Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

The Tennessee Three speak in We
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
19 Apr 2023
🖨️ Print Article
The Tennessee Three speak in We
State Reps. Justin J. Pearson, Gloria Johnson and Justin Jones in Nashville, Tenn., on April 7. (Photo: George Walker IV / AP)

                                                                                         The Tennessee Three speak in We

                                                                                                  “Alabama got me so upset,

                                                                                           Tennessee made me lose my rest…”

                                                                                        —Nina Simone, “Mississippi Goddamn”

 

I.

Cherokees "on the road again.” Violently herded West.

Ethnically-cleansed on crimson Trail of Tears.

Forcibly moved off Tennessee homeland to

Oklahoma—Where land acknowledgment ain’t enough…

II.

Lorraine Motel balcony; Audubon Ballroom;

Mississippi driveway; Chicago bedroom; UCLA

lunchroom polling places—Our leaders were voted out

of office with lead Ballots: swapping steel Lumumba for

malleable Mobutu!

We were left standing on Duopoly corners harmonizing

$campaign/$election songs: “Yes, we can!” and “I feel your

Pain.” Left praying to Pentagon parties of Long COVID

capitalism for depleted uranium, white phosphorus

prosperity

Lightfoot-Drone Rangers remained…Bassackwards Strong

arm Williams Thom-ass Clarence Tribesmen trained to lead

us in the treacherous 2/4 Dance—

Donkey dung-elephant excrement dance—Every 2-4 years

III.

The Tennessee Three speak in We—

from moribund bodies high on white powder in

Corporate crack pipes—

Apartheid state bodies of banana Republican rule

The Tennessee Three speak in We—

in NRA faces of gerrymanders coming

out of caves and fronting for Fat-cats—

Civil War hawks—quacking like lame ducks

The Tennessee Three speak in We—

to bought and bossed good ole boys—Volunteer

State puppets— Paymasters’ hands up nazi asses,

Moving 2nd Amendment/Maximum profit mouths

The Tennessee Three speak in We—

to dog whistling faces of foghorn framers—

Ventriloquists called confederates—Or,

their more modern names: Fascists!

The Tennessee Three speak in We—

to whipping post politicians, rebel-yelling in

cat o’ nine tails tongue—“Tantrum” tommyrot—

branding The Peoples’ Needs: “Wanting attention!”

The Tennessee Three speak in We—

facing starred-barred,

water-hosed, dog-bitten Dixie—Hurricanes of

hardship—Awash with Stax waves of solidarity

The Tennessee Three speak in We—

Standing and delivering! Amplifying voices of ones once

Celebrated !Essential” in nightly pot and pan banging and

clanging concerts

The Tennessee Three speak in We—

Standing and delivering! Amplifying voices of shoe leather,

street heat, pavement politicians, rising in rippling waves of

Maladjusted millions… flicker of what democracy looks like??

© 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.



Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe and PayPal.

Tennessee
Tennessee Three

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

John Parker
Supreme Court targets Voting Rights Act of 1965 – denying justice and peace
22 July 2026
The fight for the ballot has always been tied to a wider war against Black political power, against workers, against the people paying for empi
Wolfgang Bronner
Entertainment as Militarization: The Spectacle of the Super Bowl & WrestleMania in Nashville
06 May 2026
The spectacle of major sporting events does not simply distract from a city's crackdown on the working class.
Lindy Drolsum
Prison System in Tennessee: A Cycle of Racism and Control
11 March 2026
Tennessee's claim of being "tough on crime" means racialized policing and incarceration, and profit making off of marginalized people
Modern Day Reconstruction and Tennessee's Expulsion of Black Lawmakers
Jon Jeter
Modern Day Reconstruction and Tennessee's Expulsion of Black Lawmakers
19 April 2023
The temporary expulsion of two Black Tennessee legislators was a reminder of why even a tiny semblance of Black political independence is feare

More Stories


  • Community Control of Police Vs Impunity
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Community Control of Police Vs Impunity
    08 Jun 2020
    “Until our Black and brown communities get control of the police, they are going to continue to murder us with impunity,” said Frank Chapman, chair of the National Alliance Ag
  • Blacks Will No Longer Be “Chumps” for the Democrats
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Blacks Will No Longer Be “Chumps” for the Democrats
    08 Jun 2020
    Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms showed her true colors when she berated protesters, said Trinity College sociologist Dr Johnny Williams.
  • The “Carceral State” is the Enemy
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    The “Carceral State” is the Enemy
    08 Jun 2020
    The current wave of protest is correctly “targeting the commodification of Blackness by the state,” said Dr Brittany Friedman, a Rutgers University sociology professor at the
  • The Movement Gets BIG – and Its Enemies Reveal Themselves
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    The Movement Gets BIG – and Its Enemies Reveal Themselves
    04 Jun 2020
    The decrepit racial capitalist order appears to be unraveling under the weight of coronavirus, economic depression, and a quantitative leap in people’s willingness to confront power through the pol
  • Freedom Rider: Black Misleaders Seek to End Protest
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Black Misleaders Seek to End Protest
    03 Jun 2020
    The nationwide protests have forced the Black quisling class to reveal themselves as agents of the racial and economic status quo.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us