Many poems have been written about Emmett Till, the young African-American brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955. The incident and trial to follow, in which his caucasian murderers were acquitted, in a mockery of justice all too common at the time, are credited with sparking the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s.
Among the first such poems (and surely the best) was written by a black French poet born in 1913 on the Caribbean island of Martinique. The controlling metaphor was the State of the Union Message delivered each January by the U.S. President. The poet who wrote "...On the State of the Union" was Aime Césaire.
Among the headline stories throughout the French speaking world, this weekend, is the death of Cesaire, on Thursday, at 94 years of age. According to Sylvain Rakotoarison, of the popular French-language blog Agora Vox, Cesaire passed away on Thursday at 11:20 AM, Paris time -- "Le 17 avril 2008 à 11 h 20 (heure de Paris)," -- after having been hospitalized for eight days for heart problems -- "hospitalisé depuis huit jours pour des problèmes de cœur". Césaire would have been 95 years old on June 26.
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