MLK jr. meets GWTW as the movie opens in Atlanta, 1939

MLK jr. meets GWTW as the movie opens in Atlanta, 1939

On the screen Atlanta flamed.
Ashley brooded.
Mellie succumbed.
Rhett stormed.
Scarlett lived on.
And Miss Margaret sat there viewing the hurricane of emotions portrayed at this premiere.
Blissfully ignoring pleas from those Atlanta Junior Leaguers
to afterward attend their gala ball.
Hoping Hiss Margaret would overlook their past snubs and ostracism.
Hoping Miss Margaret’s fame would add
to this epic moment.
Treating you as some glorified house servant.
Hoping to dress you in another type of slave outfit.
As they did the son of that minister
and his Ebenezer Church Choir
going about their required chores that night.
Smiling obediently with supposed happy faces in that segregated epic which serenaded
the consciences of a Coca—Cola town
where even the NAACP was horrified
at all these coloured folk serving these self—professed select citizens celebrating Miss Margaret book’s story.
After all ‘movie stars’ were White
and by definition
attractive and sexy.
And what could that son of the minister
learn in his ‘slave-costume’ that night?

That just like Scarlett, MLK jr.
would never forget or forgive
past burnings in Atlanta.




About This Poem:
a true story of how MLK jr. first encountered GONE-WITH-THE-WIND...