UNMASKING HISTORY
Freedom of speech
Doesn't put a muzzle on history,
But lets it tell the whole story.
Masked history 
Has led to deception
By canceling the reception 
Of uncomfortable details 
And by claiming that racial cruelty
Was an exception
Rather than the norm.


FREEDOM RIDERS
Black & white heroes
Together boarded buses
To go to places
That said no 
To uniting the races.
They showed love
Even though
They were met with hate
And were resisted with violence.


LUNCH COUNTER SIT-INS
White only
Was too lonely,
Rejecting the rest
Of the human race,
So heroic blacks
And some of their supporters,
Sat down for lunch
And were quickly
Refused service, harassed,
Abused, insulted,
Burned with cigarettes 
And punched
By the other customers,
Yet they remained
Nonviolent & peaceful.


BLACK VOTER REGISTRATION
Poll tax, literacy requirements,
Jim Crow laws, & violence, 
Kept almost all blacks
Off the voter rolls
In the South
Until the 1960s
When men and women
Courageously went county to county,
Risking their lives by
Registering blacks to vote.
They were abused and beaten.
Some were murdered by hate groups.
More than a thousand of them
Were arrested by law enforcement 
For simply trying to register people to vote.


ANTI-LYNCHING MOVEMENT
Between the 1880s and the 1960s,
More than 4,200 Americans
Were lynched.
Some courageous blacks
And a few of their supporters
Spoke out against it,
Yet the horror & evil of lynching
Never sparked a national outrage.
From the 1930's 
Congress tried more than 200 times
To pass an anti-lynching law
But refused every time.
Finally in 2,000 
They made lynching
A federal crime.


CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Millions of Americans
Were denied their
Constitutional rights
By illegal laws
And hate groups.
Many said enough
And began to march.
Community hate
Couldn't stop them.
Even law enforcement 
With billy clubs, 
Dogs and fire hoses,
Were no match 
For those nonviolent heroes.


For more unmaksed history, check out: Off the RACE Track--From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.