Desegregation

Reading by Eloise Greenfield

A young African American boy watches a mob of white people march to protest the admission of the “Little Rock Nine” to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Aug. 20, 1959. John T. Bledsoe, Library of Congress 2003654358

We walk the long path
lined with shouting
nightmare faces,
nightmare voices.
Inside the school,
there are eyes that glare
and eyes that are distant.
We wish for our friends.
We wish for our old,
laughing selves.

We hold our heads up,
hold our tears in.
The grown-ups have said
we must be brave,
that only the children
can save the country
now.

---

© 2003 Eloise Greenfield. Reprinted with permission of the Nancy Gallt Agency.