history.

"if you know your history
then you would know where
you're coming from" -Bob Marley

you worked so hard
to teach us our history
to change the point of view
to shift conversations
from dead white men
to voices that need
to live again

and when
i wanted to teach history,
I wanted to use your words, I
never had enough
editions of your books
who's words
set fire to synapses
unused for years.

We could overcome fears
because we knew
we were just
and people were in this
before us

this was not some fool's errand
this was standing on foundations
laid
by the stories you recovered
and put in textbooks.

If it were up to me,

every child in America
would read
multiple versions of
"A People's History"

the way
i studied the holidays
in sunday school
repeatedly,
every year
building on previous understandings
and new frames,

bringing slave rebellions
and sit down strikes
to light
to change the legacy
of this country
and this world,

you have to fight.

They say
he left his last lecture
early

to join a picket line,

well, Howard,

we could sure use your eyes and voice
now.