Ladies, we hope you’re enjoying this special weekend celebrating both Father’s Day and Juneteenth. I hope you’re with the men in your life and the people who make Juneteenth an everyday reality for you.
We are here today because of our fathers, and it’s our Sista’ friends and others who make us celebrate and thank the Lord for our freedom everyday.
Take time this weekend to think what Dr. Martin Luther King’s cry “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” means to you and your life.
Here are two more poems celebrating Juneteenth. first: Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.”
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Click here to hear Maya recite the entire poem.
And, next is Langston Hughes’
“I, too, Sing America”
by LANGSTON HUGHES
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.