Tag Archives: Martin Luther King Jr.

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

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature – The Series

Posted on February 17, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In this series, I trace how a teenage brush with homicide headlines became a lifelong interrogation of justice. From police tape and tabloid “if it bleeds, it leads” narratives to courtrooms, prisons, and the literature that wrestles with guilt, I ask what truth survives punishment. Along the way, I revisit forgotten voices, personal losses, and hard-earned lessons—seeking a language that honors victims, confronts systems, and insists on humanity, story at a time, without flinching. Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Genealogy, Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Streets of Rage | Tagged being a teenager, Black History Month, Growing Up, juveniles, life sentences, Martin Luther King Jr., murder, Parole, raising black boys, remorse, Segregation, Slavery, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Black Blood of Poetry, urban decay | Leave a comment

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature, Part IV

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

I began writing this fourth and “final” installment of “Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature” on Martin Luther King Day. I re-read Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (16 April 1963), not for purposes of this series, but on this … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Literature & Cultural Criticism, Streets of Rage | Tagged 13th, 13th Amendment, Alexis de Tocqueville, Ava DuVernay, Black Codes, Charles Hynes, Conviction Integrity Unit, Darryl Alston, De Profundis, Draft Riots of 1863, Equal Justice Initiative, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Growing Up, Gustave De Beaumont, Hillary Clinton, hyperincarceration, Johnson Crime Commission, Jonathan Fleming, Kenneth P. Thompson, Letter from Birmingham Jail, life sentences, Loic Wacquant, Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., Mass Incarceration, Michael G. Pass, Nuremberg, Oscar Wilde, Post-Reconstruction, prison industrial complex, raising black boys, Reconstruction, Red Summer, Richard Nixon, Rosewood massacre, Sara Mayeux, school-to-prison pipeline, Slavery, The House of the Dead, Tulsa Race Riot, urban decay, war on crime, War on Drugs | 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

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

Exploring Book Bans: The Impact on Black Literature

Posted on February 3, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On a recent summer trip to Virgina, where one could argue that it all began in 1619, that is, the enslavement of Africans in what would become the United States of America, I stopped at a Barnes & Noble. During … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs, Religion | Tagged 1619, 1619 Project, Alice Walker, Banned books, Barnes & Noble, Black History Month, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Black Wall Street, Cesar Chavez, Florida, Kansas, Lorraine Hansberry, Martin Luther King Jr., Oklahoma, PEN America, Pennsylvania, Rosa Parks, Rosewood, Slavery, Texas, The Birth of a Nation, The Clansman, The Fire Next Time, Thomas Dixon Jr., Through the Fire, Toni Morrison, Virginia | 1 Comment

Understanding MLK’s Legacy and America’s Complicated Past

Posted on January 19, 2025 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The author’s political awakening began with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, marking a profound shift in societal consciousness and the end of the Civil Rights Era. Reflections on history reveal a complex narrative dominated by white perspectives, with 1968 identified as a pivotal and traumatic year for America’s identity. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs, Religion, Streets of Rage | Tagged 1968, Black Power, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Civil Rights, Civil Rights Era, Great Society, Growing Up, history, Martin Luther King Jr., news, politics, raising black boys, Relationships, Richard Nixon, Robert F. Kennedy, The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America | 1 Comment

A Red Record Redux

Posted on May 30, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, in A Red Record (1895), about the bloody murders of Black people at the hands of white people, lists three “excuses” white people gave for the wholesale murder of Black people by whites. The excuses are: …the … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society, Streets of Rage | Tagged 15th Amendment, A Red Record, Al Capone, American Fiction, Christiaen van Couwenbergh, Civil War, Donald Trump, Equal Justice Initiative, Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter, Ida B. Wells, Ku Klux Klan, Martin Luther King Jr., miscegenation, No Negro Domination, raising black boys, Reconstruction, Regulators, Relationships, Rudy Giuliani, Slavery, The Rape of the Negro Girl | Leave a comment

The Assassination of Dr. King – My first “political memory”

Posted on April 4, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My first political memory, at age 7, is the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I was too young to remember the assassinations of JFK and Malcolm X, and although RFK would be assassinated later in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Growing Up, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society, raising black boys, Revolution, urban decay, Urban Impact | Tagged Andrew Goodman, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Decisive Decade, Growing Up, James Chaney, Jim Crow, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Michael Schwerner, Mississippi Burning, murder, Poetry, raising black boys, Robert F. Kennedy, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Black Blood of Poetry, urban decay | 1 Comment

From the American Revolution to the Black Arts Cultural Revolution

Posted on February 21, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

After the American Revolution, most of the defining moments in American history involve or revolve around Black people. Black folk were even involved in the American Revolution, fighting on both sides – the British promised Africans and the descendants of … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs, Streets of Rage | Tagged 1619, 1619 Project, American Revolution, Black Arts Era, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Boston Massacre, Camelot, Crispus Attucks, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Growing Up, John F. Kennedy, Larry Neal, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Nation of Islam, patriotism, Poetry, Robert F. Kennedy, Slavery, urban decay | Leave a comment

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