Day 1096, Martin Luther King 

 

Today we’re celebrating MLK;

It’s Martin Luther King’s birthday today.

Nonviolence, equality for all:

Both should be honored more than just one day.

 

Nonviolence, equality for all:

A strange response from some who’ve heard the call,

They demonstrate in Richmond for gun rights,

To lay low those of us who dared stand tall?

 

They demonstrate in Richmond for gun rights,

With men like MLK fixed in their sights.

First Abraham, then John and Bobby fell

With strange fruit borne on trees on Southern nights. (1)

 

First, Abraham, then John and Martin fell,

Then Robert Kennedy was killed as well.  (2)

Nonviolence, equality for all:

Should such a call have opened gates of hell?

 

Nonviolence, equality for all:

Why have we not yet codified King’s call?

The White House has no plans to celebrate.

Instead Trump still campaigns to build a wall.

 

(1)  “Strange Fruit” was a poem written by Abel Meeropol in 1937.  He later set it to music which was first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939.  “Strange Fruit” refers to lynched negroes hanging from trees. The Congress has still not made lynching a federal crime.

(2)  “Abraham, Martin, and John” was written in 1968 by Dick Holler and recorded by Dion.  Its four verses chronicle the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and his brother, Robert.

Listen also to “Six White Horses,” written in 1969 by Larry Murray and recorded by Tommy Cash.