Jefferson County Swastikas
When I wrote this poem in 1999 the
Rev. Robert Montgomery, the Economic Justice Organizer at Greater Birmingham
Ministries at the time, and I were leading a campaign to have the swastikas
taken off of the Richard Arrington, Jr. Blvd entrance to the Jefferson County
Courthouse. The Klu Klux Klan was using those steps at the time for their
public rallies because of the swastikas.
We were surprised at the resistance we faced. And we were unsuccessful in obtaining the
removal. One of the weak excuses put
forward for not removing them was that they did not have the Nazi tilt, and
that they were a symbol of an ancient nonviolent religious sect.
When I was selected as a
voting delegate to the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual
Leaders in August of 2000 at the United Nations in New York I noticed in the
opening procession that, in fact the symbol as presented on the Jefferson
County Courthouse was displayed prominently by the Jain Community. They are in fact a radically nonviolent
community with roots in Hinduism.
But in light of HB56 and Alabama's hostile immigrant attitudes, the right wing attack on women, the recent
attacks on Cooper Green Mercy Hospital, indigent health care, and the Sewer
Debt Bankruptcy debacle it is clear that the symbols are more about oppression
and white male domination than they are about radical nonviolence. The murals on the inside of the Lynn Park
entrance to the Jefferson County Courthouse confirm this view.
I think the swastikas still need to be removed.
RLH 9/15/12
Jefferson
County Swastikas
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Sign of the present,
Symbol of the past,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
There are no busses for
folks to ride,
MAX is the line that now
divides,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
There were busses for folks
to ride,
A line down the middle that
divides,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Gays are killed,
And Jews forbidden to
squawk,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Jews and Gays together,
Into the gas chamber did
walk.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Homeless folks must
Have Bill Johnson’s permit
to walk,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Black folks had to,
Have Bull Connor’s permit to
walk,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Homeless folks in the loop,
Considered nothing but poop,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Black folks at the counter,
Considered nothing but poop,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Mountian Brook School System,
White as snow,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Phillips High School,
White as snow,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Women’s health clinic,
Bombed with a dynamite
blast,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Black Churches
Bombed with a dynamite
blast,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
A third of our children,
In poverty you know,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go.
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
Humanity is more than a
media image,
bought with the dollar you
know,
Jefferson County swastikas
got to go,
R. Lawton Higgs, Sr.
3/5/99
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