Tag Archives: Martin Luther King

Against Race Oppression, Turn to Love

By Robin Bates | Published: January 19, 2015

While some of Lucille Clifton’s race poems have an edge, in the end she always comes back to love.

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Keeping the Civil Rights Dream Alive

By Robin Bates | Published: August 28, 2013

Great Civil Rights moments are great. Movements are better.

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MLK: A Diamond Molded by Pressure

By Robin Bates | Published: January 16, 2012

Nikki Giovanni’s “In the Spirit of Martin” talks about Martin Luther King and others in the Civil Rights Movement as having been molded by the immense pressure into crystalline diamonds.

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Remembering the Freedom Riders

By Robin Bates | Published: May 23, 2011

King’s speech, not surprisingly, was the most memorable part of the weekend. At the time, he was upset at the violent race riots underway in Newark and Detroit. I remember him thundering, “Therefore I tell you, not ‘burn, baby, burn’ but ‘build, baby, build!’” and I carried those words with me into college.

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Poetry Standing Firm in the Face of Fire

By Robin Bates | Published: June 30, 2009

“But maybe stories and poetry can help open our minds to possibilities that are very real but extremely hard to see; and in that sense, they can be very practical.” – Rachel Kranz in a response to yesterday’s post I love the two responses to yesterday’s post (from the two major women in my life) […]

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