February 26, 1965:
When Jesus caught up with Grace
She was sitting on the steps of the
shack-house — Broomstick resting on her lap
A bleeding cross around her neck
Her blood shot eyes were traveling up
Heaven met her half-way
She whispers — Jesus
Did you know Jimmie Lee Jackson?
Your deacon at the St. James Baptist Church
Cager’s grandson, Viola’s boy
Was shot down right there in
Mack’s Cafe
Old Fowler stole the boy’s life
I’m marching in honor of
Jimmie Lee Jackson
Need to hug him healed in my head
When Jesus met Grace
She was leaning on the broom
Cross hanging from her neck — dripping blood
She’s walking to Selma on to Montgomery
For Jimmie Lee Jackson
Like Jesus walked on water
Dr. Ramona L. Hyman is a writer, speaker, and professor “whose words are powerful memories for us to walk in the 21st century,” says Sonia Sanchez. Presently, Hyman serves as Chair and Professor of the Department of English and Foreign Languages at Oakwood University. Dr. Hyman is a graduate of Temple University (BA), Andrews University (MA), and earned her PhD from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She is the author of I Am Black America. Of her literary work, African American critic Dr. Joyce Joyce says, “Hyman challenges audiences to explore a poetic imagination grounded in a feel for the southern landscape, African-American literary and political history, Black spirituality, and a creative fusion of Black folk speech with a Euro-American poetic vernacular. Dr. Ramona L. Hyman emerges as a strong Black intellectual poetic voice.”
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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://spectrummagazine.org/node/10656