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


  • Mamdani and Tisch
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Mamdani Reappoints NYPD Commissioner Who Refused to Punish Killer Cops
    28 Nov 2025
    Samy Feliz is an organizer with Justice Committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to building a movement against police violence and systemic racism in New York City and empowering low-income…
  • Congress members
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Illegal Orders, Liberal Hypocrisy, and Fake Outrage
    26 Nov 2025
    Democrats recruit military veterans and former intelligence agency operatives to run for office to prove their pro-war credentials. A contrived fight with Donald Trump shouldn’t fool anyone.
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    United Nations Security Council Resolution on Gaza is a Surrender to U.S. Led Global Fascism
    26 Nov 2025
    By approving a U.S. "peace plan" that legitimizes genocide and ends the right to resist, the United Nations Security Council has not just failed Palestine—it has actively consolidated a new era of…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EXCERPT: Die Nigger, Die! H. Rap Brown, 1969
    26 Nov 2025
    “Blackness alone is not revolutionary.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The United Arab Emirates Use a Black Sport to Whitewash a Genocide in Africa
    26 Nov 2025
    National Basketball Association (NBA) players are 70-75% Black, so the game is commonly referred to as “a Black sport.” Now the United Arab Emirates are using it to whitewash a genocide in Africa.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us