Birth of Revolution & The Movement (A Tribute to Rosa Parks)
By Jolivette Anderson © 1996

The stench of black, burned bodies
Lynched, tarred and feathered
Took flight from southern trees
And traveled on a soft breeze
And filled my nostrils
With 400 years of dis-ease

Just like God
Breathing life into man
Jim Crow blew death up my nose
It traveled down my throat
Filled my lungs with fleshy smoke
I choked
And coughed up the seeds of
The Movement

Just like God
Sent an angel
To tell Mary of the son she carried
Jim Crow planted in my womb
The seeds of Revolution
And Immaculately
I conceived twins

I am woman
I am Rosa
I am mother of two

A black woman
Married to a racist world
I’ve known
Degradation
Humiliation
Abomination
I’ve known pain
Jim Crow was his name

Shh!
Quiet!
Did you feel that sound

Jim Crow moves around

So Revolution must come down

Feel The Movement
Hear The Movement
She hardly makes a sound
There is a riot
But it is quiet
The people are still sleeping

I am woman
I am Rosa
I am a loving mother of two
There is a child in all of us
Man, woman, boy and girl
It grows for years
Realizing its fears
Until it is time to go

Shh!
Listen to the sound of my children

Look around
See the fruit of my womb
Their spirits move inside
See the crops of Revolution
The Movement is still alive

I could not stand
I would not stand
Respect me for what I am

Look at the children
Help them to move higher
They’ve heard of blood and branches
They’ve heard of sheets and fires
They’ve heard about the ships
They’ve heard about the whips
Teach them the cost of being free

I am woman – I paid the price
I am Rosa – I bartered with my life
And I lived many more years

Better she a woman
Better she not to stand
Better she a woman
Instead of the lynching of a black man

Better me a woman
50 years and I see
Better she a woman
To give birth that day in Montgomery

I am Woman
I am Rosa
I am Mother of two God Sent

My son’s name is Revolution
My daughter’s name is The Movement
I am woman – I could not stand
I am Rosa – I would not stand

I am mother of a Revolutionary Movement
Respect me for what I am!