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!["6 Nov. 2008 7:07 p.m. Obama’s Acceptance Speech No need to call him what he is: President of the USA. No need to tell him what that means: cleanup man, strong hitter, driving them in, nobody knowing the scars. Look, man. Can we climb out of this pit? Yes, we can. We know all of you say (this river of words, sunlit by your smile) All of you say is true, is sometimes sad: (yet this waterfall leap[ing]s, [confirming] [retelling] [*24.04.2010*] confirming [*changed 24 Aug. 10] its sources "](https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/manifold-cuny-api-store/store/resource/5/4/7/54703be3-58b9-43fb-a8cb-9b32c6baebad/attachment/9b55f10bbc27fe190a4c2375c180fda7.jpg)
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[*“Where Will Their Names Go Down?”: Many bodies of Black people murdered in racist violence have been thrown into the three rivers mentioned--including the body of the boy in “Emmett Till.” The phrase “foundations of the world” comes from the author’s memory of Melville’s treatment of Pip’s terror in Moby Dick, afloat in the sea.*]
[*The title chosen reflects my writing a letter to the New York headquarters of the NAACP (unanswered) suggesting that the names of ordinary African Americans who had suffered violent or severe punishment for demanding their civil rights (especially voting rights then) be recorded in The Congressional Record.*)
Where Will Their Names Go Down?
Where will their names go down,
Our bloodied boys
Sunk link by link--
Socket, bone, and upright knee--
Muscled down dead
In the Tallahatchie, the Mississippi, and the Pearl?
Will they rise again
Except to velvet eyes
And rainbow fins that piece the deep?
Except to flush in streams that knife the seas
And rush their secrets through foundations of the world?
Right before our eyes
They sank, and pulled us to their knees.
From swollen prayers we rise to fiercely shake a chain of days
That blurry hang across that dying scrawl,
That mannish blood that moves
The Tallahatchie, the Mississippi, and the Pearl
1967
1968](https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/manifold-cuny-api-store/store/resource/4/7/7/477bf8a4-0019-4758-ab37-445bdd5b3e26/attachment/d1e75022c8d1f1fadca6aa1d17748f36.jpg)
