Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge!

Down Home Black History Blues


Let’s take a journey back in Black history
I want to go back before slavery in this country
I choose to see The Truth with held from me
I heard we came before Columbus and we were free


Free from tuberculosis, syphilis, and other venereal diseases
In 1494 communicable diseases were sleeping on Europe’s door
Benjamin Banneker made the first clock
The original artist were Black and their drawings were on Rock


Oh ! Yes ! I got these down home black history blues


BEETHHOVEN, the world’s greatest musician; so they say
He was called The Black Spaniard in his day
Black people have innate reason to be proud
Our past, present, and future black history is singing loud


IMHOTEP, ancient Father of medicine lived about 2300 B.C.
It’s a mystery to me
They call Hippocrates, father of medicine, he lived 2,000 years later


Oh ! Yes ! I got these down home black history blues


Look ! what HANNIBAL did !!
There were three African Popes of Rome
Ethiopians gave to the world the first concepts of right & wrong


We need to gather the fragments; let none be lost
Black history is priceless; it will cost
Cost us our European transplants that dictate the decline
Of our self-respect


We can’t continue to neglect ourselves as a people
I don’t care, if you are brown, dark brown, medium black, high-yellow or half white
We must grab Black Truths that are in sight
Embrace them with our Being


Let them make love to us, while we love each other


Don’t let college of knowledge miseducate you right out of being black
Refuse to let class distinction among our race become our cup of tea


Oh !! yeah, I got these down home black history blues


I choose to let these blues brighten the darkness that was instilled,
against my will, by those who chose, to destroy my black people


I thank Allah, for these new views and these


DOWN HOME BLACK HISTORY BLACK BLUES

Written by Josephine Dixon Banks

Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge