Love is Black
it is freedom rides
marches on Washington
and Black Lives Matter protests
and I am a man picket signs

Love is Black
it is historical
it is music
it is books
it is lifelong learning

Love is Black
It’s Mamie and Emmett Till
Merlie and Medgar Evers
Malcolm X & Betty Shabazz
Martin & Coretta King
Barack & Michelle Obama

Love is Black
it’s Huey P Newton & Bobby Seale
Elaine Brown & Assata Shakur
Stokely Carmichael & Fred Hampton
Afeni & Tupac Shakur
Patrice Lumumba & Nelson Mandela

Love is Black
It’s Richard Wright & Ralph Ellison
James Baldwin & Langston Hughes
Zora Neale Hurston & Alice Walker
Toni Morrison & Maya Angelou
Love is Black
It’s bell hooks & Audre Lorde
June Jordan & Roxane Gaye
Jesmyn Ward & Angela Davis
Jacqueline Woodson & Amanda Gorman

Love is Black
It’s Betty Davis & Donna Summer
Luther Vandross & Wilson Pickett
Marvin Gaye & Tami Terrell
Billie Holiday & Marian Anderson

Love is Black
our blood is soaked in southern lands and city streets
our bodies lie in waterways and oceans
we were brought to this place, severed from our pasts, our people, our history
but we reinvented ourselves, creating a culture from dust

Love is Black
we fight for the freedoms of EVERYONE
we carry democracy on our backs
we are shunned, criticized, our culture worn like clothes
AND STILL we fight, for us, for you and for you too

Love is Black
with every protest we raise a mirror for America to see herself
we have been fighting the longest war, the war for true freedom
the war for a near perfect democracy
we are the SOUL of America, and the soul is love and love is black