Tag Archives: racism

THE WINGS BENEATH HIS WIN

Ask not who should Obama thank
but who we should thank for Obama

There are a million threads that make up
the quilt of America’s growing up

You could follow one
back to a university
in Tuskegee Alabama in 1881
to its first teacher Booker T. Washington
who hired George Washington Carver,
who lived to see it become
the home of the Tuskegee airmen
who fought with equal skill
and double courage on
two fronts at once

Their performance and sacrifice
inspiring Harry Truman
on July 26th, 1948 to issue executive
order 9981 directing
equality of treatment and opportunity
in the armed forces

And if those weren’t threads enough
The Tuskegee Song was written in 1902
by Paul Laurence Dundar, classmate
and friend of Orville Wright and
set to the tune of Fair Harvard

We thank thee, we bless thee, we pray for thee years
Imploring with grateful accord
Full fruit for thy striving, time longer to strive
Sweet love and true labor’s reward

Yes indeed Tuskegee, we all thank thee