Tag Archives: Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass

Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday: A Reflection

Posted on July 4, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On July 4, 2026, America marks its 250th birthday, reflecting on its Declaration of Independence and the historical complexities surrounding its authors, notably Thomas Jefferson’s legacy as a slave owner. The piece underscores the contributions of Black Americans throughout history and critiques the current leadership dynamic, advocating for new, younger voices in governance. Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged america, America's Birthday, American Revolution, Black History Month, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Decisive Decade, Declaration of Independence, Fred Hampton, George Washington, history, Independence Day, John F. Kennedy, Korean War, Leadership, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., patriotism, politics, Samuel Yette, Segregation, Slavery, The Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson, Vietnam War, World War I, World War II | Leave a comment

One Hundred Years of Black History

Posted on February 16, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My father was born the same month Negro History Week was announced, timed to Lincoln’s February 12 and Douglass’s February 14 birthdays. Nearing his centennial, he embodied Black history: North Carolina segregation, a segregated WWII Army, then migration to New York. He rarely spoke of it, but history and literature helped me understand. Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Memory & Personal Essays, Race, History & American Society | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Bard College, Bicentennial, Black Arts Movement, Black History Month, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Carter G. Woodson, Decisive Decade, Family, fathers, Fourth of July, Frederic, Frederick Douglass, Gerald Ford, Growing Up, Kent State, Martin Luther King Jr., Negro History Week, North Carolina, raising black boys, Samuel Yette, Segregation, The Black Blood of Poetry, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch | Leave a comment

Blood at the Root: Then and Now

Posted on February 5, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My first book, the award-winning epic poem, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present, deals with the theme(s) of “the captivity, exploitation and suffering of Black people in America.” But not all of … Continue reading →

Posted in Race, History & American Society | Tagged Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, books, Equal Justice Initiative, Movies, murder, radio, soundtrack, Strange Fruit, White Mob Lynches Thomas Brown on Courthouse Lawn in Nicholasville KY | Leave a comment

Revisiting _The Miseducation of the Negro_ This Black History Month

Posted on February 3, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Carter G. Woodson’s seminal book, The Miseducation of the Negro, published in 1926, is a book Black folk should periodically revisit, perhaps every three years, ideally every year. If you are Black and you have not read the book, then … Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged 1619 Project, african-american, Aristotelian Logic, Aunt Jemima, Black history, Black History Month, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Brown v. Board of Education, Candace Owens, Carter G. Woodson, Clarence Thomas, Classical Rhetoric, Compulsory Education Act (1852), culture, General Grammar, history, Jim Crow, Nicholas Capaldi, Plessy v. Ferguson, raising black boys, Russell Sage College, Slavery, The Art of Deception: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, The Miseducation of the Negro, The Trivium, U.S. Senator Tim Scott, Uncle Tom, writing | Leave a comment

Daddy Dearest

Posted on February 2, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My father, a Native Southern Son, was born in the same month and year Negro History Week was established. Then, we were Negroes. Thirty-four years later, when I was born, we were still Negroes. When my father died at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Memory & Personal Essays, raising black boys | Tagged 1960s, Black Arts Era, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Civil War, Confederacy, Decisive Decade, Emmett Till, Family, fathers, Fourth of July, history, Jim Crow, Michael Easley, politics, raising black boys, Relationships, Richard Wright, Segregated South, Slavery, Southland, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch, Virginia, War of Northern Aggression, World War II | Leave a comment

Black History Month: Celebrating a Legacy of Resilience

Posted on February 1, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Uplifting my Black History Series Blog. This year is the 100th Anniversary of what we know call Black History Month! Continue reading →

Posted in Race, History & American Society | Tagged 1619, 1880 U.S. Census, african-american, Barbados, Black history, Black History Month, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Carter G. Woodson, culture, history, Lift Every Voice and Sing, Negro History Week, North Carolina, racism, The Miseducation of the Negro | Leave a comment

For the Love of Poetry

Posted on January 13, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I love poetry. It is only fitting that my fourth book of poetry, The Black Blood of Poetry, will be released this Valentine’s Day. Although this forthcoming selection, on its face, may not seem like “love poetry,” it is, because … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs, Streets of Rage | Tagged 1960s, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Countee Cullen, Decisive Decade, Growing Up, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Poetry, Robert F. Kennedy, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Black Blood of Poetry, William Blake, William Carlos Williams, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth | Leave a comment

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature, Part III

Posted on January 3, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Continued… (If you missed the second installment, then click here: Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature, Part II) The modern War on Crime, as we know it, was inaugurated with Richard Nixon’s campaign for the presidency in 1968. Nixon declared … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Literature & Cultural Criticism, Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged Abel Meeropol, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Alexis de Tocqueville, Attica Correctional Facility, Attica Rebellion, Billie Holiday, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Class, De Profundis, Democracy in America, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Great Society, Gustave De Beaumont, Hudson Valley Black Press, hyperincarceration, Loic Wacquant, Medellin Cartel, Michelle Alexander, Nelson Rockefeller, News on a Kidnapping, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Oscar Wilde, prison industrial complex, race, revanchist America, Reynold's Magazine, Richard Nixon, Strange Fruit, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, The Four Zoas, The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, The House of the Dead, The New Jim Crow, The United States Penitentiary System and its Application in France, war on crime, War on Drugs, Watergate, William Blake | 2 Comments

I Know Why the Caged Poet Sings

Posted on October 23, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Some of my favorite poets happen to be named William – William Shakespeare, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and William Carlos Williams. When I meet most people, I often ask them what their names mean or the backstory of their names. … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Literature & Cultural Criticism, Streets of Rage | Tagged Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Countee Cullen, fiction, George Washington, Growing Up, juveniles, life, NYPD, raising black boys, short-story, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Thomas Jefferson, travel, William Blake, William Carlos Williams, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, writing, Yet Do I Marvel | Leave a comment

Blacklight

Posted on October 1, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I turn on the Blacklight, And look under America’s skin, Peeling away layers, Exposed is her skin disease, Her obsession with race, Her legacy of Slavery and Segregation – Those peculiar institutions! The auction block, like a butcher’s block…. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Writing Projects, Streets of Rage | Tagged being a teenager, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, raising black boys, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats | Leave a comment

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