Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

 For Brother Bruce
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
03 Jul 2019
🖨️ Print Article
 For Brother Bruce
 For Brother Bruce

Here’s the FOIA requested,
Redacted part of the story they never tell
You. 

Baby Bruce was wandering
the Midwest with Dorothy and Toto—
Before they picked up the Tinman in 
Pittsburgh, the Scarecrow on Staten Island,
the Cowardly Lion in Los Angeles
Baby Bruce had a baby brain, a huge
heart and fully formed courage that
would be schooled and steeled at the 
point of production—
Molding a straight-up soldier on
The Long March; A rank-in-file, 
meet ‘em where they’re at,
shoe leather, serve the people, 
door-to-door knocking, 
troublemaking organizer;
Chitown stubborn kinda fella— 
stubborn as a Georgia mule—
Refusing to slip, on Iceberg Slim
posing as community organizer…

He had huge heart, big brain and 
courage. Barrel of his pen blazing—
welcoming me from the wilderness,
Cali isolation, to fight side by side
Against the masked man— The
Drone Ranger; when icons and 
Legends were losing their minds

and Slutty Professors dangled
on the dick of Deporter-in-Chief!

When Bruce’s 404 popped up on my phone
It was business—but personal—laughing, joking, 
we’d cover the waterfront with lunch bucket language…
I pray The Wizard put a Bruce Dixon Organizer’s App
 on my phone countering some spyware…

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Bruce Dixon

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

The Courage to Write the Truth: Where and When Bruce Dixon Enters History
Dr. Matthew Quest
The Courage to Write the Truth: Where and When Bruce Dixon Enters History
21 August 2019
Bruce entered history as the most distinguished critic of the Black political class during the Age of Obama.

More Stories


  • Fouad Mami
    Book Review: The Black Mediterranean: Bodies, Borders and Citizenship
    10 Nov 2021
  • Roger Harris
    Nicaragua Celebrates Democracy: an Election Day Report
    10 Nov 2021
    The US government and its allied corporate press are using every means to discredit and undermine the Nicaraguan election.
  • Kamau Franklin
    You Can’t Abolish the States Institutions without Abolishing the State that Created Them
    10 Nov 2021
  • Elections and the Illusion of Black Political Power
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Elections and the Illusion of Black Political Power
    03 Nov 2021
    Black politicians may be openly conservative or pretend leftists but their constituents rarely get what they need.
  • Ajamu Baraka on U.S. Ethiopian Policy
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Ajamu Baraka on U.S. Ethiopian Policy
    03 Nov 2021
    Ledet Muleta is the host of Prime Media’s "Prime Time." She spoke with Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace on October 30.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us