Remind them. https://t.co/an9VboMTCv
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Ava DuVernay (@ava) July 08, 2018
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Wild Embers by Nikita Gill
Remind them. https://t.co/an9VboMTCv
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Ava DuVernay (@ava) July 08, 2018
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Wild Embers by Nikita Gill
In honor of Black History Month and Langston Hughes birthday ✊🏾
(This is the poem I read over the announcements)… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
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emanee 🤸🏾♀️ (@EmaneeWright) February 01, 2018
This is my form of patriotism: https://t.co/w1bRopSSPC
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Broderick Greer (@BroderickGreer) July 04, 2017
Before you celebrate the Fourth, I do think it is important to read Frederick Douglass' July 4th oration.… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…
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Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) July 04, 2017
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I try not to forget that we also live in a country where a black president delivered this speech across from Indepe… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…
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Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) July 04, 2017
The ghost of Frederick Douglass came down & said enjoying your ribs today isn't mutually exclusive from critiquing America. You can do both.
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Clint Smith (@ClintSmithIII) July 04, 2017
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Fourth of July, 2009. https://t.co/1zgK3hB1B7
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Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) July 04, 2017
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July 4 = obama and kids https://t.co/KXrh6nGwGV
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Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) July 04, 2017
July 4, 2011 🇺🇸 https://t.co/Lhwv1Z3MnS
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shauna (@goldengateblond) July 04, 2017
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President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama always had a picnic for military families every year on July 4th. https://t.co/nlH7D7Yd4F
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meta (@metaquest) July 04, 2017
Happy Independence Day! https://t.co/Swft0ooCzD
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The Obama Foundation (@ObamaFoundation) July 04, 2017
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She rose up and she stood up
And she said, “Listen here”
And she was our grandmothers
And mothers through the years
This was the lesson they all had tried
To teach us to take in our stride:
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To rise up and stand up
To rise up and stand up.
Treat us with dignity
We are your women and girls
Treat us as equals
We are your diamonds and pearls
Treat us with respect
We are your soulmates and loves
Treat us as partners
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When push comes to shove
Give us our due
As we return it to you
Rise up and stand up
Speak up and give a hand up ~
Enough is enough
Enough is enough, through and through
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Ieshia Evans on the Bayou
The ones who were afraid in Baton Rouge
Were the ones carrying the “red sticks”
Not the warrior queen who visited from the north
On behalf of her five-year old son
So she might invest in
His having a better life.
A better life
Than the sons of other mothers
She had gone there to mourn with
And stand proudly for.
She repelled the “red sticks”
Who were few in number
But seemed to grow into
A wall before her
As she stood her ground
Quietly in front of them.
She was a nurse who cared for others
Who said she was now “a vessel”
Doing God’s work.
The young queen arrived in regal garb
Regal in that it adorned her presence
Regal in that it could almost be said
To adorn ours.
She dressed for the moment
So that – standing in the hot sun
Of righteousness and pride –
She could feel as though
She were floating
In God’s air
In Baton Rouge.
The “red sticks” took her away
Took her away from her son
Took her away from her duties
Took her away from the cameras
And the tributes.
But the imprint she left
In the hearts and minds and souls
Of all of us
Remains
As though someone had gone out
And built a statue
Of a modern-day goddess
In every town in America.
The young queen
In the flowing garb
With diamonds in her closed eyes
With grief in her open heart
Sharing the secret:
How to be a woman
How to be a mother
How to be the vessel
How to show us the way
To Baton Rouge.
She stood silently on the gravel
She never spoke
But when we close our eyes
We can almost hear her say
“Ain’t I a woman?”
So that someday her son may say
“I am a man.”
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He served
He hugged the grandmother,
and mom and dad,
tears in his eyes
that he couldn’t let them see.
Looked over his shoulder
to remember their faces
set in time.
This time in his life
he would only understand
was extraordinary,
looking back.
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Honor and bravery
and, yes, to be a man
were why he signed up early,
why he went off
why he missed a bit of his youth
and journeyed to a far-off
war-time destination
he had never
heard much about
when he was younger.
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The in-between years
are not forgot
They enter in dreams
and memories he sometimes wished
he didn’t have.
He knows he’s not alone
in the recollections
yet only a small amount of comfort
has come from that,
has ever come from that.
It is what it is,
his mantra.
It is what it is.
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But now in the prime
of his older years
he wears a ballcap with the
name of his service on it
and the name of his war.
He remembers the conflict
and when he
remembers the grandmother
remembers mom and dad
he feels the honor
he thinks he brought them.
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The sting of yesterday’s tears
in his crinkly eyes come from
the love of country
the esprit de corps ~
the brothers and comrades
he left behind or
still meets for coffee
on a Wednesday morning
in his hometown.
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And when he and his brothers
talk over coffee
about the “free lunch” for veterans
they’re serving at the
VFW, in a few hours,
he turns to them
(those who, like he,
paid ahead such a high price
for that “free lunch” years ago)
and says,
“We should support that
for the new vets
who might really need it.”
He is what he is.
A veteran.
A man.
****
****
Bree of the House Newsome. First of Her Name. Climber of the Pole. Flagslayer. @BreeNewsome http://t.co/LFgDXWOBEK
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Ol' QWERTY Bastard (@TheDiLLon1) June 27, 2015
Yes. I hope I get the call to direct the motion picture about a black superhero I admire. Her name is @BreeNewsome. http://t.co/BgMeaNsbYk
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Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) June 27, 2015
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Beautiful Bree makes a good case for Black girl fitness-neva know when you have to climb a poll & tear some racists ish down #FreeBree
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MichaelaAngela Davis (@MichaelaAngelaD) June 27, 2015
Drop any charges against Bree, activist arrested for taking down the Confederate flag at South... fb.me/25E8pC6Le
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Harry Belafonte (@harrybelafonte) June 27, 2015
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Bail Fund for @BreeNewsome! Give what you can, if you can: indiegogo.com/projects/bail-…
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Ashley C. Ford (@iSmashFizzle) June 27, 2015
Non-POC ask often how they can be an ally. James Tyson, who stood at the base of the flag pole as @BreeNewsome climbed. THAT'S an ally.
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April (@ReignOfApril) June 27, 2015
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Most iconic pic of 2014, next to the most iconic pic of 2015 http://t.co/U9bKylFTDv
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L'Engineer (@GPL_) June 27, 2015
Keep in mind: a Black woman removed Confed flag frm SC Capitol on same day 2 Black women victims of #EmanuelAME shooting will b laid to rest
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DMo Birfday #June27 (@PercivalPenman) June 27, 2015
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Continue reading ‘Bree Newsome Is What Courage And Bravery Looks Like’
SHE HAS A NAME: A mother of three, pastor + high school track coach, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton was killed at AME. http://t.co/rvXe1y33Ry
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Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) June 18, 2015
SHE HAS A NAME: Susie Jackson, a longtime church member was killed at AME Church last night. http://t.co/oUL7n1DGBw
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Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) June 18, 2015
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For the dead, we say, “Amen”. And for the living.
There are too many dead, and the living are riven.
Every day, a new horror, a new loss of innocence,
And the night-dimmed tide swallows us.
There is no innocence; this is a fallen world,
And men of evil revel in destruction.
When is it enough? It’s never enough.
Violence has an army of reasons,
And peace seems to be an idea
Honored more in the breach than the observance.
This is not your heritage; it is evil.
This is not your freedom; it is slavery.
Do that which you would have done unto you;
Flee from that which is harmful to all.
The answer is there, to be teased out
Of life, hard life, the only life we have.
Remember the dead, for they speak from the earth,
Pleading, “Let us not be in vain.”
****
SHE HAS A NAME; Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, a mother of four daughters, singer in church choir was killed at AME. http://t.co/YoqNF1yiOD
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Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) June 18, 2015
HE HAS A NAME: Rev. Daniel Simmons, Sr., another pastor at the Emanuel AME church who was killed last night. http://t.co/n4sz9GBBxf
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Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) June 18, 2015
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HE HAS A NAME: Rev Clementa Pinckney, a State Senator + Pastor of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Killed last night http://t.co/hkDgCdlobc
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Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) June 18, 2015
SHE HAS A NAME: Ethel Lee Lance, worked at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston for 30 years. She was killed last night. http://t.co/7OHjsnhD8f
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Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) June 18, 2015
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SHE HAS A NAME: Myra Thompson, killed last night at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. She was teaching bible study. http://t.co/NlqoNfjPP2
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Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) June 19, 2015
HE HAS A NAME: Tywanza Sanders, a 2014 graduate of Allen University was killed last night at the Emanuel AME church. http://t.co/oQa1SQlbx8
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Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) June 18, 2015
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SHE HAS A NAME: Cynthia Hurd worked for Charleston County Public Library for 31 yrs. Killed last night at AME Church http://t.co/jgJY9acnRc
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Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) June 18, 2015
Lord have mercy
All nine victims of Charleston shooting identified
thegrio.com/2015/06/18/cha… http://t.co/gof7tf5Qts
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TheObamaCAT (@TheObamaCat) June 18, 2015
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