African American Hate Crimes in Gwendolyn Brook’s Poetry

The murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri , the murder of a black teen for playing loud music in Florida, the Little Rock integration and all other forms of abuse or hate crimes done against African Americans will always be engraved in our history and in the

hearts of all African Americans as a period of injustice. It was a common tragedy to lose a family

member to one of the many riots assembled by the Ku Klux Klan or simply by a group of

Caucasians determined to exterminate “niggers.” Many were able to see how detrimental hate

crimes were through media. African Americans who owned magazines, newspapers and so forth

were finally able to voice their opinions and tell their side of the story to balance out the usually

biased media run by Caucasians. As a result of the exposed cruelty towards African Americans,

blacks felt justified, some whites became enraged, and yet other whites began to feel guilty for

devaluing the lives of African Americans. Brooks’s ballad “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in

Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon” illuminates the hate crime

committed against a young African American boy and the guilt that consumes the speaker after

she realizes her involvement caused his death. Brooks’s poem acts as a metaphor to convey how

America (during the period of injustice) attempted to overlook the truth of the immoral crimes

committed against African Americas, but as a result of publicized brutality, realized they were

wrong.

Background information regarding the death of Emmett Till will allow the reader to

better understand how Brooks uses the ballad as a metaphor to represent Americas attempt to

overlook the immoral acts committed against African Americans. According to “The Murder of

Emmett Till,” an article addressing Emmett Till’s death and the media coverage on it, Till’s

death was a prank gone wrong. “After picking cotton with his cousins all day, Till and his

cousins took a joy ride with the family car to Bryant’s Grocery store where his cousins dared him

to talk Carolyn Bryant (Brian). What happened as he was leaving is fiercely debated. Some white

witnesses claimed he either said, "Bye, baby," or whistled at her, while others say that she

became enraged after he simply put his change in the womans hand. Emmett Till’s alleged “fresh

behavior” spread like wildf...

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...acism seen in closed-minded individuals through

Brooks’s use of fairy tale language and the depiction of the husband. Likewise, America is made

up of both types of individuals, and through the use of publicized media, we can only hope to

increase the knowledge of the senseless violence we known as hate crimes. After reading Brook's

ballad one can only hope that Emmett Till and other victims of hate crimes will act as a reminder

and provide an inclining of hope that another tragic death will not follow.

Works Cited

Brooks, Gwendolyn. “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. While Mississippi

Mother Burns Bacon.” Selected Poems. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.

Print.

Favat, F. André.. Child and Tale: The origins of Interest. Urbana, Ill.: National Council

of Teachers of English, c1977. Print.

Mootry, Maria K. “Brook’s a bronzeville mother loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a

Mississippi mother burns bacon.” Explicator 42.4 (1984): p51, 2p Academic Search Complete.

Web. 13 July 2011.

Thorton, Brian. The Murder of Emmett Till. Journalism History 36.2 (2010): p396-104,

9p Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 July 2011.