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