Category Archives: Martin Luther King

The King is Dead — Long Live the King!

Posted on April 4, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I can’t let this day pass without saying something about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr! In the Decisive Decade (the 1960s), Black leader after Black leader was assassinated, but this is the assassination that made it into my … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, ezwwaters, Martin Luther King, Politics, race, Religion, Revolution, Streets of Rage | Leave a comment

The “new” Jim Crow is as old as the Union

Posted on March 7, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Ever have a “Eureka!” moment? During my legal research in the early 1980’s, I came across something that, beyond a reasonable doubt, confirmed what people had been talking about without much evidence, beyond the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, ezwwaters, Lest We Forget, Martin Luther King, Politics, Slavery | Tagged Alexis de Tocqueville, Brown v Board of Education, Democracy in America, Emancipation Proclamation, Gustave De Beaumont, hyperincarceration, Mass Incarceration, Michelle Alexander, On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France, Slave Codes, The New Jim Crow, Thirteenth Amendment | Leave a comment

A Bigger By Any Other Name

Posted on February 22, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Bigger Thomas, although a fictional character, haunts the imagination of white folk. Richard Wright’s Native Son, where we meet Bigger Thomas, was published in 1940. Benjamin Mays, in eulogizing the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 28 years later after … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, ezwwaters, James Baldwin, Justice Chronicles, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Murder, race, raising black boys, Streets of Rage | Tagged Aaron the Moor, Bigger Thomas, Frantz Fanon, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Native Son, Othello the Moor, Richard Wright, Shakespeare, The Black Wall Street, Titus Andronicus | 1 Comment

Me and Malcolm X’s Murderer

Posted on February 21, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On this day in American history, Malcolm X was murdered. I was four years of age. Fourteen years later, I would meet Malcolm X’s killer. The first thought that crossed my mind: He, Thomas Hagan, is unremarkable. And then: What … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, Growing Up, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Murder, Nation of Islam, race, raising black boys, Religion | Tagged Alex Haley, Decisive Decade, Five Percent Nation, Malcolm X, MLK, Nation of Islam, Samuel Yette, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Thomas Hagan | Leave a comment

“Final” Touches on The Black Blood of Poetry

Posted on August 19, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Early this morning I put the “final” touches on my title poem, “The Black Blood of Poetry.” I wasn’t going to post it, but it is timely, and I’d rather not wait until the collection is published to put this … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, crime, James Baldwin, Lest We Forget, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Murder, Nation of Islam, Poetry, Politics, race, raising black boys, Revolution, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Sonny's Blues, Streets of Rage | Tagged "I can't breathe!", #AllLivesMatter, BlackLivesMatter, Blood in My Eye, Emmett Till, Fred Hampton, George Floyd, James Baldwin , James Chaney, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, Ossie Davis, Soledad Brother, The Black Blood of Poetry | 1 Comment

ABRACADABRA! Or Notes on the War on Crime, Redux

Posted on June 11, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In 1989 I wrote an award-winning essay, “ABRACADABRA! Or Notes on the War on Crime.” In it I mentioned those magic words crimefighting politicians would utter as the solution to the “crime problem”: “more police, more prisons, longer prison terms.” … Continue reading →

Posted in crime, Justice Chronicles, Martin Luther King, police-involved killing, Politics, race, raising black boys, Streets of Rage | Tagged Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Bill Clinton, crime, DerekChauvin, Donald Trump, Dr. King, George Bush, George Floyd, hyper incarceration, Loic Wacquant, Mass Incarceration, Rev. Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan | Leave a comment

The Fires This Time

Posted on June 5, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Last year, 2019, we marked 400 years since Africans were brought to Virginia and America’s “peculiar institution” took root. Since then, in the annals of American history, there has been systematic oppression and brutality against the descendants of Africans in … Continue reading →

Posted in being a teenager, Black patriotism, James Baldwin, Justice Chronicles, juveniles, Lest We Forget, Martin Luther King, police involved shooting, police-involved killing, Politics, race, raising black boys, Relationships, Revolution, Slavery, Streets of Rage | Tagged "If We Must Die", 1619-2019, 1919 Race Riots, 1960s, America's Original Sin, Barbados, Beaumont, Burn baby burn!, Decisive Decade, Dr. King, Ellis Island, MLK, North Carolina, Original Sin, Panama, Panama Canal, peculiar institution, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., The Fires This Time, Virginia, World War I, World War II | Leave a comment

Reading About Dreaming on the #2 Train

Posted on April 19, 2017 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I am on a #2 train, heading uptown. The train is delayed in the station. An announcement: “A train in front of this one is having problems closing its doors.” So we wait. Recently, there was a fare hike. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Martin Luther King, raising black boys, Uncategorized | Tagged #2 Train, American Dream, Amiri Baraka, Between the World and Me, Decisive Decade, Dr. King, Sonia Sanchez, St-Marks-in-the-Bowery, Ta-Nehisi Coates, the '60s, Toni Morrison | Leave a comment

If I Were President

Posted on November 19, 2016 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My first political lesson came, about fifty years ago, via television. As any other kid during that time, the Decisive Decade (the 1960s), while political assassinations, JFK, Malcolm X, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., RFK, and a host of … Continue reading →

Posted in ezwwaters, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Patriotism, Uncategorized | Tagged "If I Were President", 2016 Election, classical democracy, Decisive Decade, democracy, Donald J. Trump, electoral college, Federal Republic, JFK, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, political assassinations, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, RFK, Robert F. Kennedy, the 1960s, United States, United States politics, United States President, Voting | Leave a comment

The Massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church: A Year Later — Lest We Forget!

Posted on June 22, 2016 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Recently I read a piece in the AARP Bulletin, the June 2016 issue, on the Charleston Massacre: A Year Later, “The Long Road to Forgiveness.” As a student of history, I almost always think that we don’t remember what we … Continue reading →

Posted in crime, ezwwaters, Martin Luther King, Uncategorized | Tagged AARP Bulletin, African Methodist Episcopal Churches, AME, Black Freedom, Brooklyn, Charleston Massacre, Denmark Vesey, Dylann Roof, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Gabriel Prosser, Hasidim, James Michener, Jr., Nat Turner, Rev. Betty Deas Clark, Rev. Martin Luther King, The Black Church, The Final Solution, The Holocaust, The Source, Violence against the Black Church, violence in American history, World War II | Leave a comment

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