historically exerted considerable pressure on black females to fit into one of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.

Professor Perry points out how the propagation of these harmful myths have served the mainstream culture well. For instance, the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for black females to feel a maternal instinct towards Caucasian babies.

As for the source of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their own bodies during slavery given that they were being auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless, it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate indiscriminately.

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Ratification

The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788

By Pauline Maier

A notable historian of the early republic, Maier devoted a decade to studying the immense documentation of the ratification of the Constitution. Scholars might approach her book’s footnotes first, but history fans who delve into her narrative will meet delegates to the state conventions whom most history books, absorbed with the Founders, have relegated to obscurity. Yet, prominent in their local counties and towns, they influenced a convention’s decision to accept or reject the Constitution. Their biographies and democratic credentials emerge in Maier’s accounts of their elections to a convention, the political attitudes they carried to the conclave, and their declamations from the floor. The latter expressed opponents’ objections to provisions of the Constitution, some of which seem anachronistic (election regulation raised hackles) and some of which are thoroughly contemporary (the power to tax individuals directly). Ripostes from proponents, the Federalists, animate the great detail Maier provides, as does her recounting how one state convention’s verdict affected another’s. Displaying the grudging grassroots blessing the Constitution originally received, Maier eruditely yet accessibly revives a neglected but critical passage in American history.—Booklist

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The White Masters of the World

From The World and Africa, 1965

By W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois’ Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization (Fletcher)

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Ancient African Nations

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Negro Digest / Black World

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Enjoy!

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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan / The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll / Only a Pawn in Their Game

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for Slavery

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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg

The Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804 / January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of Haiti

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BLACK CLASSIC BOOKS

BCP Digital Printing

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update 10 July 2011