I love this line. I think these last two sentences (starting in the previous) line are my favourite. It hits hard. The sentences are shorter than every other one in the poem, so the whole flow gets disrupted. You're going, going, going, and then suddenly stopped by these short sentences. Like a train slamming the breaks. But also I love how the first sentence is split. "And in not being able to stand it. She sat back down." Is an incredible line, but "being able to stand it. She sat back down." really shows that she was unable to stand Emmett Till's death, but she WAS able to stand whatever society could and would throw at her. She knew what she was getting into and she knew the risks. She did what she believed was right in spite of all of that danger.

The line is drawn connected Emmett Till and Rosa Parks. The line of history and loss and grief that finally builds up to someone saying "No, never again"

It's also worth noting that in this couple of lines, Emmett is referred to by his first name alone (personal, reminding you also that he was a child), and Rosa Parks is referred to as Mrs. Rosa Parks (An adult woman, a wife, and a professional.)

Y'know, I think my whole life I never realized that Rosa Parks was an adult. I think when I was learning about her in school she was always referred to as a "girl" and never as a "woman" so it was particularly startling to hear her referred to as "Mrs. Rosa Parks."

Again, pulling back to the Pullman Porters to remind you where this started. But specifically, it alludes to how it was Black people who protected Emmett Till and it was White people who killed him. It was Rosa Parks who stood for Black rights and it was white people who demanded the law stay as is and demanded she be arrested and fined.

I see this a lot. This is a phrase that is still used to try to stamp out those who would stand up for their rights and I have a lot of very strong opinions on it. "To forgive those who trespass against us" is something the Bible preaches, yes, but how can you say that when you are the one killing them? "Forgive us for taking your rights, oppressing you, and killing you." Perhaps it is my personal experience, but this line makes me very bitter. It makes me scoff and roll my eyes. Only those in power get to talk about stuff like that.

This line at first makes me think that it is the civil rights activists who are singing praises. I thought first that they are using God to support their cause, to unite themselves and find strength in faith. I think it's like the middle of a venn diagram. It's a really well executed line i enjoy it a lot!

"Four young" is left in the previous line. Taken without that, "men" is not only stronger, it is vaguer. It carries the authority of adult men, but it is vague in numbers, party lines, race. I think this can mean both those specific four young black men, but also those who weren't black but lending their voices to the call and standing up for what's right

With this line, my interpretation of the previous line changes. The heat of the sun is not directed to her. The sun rests on her shoulders and so she is the one bringing the heat and the light of truth. And by that light others are rallied

A potential tie-in to her shouldering of her cross. The sun is something typically looked forward to, a welcome presence, and it's a feeling built upon by the use of "rested" a gentle and comforting word. However, "bringing the heat" is a harsher line that stands at opposition, but not quite against the first half of the line. Along with what she won for herself and her fellow Black American, she has been thrust into national spotlight and that's a dangerous position to be in.

This is in contrast to Rosa Park's introduction. She is introduced as "Rosa" but concluded as "Parks." Not only does this create a sandwhich of a story within her name, calling her by her last name creates a different jarring sensation than calling her by just her first name. Parks. I don't quite know how to describe it. Strong, firm like a stone wall. It does not have "Mrs." immediately attached to it and while i would think that that would remove respect, I think in this case it adds a sort of "larger than life" feeling. A reverence, even. But also, in court case titles (and I know she was not named in any case titles), an individual is always referred to by their last name. A tie-in to her involvement in the changing of the law, maybe?

"A reliance on the law; there was a higher law." I find it difficult to pick this line apart on it's own, but with the previous line as context it is interesting how it contradicts itself. Not only does this line allude to the the challenging of segregation laws in the Alabama District Court (and also perhaps how the Supreme Court upheld the Court's decision), I think it also suggests (rightly) that human rights are a "higher law" that will always supersede anything the government says.

"NO" and "No longer" can be read together as one bit of dialogue pretty easily. "No, no longer" or "No," A passionate movement was begun, "No longer!"

The poem thus far does not talk about Pullman Porters who have been beaten and/or lynched. In fact, the poem has by this point drawn away from the Porters and I almost forgot about them. This line snaps me back into place, reminds me of the beginning, and makes me wonder "How many Pullman Porters were killed and what were their names?" Does anyone remember them? It's difficult to think about.

White people often forget how incredibly dangerous it was for Rosa Parks to stand up and say no. Any number of people could have come and lynched her like they did so many others and there wouldn't be any justice for her. The white dominant society would look the other way while saying "She should've done as she was told." And she didn't do it for herself. She did it for those who've been wronged and lost and she did it to keep it from happening ever again.

Jesus was made to carry the cross upon which he would be crucified. I'm not religious myself or particularly educated on the subject of biblical imagery and it's kind of a difficult topic to dig into. I think though that what is most interesting to me is not the fact itself that she shoulders this cross, but that in that in catholic art Jesus is frequently depicted not only falling carrying the cross, but framed by a crowd of people reaching out to him, eager to help and carry that weight themselves. Taking it in this context, this line could speak not only of the incredibly heavy burden she takes, but also the way the people come together to support her.

On other notes, Jesus was forced to carry his cross after being beaten and injured, and his injuries were such that he could not carry the cross on his own. However, the way this is phrased: "Rosa parks shouldered her cross" is set up like the phase "shoulder a burden" meaning to take responsibility. This didn't HAVE to be her fight to fight, but she made it her fight.

Apparently, a field secretary is the highest rank you can get in a NAACP chapter. This is according to wikipedia which of course isn't a great citation, but when i try to search up what a field secretary i just get stuff about Meg

Mrs. A title. Not only was she married, it confers a sense of respect, professionalism, and authority. Rosa Parks wasn't just some girl, she was a working, professional woman.

I wonder if the author cut "ordinary" like this to create something like "nary a day."

I think it's interesting that the way the author phrases the actions of the bus driver. Like he gave her the chance to stand up for herself when the reality is that he was oppressing her out of racism.

"Never Again" is a phrase of grief and anger and it comes with it the feeling of being wrong and wanting to make things right. I think it's a great lead-in to Rosa Parks. I think it's great that this line ends with "Rosa" and not "Parks." You never hear "Rose" it's always "Rosa Parks". By ending with her first name, it makes it feel personal.

This line too, if you flip it it becomes "And this is to my boy." I wonder if the line refers to Emmett Till on behalf of his mother, or to the author's own son. "To my boy" who still lives and "all the mothers who cried" over their lost children.

there's a difference between "i want everyone to see what they did to my boy" and "i want everyone to see what they did." She's removing herself and her son from the picture in a way and by doing so she's saying "This could happen to you or your sibling or your child"

"body", "body" he isn't referred to by name in this line, only in the previous one. It gives it a cold feeling. This isn't a boy anymore, this is a corpse.

Buried in the ground to give him a proper funeral, or bury him as in to bury the case and sweep it under the rug?

an interesting splice here. The author could have done "un" and "acceptably" but admittadly it would've been very on the nose and maybe even jarring. Cutting it mid-syllable makes it difficult to split the lines when spoken but when done so and also when read, it becomes "acceptably murdered." Emmett Till's murderers were acquitted by an all white jury. He was "acceptably murdered" as held by the court of law.

A lot of people don't know off the top of their heads where Emmett Till was lynched, but of those who do i imagine they'd say Mississippi before Money. And the way the line starts with "Missisipi." Location. Period. It's a sudden setting of a scene and the staccato of it seems to emphasize how awful it was what happened to him.

Money is emphasized by being the last word and mentioned without even the state. He didn't end up just anywhere, he ended up in Money, a city of white people. You don't even need to be told it's white, don't even need to know it's where Emmett Till was killed or even that he was killed. "Money" is so heavily associated with "White" that "Money" tells the story on its own.

not only his grandchildren, but his children. The line is spliced to show this. He would have lived to have had children and grandchildren. To tell them about how he spent his whole summer riding

again, going through the middle years of life. Losing hair and losing sight as a result of aging. Grandchildren is notably cut at "grand"

After summer is autumn, and should you ascribe seasons to the human life, autumn would surely represent middle age. And everyone gets a little weight in their later years, stereotypically men who drink and by then ideally eat heartier with their hard earned money

The reveal of the boy's identity hits like a train. The moment of "oh" and then "oh, no." By this point, you've formed a sympathetic attachment to the boy, whether pity, sympathy, or empathy, something is there. To hear his name and know immediately how this story ends is heartbreaking.

the Blues Highway is apparently Route 61, a N/S route. Using the words "Blues Highway" creates a direct line to black culture and history, but also a more emotional connection than just "route 61"

It's the Porters who looked after that boy. This line, perhaps not on its own but with the lines before, has a sense of personal responsibility.

I think it's interesting that if you flip this line and drop the "when" it becomes "So this is for the mother (who) aren't around to look after them." I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it still fits with the theme of the poem so far and it's a nice break from and call back to "this is for the Pullman Porters"

A stutter is a far less dangerous trait than a limp and I think it's for that reason that stutter is said here while limp is in the line before. It seems to draw away from the limp and to the stutter, while the limp is the thing that will keep him from running away should things get dangerous for him.

Alone, it could be "Why, his mother wanted him out..." and a sentence on it's own. It's something the porters could think to themselves like "Ah! She wants him out of Chicago for the summer because his limp and his stutter it just isn't safe"

"they noticed his stutter and probably understood" so far the boy is they subject and so I think the porters understand the boy and the way he disguises his limp with a "doo-wop walk." I think also the fact that doo-wop is specific in this line alludes to the boy trying to come off as cool to make up for or assert himself in spite of his stutter

1955 was the year Emmett Till was lynched. That, coupled with "that he tried to disguise" comes off with a sort of gravity, a danger and necessity

EDIT: This is also the first allusion to the boy's identity. The foreshadowing makes the reveal of his identity click in nicely and gravely.

I was wondering why "separate" was split across lines, but i think now it might have to do with the low wages Porters were paid, something that was a major reason for their unionizing. "The rate we receive is inherently unequal to what you would pay a white man for the same job"

With the previous line, it feels very much like laughing to please the customer, even if it's at your own loss. Alone, though, I think it can also be "celebrating with people they're safe with an silently celebrating when they aren't"

I like that this line is set apart. It really emphasizes how fake these smiles and laughs are, how they go with the exhausting nature of not only customer service and keeping your job, but also their safety

It stops at "both," to indicate they spoke not just to black passengers, but white passengers. The poem itself has a focus so far of Black Americans, but Porters likely served predominantly white

Brown v. Board of Education is actually Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and Marshall wasn't even from or a resident of the state. "Even though Topeka is the birth" it's the start of a lot of fight for civil rights, including the bus boycott and other famous marches lead by Martin Luther King Jr.

Thurgood Marshall was the chief council in this case

Thurgood Marshall's father was a Pullman Porter, for one

This boy is later revealed to be Emmett Till, but the lack of naming is interesting. This line, and the whole section really, are oddly specific for a boy with no name and you're left wondering "who is this boy who is eager to prove himself, but also so very vulnerable?"

I wonder how familiar with passenger names porters were. Would they have known the boy's name?

Not only were they showing solidarity to those in the South, but also to each other. They stood together as Pullman Porters, as a union, as free Black Americans

They show solidarity to the Black American still stuck in the South

Chicago is largely the core of Pullman Porters. They carried not only the Pittsburgh Courier, but they carried Chicago as a city. Perhaps the idea that in Chicago, Black Americans can not only be free and work, but come together and stand up for their rights.

Not only did they unionize when people said they couldn't, they did so, period. They worked together, collectively answering and delivering the call to action. It wasn't just because people said they couldn't, it wasn't out of spite, they did it because they wanted and needed to and they did on their own effort and will