Let Freedom Ring
A POEM FOR CHORAL SPEAKING
BY JOAN NICHOLS
From Instructor Magazine about 1986-87
All:
Thousands strong; we came together . Martin Luther King , Jr., spoke
to us saying, "I have a dream."
All girls: We listened, remembering our dreams.
All boys: Bad Dreams.
All: Nightmares. Martin Luther King spoke,
Boy: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of the creed:
All boys: We hold these truths to be self-evident; all men
are created equal."
All: We listened, remembering.
Girl: I remember a hot summer day and a swimming pool.
Laughing children splashed in the cool water I pointed to the sign
by the gate and asked, " What does that say?"
All girls: WHITES ONLY
Girl: Learning those words was easy. The were all over
town-- in store windows
All girls: WHITES ONLY
Girls: In city parks
All girls: WHITES ONLY
All: Martin Luther Kin spoke,
Girl: "I have a dream that one day...sons of former slaveowners
will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."
All: We listened, remembering.
Boy: I remember going to the movies. Black people couldn't
enter the front door or sit downstairs like white people did. Black people
had a special side door that led to the back balcony -- the "colored" section.
Boy: On buses, the first rows were for white people.
If those seats were empty the rest of the bus was full, black people had
to stand. If the first rows were full and more white people got on
the bus, blacks had to get up so whites could sit.
All: Martin Luther King spoke, "I have a dream that my four
little children will one day live in a nation where they will not by judged
by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
All: We listened, remembering.
Girl: I remember my friend, Nancy. Together, we searched
for caterpillars, looked at picture books, dressed our dolls, giggled.
One day they told us, " you can't play together anymore. Black
children and white children can't be friends."
All: Martin Luther King spoke,
Boy: I have a dream that one day little black boys and little black
girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls
and walk together as brothers and sisters. I have a dream today."
All: Dr. King led the Montgomery bus boycott.
Girl: One day, Mrs. Rosa Parks boarded a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
She was tired. She sat down.
Boy: "Get up," the bus driver said. "Give this white man a
seat."
Girl: Mrs. Parks said,
All: "No."
Boy: When Mrs. Parks was arrested, Dr. King told the people
of Montgomery that if blacks couldn't ride the buses with freedom and dignity,
they shouldn't ride at all.
All: and so they walked. Men and women, boys and girls
through rain and cold, for months and months, for miles and miles, they
walked.
Girl: The boycott was a success. Now blacks and whites
ride the buses together , as equal.
All: Martin Luther King, Jr., led the Birmingham marches.
After the adults were put in jail, he called upon the children.
Girl: The children marched a thousand strong. Some were
only six years old. Police arrested them. School buses carried
them to jail. A policeman looked down at one small girl and asked, "What
do do you want?" She looked at him and said,
All girls: "Freedom."
Girl: Nothing could stop those children. On the way to
jail they chanted,
All: We want freedom! We want freedom! We want freedom!
Boy: The children marched. They prayed. The
wouldn't turn back. The police, the firemen stood waiting. Orders
were given: "Stop those children any way you can." But the police,
the fireman fell back. And the children marched through. Non
stopped them. No one hurt them. The children san,
All: "I got freedom." Martin Luther Kin spoke. And
we listened , for he was saying, what we needed to hear.
All boys: "Let freedom ring!
All girls: Form the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
All boys: Let freedom ring!
All girls: From the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
All boys: Let freedom ring!
All girls: From he snowcapped Rockies of colorado.
All boys: Let freedom ring!
All girls: Form the curvaceous slopes of California.
Boy: And when we allow freedom to ring. When we let it
ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and every city, we
will be able to speed up the day when all God's children ,
black men and white men, Jew and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will
be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual,
All: 'Free at last. Free at last! Thank God almighty,
We are free at last!'"
Dreams