The Struggle Yuuki R.

Little Rock, Ark., Sept. 4The state militia barred nine Negro students from the white high school here today. Fully armed, the troops kept the Negroes from the school grounds while an angry crowd of 400 white men and women jeered, booed and shouted, "go home, niggers." Several hundred militiamen, with guns slung over their shoulders, carrying gas masks and billy clubs, surrounded the school. The nine Negro students said that they would again attempt to enter the all-white Central High School tomorrow morning. -New York Times, 1957 * Great Leaders meet Self respect they wonder what they are entitled to They pursue eternally, what others once achieved, many seasons ago. In two warring states, One spirit is crushed. Do they know what awaits? Principle is a little word. Yet its import and meaning in this life will always be too deep to tell Do they submit to the unlawful dictate? This day and hour Is the time to commit * In a school far away, The agitated, the aroused assemble by a concerted plan. The great know what awaits yet they disregard them to its fate. The order in the city dissipates. Where is the order the wicked use to instigate?

What happens next is fate The day they went, came hundreds of deranged afraid of the change 10 50 100 Only nine and a sea of animosity leading the combine Shining the way Fighting for a free world they brave the birds of prey Authors Statement The poem above borrows text from famous Civil Rights speeches. The Cento shows the struggle for equality in the U.S. public school system that African-American students endured. I made the second stanza focus on the Little Rock Nines struggles to attend a White-only high school in Arkansas. I took many words and statements from Governor Faubus speech against integration. My poem uses those words to make a pro-integration poem, showing that much like the words in Faubus speech, people have changed their views on segregation over time.