AntPearson  

"With inspiration slain and they people drained
Times as they knew them would change".

These lines summed up my point of view on how times changed after the loss of both Malcolm and Martin. It became open season on any progressive movement within the Black community for J. Edgar Hoover and his Federal Bureau of Investigations. They were bent on dismantling any organization who decided to carry on the legacies left by these two great leaders. The people were aware and active during these times and that posed a threat to the government to the point they deemed the BPP, “the greatest threat to the internal security of the nation” These movements were suppressed through a government solution of death, division, and counter-intelligence. More and more political prisoners were being taken off the streets and served with sentences based on trumped up charges and outright fallacies.

If they weren’t serving sentences they were serving up service. The draft into Vietnam is a major turning point of our history. Lyndon Johnson was practically forced into Vietnam after JFK was assassinated. And there is where you see why John and Bobby Kennedy are mentioned within the piece. This war bought back many amputees and addicts. To this day, I  run into Vietnam Vets Downtown Newark who will express themselves to you about how they’ve been treated since returning from the war all for a dollar. I have studied enough history to form the opinion that Richard Nixon exploited that war, bought the drugs from Vietnam over to the U.S. (if Frank Lucas was importing keys, imagine how much the Fed was packing in those coffins), all to later form the DEA. The DEA’s first action was to further criminalize weed and other drugs the “hippies” were into at the time and push their product on the people, and of course their product was and still is highly accessible.  

This piece is about carrying on the legacies left before us while recognizing how the past has impacted today. This piece was written to shed light on 2 great leaders whose mere presence changed the course of history. The title was chosen after creation. The working title was Echoes of a Dream. I will admit that I chose Lorraine Audubon as the title for the sake of mystique. The title is linked to the Lorraine Motel and the Audubon Theater. Anyone who knows the basics of Black History understands the significance of these two locations. I figured that if you catch it immediately you would be interested in reading the piece, which remains ultimately a work in progress. Thank You for reading. Be well. OneLove OneNation!  

Anthony Pearson

Lorraine Audubon Phase I

Echoes of a dream left unfulfilled
When sounds of this magnitude ring no one is healed
This is what it sounds like when time stands still
This is what it looks like when hate turns real
John, Malcolm, Martin, and Bobby in 5 years
where did we go from here?

With inspiration slain and the people drained
times as they knew it would change
Ms. Lorraine Audubon
has affected our hearts with global pain
Our spirit is in question
Amid the depression
future revolutionaries are arrested
The unity of the community is tested
Add government drug sales that flooded the streets
Subtract multiple brothers who flooded cells in fleets
The revolution was being quelled
No means necessary would be dispelled
The movement suppressed through solutions
of death, division, and Counter Intel
That grandstanding Hoover plan
to disarm hands which rebel
Resistance led to sentences
indented into our consciousness
Deception with the perception of truth
staining the glass ceiling of a nation
embroiled in looting and raw feelings
Picture the watts when the lights went off
then the lights went off over in Newark
Now the city is charred
and filled with the national guard
armed with a curfew to create control
of an uncontrollable force
forcing the nation into regression of its thoughts
While the draftees return from the big V
to spend their days chemically imbalanced
under V A bed sheets
The balance of power greatly shifted
toward the Watergate Right’s hook
At the podium stands a crook
After Johnson’s failed Great Society attempt
the country was the hostage Nixon took
Passed bills from the latter years made it appear
as if progress was imminent through the shadows of fear
Who was to know what was near?

To be continued…