Volume 10 9
tive sets up the entire poem. The reader is intro-
duced to a litany of images. The order of these im-
ages is important in that it serves as a historical
chronicle, filling in the gaps left by traditional his-
tories. Madgett recalls all the places blacks have
inhabited throughout their history in America:
“Cotton fields, kitchens, balconies” chronicles the
days of slavery; the Reconstruction Era and the
early twentieth century is represented “in bread
lines, at back doors, in chain gangs”; then, her con-
temporary era is reflected “In stinking ‘colored’ toi-
lets / And crowded ghettos / Outside of schools and
voting booths.” In each of these sets of images,
Madgett highlights the exclusion of African-Amer-
icans. Literally speaking, they are excluded from
the household, from school, from good jobs; figu-
ratively, they are excluded from opportunity, and
as Madgett points out later in the poem, from the
American Dream.
If Madgett is acting as a chronicler of African-
American history, she is also borrowing from the
tradition of the “griot.” Griots were storytellers in
preindustrial African societies. Literary critic Eu-
gene Redmond, author of Drumvoices: The Mis-
sion of Afro-American Poetry,explained that the
“black poet, as creator and chronicler, evolves from
these artisans—human oral recorders of family and
national lore. Trained to recite without flaw the ge-
nealogy, eulogies, victories, and calamities of folk,
griots (like the lead singers of spirituals) had to
spice their narration with drama and excitement.”
Madgett certainly uses drama and excitement in her
narration of the Civil Rights movement. Her lan-
guage has energy. As the poem progresses, her
voice grows louder, more forceful, more certain.
She wants to preserve this moment in history for
future generations. This too is another function of
the griot. In Racism 101,African-American poet
and essayist Nikki Giovanni commented, “There
must always be griots ... else how will we know
who we are?”.
Just as history is marked with the exclusion
and with the blood and struggles of African-Amer-
icans, it is also marked with their resistance and
dissenting voices. The voice introduced in the be-
ginning—the all-consuming “they”—loses ground
to the more powerful “we” and the image of a
“strong, determined, sure” black presence. Madgett
is creating an African-American identity of resis-
tance. There is a sense of urgency in the second
stanza of the poem, and it is an urgency long over-
due. A powerful “No” in line 13, a refusal to stay
subservient, then an echoing of that no reiterates
that refusal: “And other voices echoed the freedom
words.”
In creating this dialog of dissension, Madgett
is invoking the call/response technique of tradi-
tional black spirituals. When blacks were held in
slavery, they often used spirituals to communicate,
to pass information about escape plans and to re-
lay messages. It was a means of communicating
subversively, or communicating subversive infor-
mation within the bounds of what was acceptable
and wouldn’t raise suspicion. In Drumvoices,Red-
mond noted: “Through songs, aphorisms, fables,
jokes, blues, and other enduring forms, Blacks cap-
ture severe hardships and tribulations, folk wisdom,
joys and tragedies, and longings and hopes during
and after slavery.” Madgett calls upon this tradi-
tion as a means of delivering her people. Instead of
fighting the slave master, she and her fellow black
Americans are fighting a system of legalized big-
otry. They are gathering strength through their
words. The voices of protest that “whispered them,
sang them, prayed them, shouted them” become
stronger throughout the poem. The energy Madgett
creates by recalling these voices of protest is an-
other way in which language is of central impor-
tance in this struggle. It is what builds the sense of
urgency; it multiples, as other voices “echo the
freedom words.” Language is what creates a space
for agency, and Madgett draws on the oratory, a
powerful mode of communication.
The oratory, or public speech, was extremely
important in the nineteenth century, especially in
the anti-slavery movement. Such leaders as
William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips
would organize anti-slavery conventions, inviting
such powerful speakers as Frederick Douglass and
Sojourner Truth, both of whom were ex-slaves.Alabama CentennialMadgett has a deep
appreciation for language,
whether she is using it to
raise her voice in political
protest, or to celebrate the
beauty of morning dew on
a rose.”