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Nine Little Rocks
Young black shoulders carried the weight of history
that 23rd day of September, 1957. A weight placed there
by theNAACP. They were the nine, the chosen and
the weight borne upon those slim shoulders no less
a weight than that borne upon the scared shoulders of
their unnamed ancestors; bound to those ancestors by
their skin and by the stigma, the wrath and the fear
of those too afraid to reach out, too afraid to know
too afraid to accept that all men are created equal.
Ernest, Carlotta, Jefferson, Elizabeth, Terrance, Minnijean,
Gloria, Thelma and Melba were the names.
They were the few, the chosen, the nine. And in those
hot autumn days they were not unlike the young men
chosen a decade later to fight in the jungles
and steaming tunnels on the other side of the world --
a world far removed from their homes. As the nine were far removed
from theirs, from their past, from their comfort as the soldiers
escorted them up the steps of Central High that first day
and from class to class in the days that followed bearing their books
and their burden as did those young soldiers in ‘nam; soldiers
who shouldered their own responsibility and who upon their return,
like the nine received no hero’s welcome, no homecoming, no parade,
no praise, but instead were met with protests, anger and revulsion.
They were spit upon, profaned and abused -- as were the nine.
As were the nine.
Kenny A. Chaffin - 5/8/2010
(Revised 5/31/2010)
Please give your input, critique, comments on this one so I can finalize it....this is very much a first draft.
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