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    Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present
    Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present
    Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present
    Ebook192 pages49 minutes

    Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present

    By William E. Waters

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    About this ebook

    Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present is about the captivity, exploitation and suffering of Black people in America, and their triumphs.

    The author, a history buff, took the challenge to look at the history of Black people in America, who are normally given one month, the shortest month of the year, February, to highlight Black History in America, and wrote this epic. For those who would separate Black History in America from American history, know this: American history and Black History in America are one and the same; one does not exist without the other, even though the latter has oftentimes been relegated to the shadows of American history.

    Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass is a co-winner of the Edwin Mellen Poetry Prize for an epic poem (1998) and was published in 2000 by the Edwin Mellen Poetry Press.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateMar 14, 2013
    ISBN9781481722872
    Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present
    Author

    William E. Waters

    William E. Waters is an award-winning poet, playwright, and author. His poetry has been in a number of anthologies and magazines, including Rattle and AIM. In 1998, he was the cowinner of the Edwin Mellen Poetry Prize for his epic poem, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present, published in 2000 by Edwin Mellen Poetry Press. He reissued this book in 2013 through AuthorHouse. He is also the author of Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, a National Poetry Series finalist, a collection of poetry about law enforcement excesses, which was published by AuthorHouse in 2013. Waters has a master’s degree from New York Theological Seminary and bachelor’s degrees from SUNY New Paltz and Albany University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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      Book preview

      Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass - William E. Waters

      © 2013 by William E. Waters. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 03/06/2013

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-2288-9 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-2287-2 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013903781

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      This book is printed on acid-free paper.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      CONTENTS

      Preamble

      I

      II

      III

      IV

      V

      VI

      VII

      VIII

      IX

      X

      XI

      XII

      XIII

      XIV

      XV

      XVI

      XVII

      XVIII

      XIX

      XX

      XXI

      XXII

      XXIII

      XXIV

      XXV

      XXVI

      XXVII

      XXVIII

      XXIX

      XXX

      XXXI

      XXXII

      XXXIII

      XXXIV

      XXXV

      XXXVI

      XXXVII

      XXXVIII

      XXXIX

      XL

      XLI

      XLII

      XLIII

      XLIV

      XLV

      XLVI

      XLVII

      XLVIII

      XLIX

      L

      LI

      In memoriam:

      Constance E. Waters

      (1933-1978)

      Proverbs 31:2

      At Books and Books today I ran my hand over the spines lined up on a shelf, the multicolored text—backbones of people’s fears and imaginations. My fingernails painted gaudy like butterflies embarrassed me. I felt like a puta at a church, not really fitting in but wanting the hushed reverence, the knowledge of mysteries. I close my eyes and pulled one out at random: Remembrance of Things Past—and I wanted to know, to ask somebody wise like the priest of the bookstore, whether it is true that the past really passes, because today, I have the feeling that it doesn’t. That we just pretend.

      Lisette Mendez

      Remembrance of Things Present

      In truth, our history was not knowing; it was being shielded from the truth. That was the American way.

      —James Patterson

      Preamble

      From slavery to freedom.

      From pre-colonialism to post-modernism.

      From revolution to reactionism.

      From the War for Independence

                to the Civil War

      From the slave enlistment bill

                to Selective Service.

      From Articles of Confederation

                to the Confederacy.

      From agrarianism to technocratism.

      From pre-industrialization.

                to post-industrialization

      From George Washington

                to George Bush.

      From the birth of a nation

                to a kinder, gentler nation.

      From Thomas Jefferson

                to William Jefferson Clinton.

      From Democratic Republicanism

                to the New Democrats.

      From honest Abe

                to tricky Dick

                to Slick Willie.

      From preserving the Union

                to fighting a lawless society

                to establishing a New Covenant.

      From Radical Republicanism

                to Roosevelt’s reign

                to Reaganism.

      From Reconstruction

                to public works

                to trickle-down economics.

      From the Welfare State

                to a Police State.

      From the Do Nothing Party

                to the Freedom Now Party.

      From New Deal Democrats

                to Dixiecrats.

      From the Grand Old Party

                to the Great Society

                to this dialogue on race.

      From the melting pot

                to multiculturalism.

      From Jim Crow

                to the Rainbow Coalition.

      From Griots to the Last Poets

      From Phillis Wheatley

                to Gwendolyn Brooks.

      From highly imitative         

                to Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry.

      From Various Subjects, Religious and Moral

                to Annie Allen.

      From Zora Neale Hurston

      to Toni Morrison.

      From Their Eyes Were Watching God

      to Paradise.

      From folklore

                to Nobel Laureate fiction.

      From Mules and Men

                to Beloved.

      From Richard Wright

                to James Baldwin

                to Walter Mosley.

      From Native Son

                to Sonny’s Blues

                to A Devil in a Blue Dress.

      From the Royal Family—

      Count Basie, Duke Ellington

      and Nat King Cole

                to the King of Pop.

      From a Lady singing the blues

                to the Funky Divas.

      From the Queen of Soul

                to Queen Latifah.

      From Bojangles

                to M.C. Hammer

                to the Tap Dance Kid.

      From Porgy and Bess

                to Jelly’s

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