Poetry for Students Vol. 10

Volume 10 11

desire for freedom and full rights of American cit-
izenship is what fuels the fight for equality. The
empowerment is the net result that comes from
years of protest and struggles to reeducate Ameri-
can society—a struggle that still resonates.

Source:Judi Ketteler, in an essay for Poetry for Students,
Gale, 2001.

Paul Witcover
Paul Witcover is a novelist and editor in New
York City with an M.A. in Creative Writing and Lit-
erature from The City University of New York. In
the following essay, he discusses themes of racism
and responsibility in Naomi Long Madgett’s poem,
“Alabama Centennial.”

Naomi Long Madgett’s poem, “Alabama Cen-
tennial,” published in her 1965 collectionStar by
Star,is at once a stirring call to action and a mov-
ing record of psychological and social transforma-
tion. The poem works on a variety of levels to
communicate its theme of the struggle for individ-
ual and collective emancipation. That struggle
occurs within the confines of a culture of institu-
tionalized racism that employs violence, fear, and
habit to shape, consciously and unconsciously,
every aspect of public life and private thought.
Poems like this one, which rely upon a reader’s fa-
miliarity with political and historical events, and
which seek to move that reader toward a particu-
lar point of view by appeals to reason, conscience,
and emotion, fall into the category of didactic
poetry.

The title of Madgett’s poem refers to a cen-
tennial, a word meaning the celebration of a one
hundred anniversary. But what anniversary is re-
ferred to? Readers might naturally assume at first
that it is the one hundred anniversary of Alabama’s
statehood, but in fact Madgett has a very different
anniversary in mind. It is no coincidence that “Al-
abama Centennial.” appeared in 1965, exactly one-
hundred years after the end of the Civil War. That
is the centennial to which Madgett’s ironic but also
hopeful title refers.

What was the status of African-Americans in
the United States 100 years after the defeat of the
Confederacy and the abolition of slavery? Despite
Congressional passage of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, African-American men and women in 1965
were still treated as second-class citizens through-
out much of the country. The legacy of institu-
tionalized racism persisted. That legacy includes
Jim Crow laws adopted by states to deny their non-
white citizens full participation in, and access to,

the government under which they lived, to which

they paid taxes, and in whose armies they fought

and died. The phrase “separate but equal” was the

rallying cry used by those—like Alabama’s gover-

nor, George Wallace—determined to protect white

privilege and power at all costs. While Alabama’s

reputation as a bastion of racism made it a logical

place for Madgett to set her poetic centennial, she

is not writing about Alabama alone, but every state

in the Union. When the reader recalls that the states

of the Union are represented on the American flag

by stars, the title of the collection in which “Al-

abama Centennial.” appears, Star by Star,takes on

a new significance.

The Jim Crow laws, and the philosophy of

“separate but equal” used to rationalize them, came

under increasing attack from the 1950s. Many his-

torians date the beginning of the modern Civil

Rights movement to 1955-1956, when Rosa

Parks’s brave refusal to give up her bus seat trig-

gered the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, the

event which catapulted a charismatic advocate of

non-violent resistance, the Rev. Martin Luther

King, Jr., to national prominence.

1965 would prove to be a turning point for the

Civil Rights movement, as Dr. King’s philosophy

of non-violence was challenged by other African

Americans impatient with the pace of change. In

March of that year, Dr. King led more than 25,000

peaceful marchers into Montgomery, Alabama to

press for passage of the Voting Rights Act. That

triumphant march that serves as the occasion of

Madgett’s poem. But it is worth remembering that

while President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Vot-

ing Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, racial

Alabama Centennial

Madgett has no

interest in reducing the

problems of segregation and

racism to a black versus

white, good versus evil,

dichotomy. The reality she

perceives is too complex for

that.”