Imagine no Dred Scott before th Jud
Of Tribun hearin him If told
B hit people th ir r i grud e
He m t remain ptive in their hold
With littl hope of fut manumi ion
Without the promi of any reward
Without an piration or condition
Which he, or any ve might or to ard
Di overin, ith little chance of fleeing
From t y on until hi life don
That h must ubject hi hole human ing
To white people becau they held th gun
1m ine the unbearable d pair
That overwhelmed Dred Scott ju t being there
on called Dred SCOlt' s landm c
In tc che United State "justified"
Its ruth) ro ry of an entire ce
Though it Con titutionally di guised
It vered the poor slave from all connection
To human rights and human dignity
Condemnin him au of hi complexion
To live in unrelenting mi ery
Endorsin kidnap and captivity
Without acknowledging the harm it did
The C titution m ed activity
Which its distinguished framer wanted hid
Yet slavery provoked uch hot debates
It ended in a War between the States
Part II -- TIl 3/5
To a democra y, no doubt about it
So "citizenship" is inconsequential
Which denies choi e and tries to live without it
Dred SCOll lh .. itizen" at the in i tence
Of that which had denied Dred cott exi tence
America was founded on a myth
Its Con utution, with straight f , proclaim
We people divided by the fifth
Although it never mentions any narn
Except to claim me pe ns it I "free"
Amount to two-fifths more than persons not
Without explaining how it come to
That three-fifths of a per n e begot
In nature no u h creature can be found
o three-fifths pecimen of any kind
Which m this i mythical account
Concocted in ome fo nding father' mind
And how do we explain hi lin of thinking
Save to uggest, perhaps, he had been drinking
The whole concept of lavery is mad
,The r i tin titution we've been in
Th murderou e perience we've had
Since kidnapped to this country to begin
The overbearing greed; the vanity
Of one ra e that would dominate all other
, I mamfe 1 tal in nily
To tho who heve that all men are brothers
Th lave y tern w vagely psychotic
Influencing the European race
So generation have remained despotic
Bound to the pint of the Dred Scott case
Determined till, through violence and hate
To dri ve u k into a Dred Scott state
Bac wilen the Con titution was fir t framed
The founding fathers, drunk with power amassed
From a concoction which they never named
Kept captives out of Africa outcast
Called "three-fifth of all other persons": chattel
Here where a love for liberty was claimed
Humanity was bought and sold like cattle
Which mu t have made the framers 0 ashamed
That like a drunk pretending to be sober
The Constitution was deliberately ,
Contri ved to cover up, and so glo over
The damage it did human liberty
As if it would be mornfied to death
If it were found with bondage on its breath
"All persons born ... in the United States
"And subject to the jurisdiction thereof
"Are citizens .," 0 Congress legi late
In what by no means w an act of love
Ignoring what the Court had told Dred Scott
In its 1857 decision
Tbat mem
Sub' to United Slate jurisdiction
Performing an ill-prepared operation
An unconsnmtional "dirty trick"
That grafted th captive Blac population
Onto the free white body politic
. Th Government d�lared new, post war versions
Of those it had called "things" had become "persons"
To Dred Scott it may well have seemed amusing
To find out that the Government decided
He was "person," till it was confu ing
Because his "personhood" was rill divided
Between a man who was told he was "free"
And all slave men and women, girls and boys
Who were declared "citizen .. by decree
Without being granted the lighte t choice
And yet "freedom of choice" I fundamental
In four score seven years a Civil War
Inflamed by the "peculiar institution"
That founding fathers managed to ignore
When they ere framing up the Con titution
All but destroyed the Union they created
For urely thi Republic would have died
If the lave had not been emancipated
And joined the conflict on the Union id
Joined up to help the Blue defeat the Gray
Joined up so right might triumph over wrong
Joined up to chuck th ir chattel chain away
Joined up almost two hundred thousand strong
Ironically, the Constitution' saved
By tho three-fifths person it had enslaved
&B
ood
After the bloody Civil War wended
lavery was among Its casualu
But though the Con titution got amended
It ull did not provide for faculti
To lift the Ignorance of lave oppre Ion
or compensate those who had been lave driven
By putung properue an their po se Ion
::1 parual payment for all they had" iven"
or ere they then declared full five-fifth per ns
WIth opuon th y could e erci and voice
In lead, d pue menc n a seruon
The former lave rem incd 'W uhout a choice
egr till their rders of old
Becoming "CIUZ n" they were told
ORO, JR.l world-fam d entertainer and Palm
Beach Gazette literary advi or, i fa t comi g a main tayat
the Zora eale Hur ton Art -& Hurnanitie Fe tiv in Eaton
ville, Florida. Thi year, ith th th m Zora Neale Hur ton
and FoJk Culture: Their Influence on African-American The
atre,O car a join d by his lov 1 wife, Jean Pace, and the
like ofactorDannyGlov r, Yin t arroll, Dr. Pearl Primu
and producer-dir ctor t ood i Ki ng, Jr. Th word on the treet
i that 0 car and Jean will - cr atm a cultural attraction in
Orlando that promot th rich hi. tory of Black mu ic and
provide a con ciou alterna iv 0 h ·1 n orld madn
During the bi-cent nni ) of the
Con titution of the United tat
De cendants of the lave gathered 0 we '
Might take part as the ation celebra
Regard) of our uffering of the past
We lifted every voice and ung to prai
A document by which we were· outcast
Discounted and denied 0 many way
We gathered not to be confu ed with facts
Concerning Con titutional defects
We gath red rath r confident we Blac
Are ' it no equ Iy pr
Yet, not urpri ing, J that y u couJd h
From us that day was three-fifth of a cheer
. Three-fifths of a cheer! 0 Land of the Free
Three-fifth of a cheer! 0 Home of the Brave
Three-fifths C?f a cheer! 0 y can you see
Two-fifths the Constitution never gave
Three-fifths because America remain
A ation that i raci t to its core
Three-fifths beca� e Black people till take pains
Where out ancestor took great pains before
Three-fifths because in pile of all pretense
At a new "human rights" philosophy
We all have had quite ample evidence
Of All-American hypocrisy
Three-fifths, the myth the C m titution founded
By which American arc till dl ounted
To be continued next week
Reprinted with permission from the
Palm Beach Gazette