Who AM I?

When someone asks me “who I am?”

I tell them:

I am the great mind that was taken from the motherland.

I am the one that survived the middle passage.

I am the one that built a nation with my blood sweat and tears.

I am the visionary that built and invented things that changed modern America.

I am Claflin, South Carolina State, Benedict, Allen, Howard, Clark, Spelman, Morehouse, Bethune-Cookman, Tuskegee, Paine and other Historically Black Colleges or Universities that taught young people that they are great.

I am the Divine 9.

I am the Harlem Renaissance.

I am jazz, soul, blues, gospel, and hip-hop.

I am the sharecropper, maid, and nanny.

I am the farmer, the seamstress, the factory worker, and teacher.

I am the midwife, doctor, and nurse.

I am the strange fruit that hung from southern trees.

I am the marcher, the freedom rider, and the children that died in Birmingham.

I am the civil rights movement.

I am the future that Martin dreamed about.

I am the hope and change that Obama spoke of.  

I am strong.

I am great.

I am blessed.

I am a child of God.

I am Black America