South Carolina at War

By: Jacqueline Woodson

Because we have a right, my grandfather tells us -/ we are sitting at his feet and the story tonight is

Why people are marching all over the south -

To walk and sit and dream wherever we want.

They first brought us here. /Then we worked for free. Then it was 1863, /And we were supposed to be free but we weren't.

And that's why people are so mad.

And it's true, we can't turn on the radio/ without hearing about the marching.

We can't go downtown Greenville without/ seeing teenagers walk into stores,sitting/ where brown people still aren't allowed to sit/ and getting carried out, their bodies limp,/ their faces calm.

This is the way brown people have to fight,/ my grandfather says./ You can't just put your fist up. You have to insist/ on something/ gently. Walk toward a thing/ slowly.

But be ready to die,/ my grandfather says,/ for what is right.

Be ready to die my grandfather says,/ for everything you believe in

And none of us can imagine death/ but we try to imagine it anyway.

Even my mother joins the fight./ When she thinks our grandmother/ isn't watching she sneaks out/ to meet the cousins downtown, but just as/ she's stepping through the door,/ her good dress and gloves on, my grandmother says,/ now don't go getting arrested.

And Mama would sound like a little girl when she says,/ I won't.

More than a hundred years my grandfather says,/ and we're still fighting for the free life/ we're supposed to be living.

So there's a war going on in South Carolina/ and even as we play/ and plant and preach and sleep, we are a part of it.

Because you're colored, my grandfather says./ And just as bright and beautiful and free/ as anybody./ And nobody colored in the South is stopping,/ my grandfather says,/ until everybody knows what's true.

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