Nikki Giovanni (Photo credit: Tulane Public Relations)

By Bryce Stucki

Nikki Giovanni is one of America’s most famous poets. She is a New York Times bestseller, a one-time Woman of the Year winner from Mademoiselle and Ebony magazines, a recipient of the first Rosa L. Parks Woman of Courage Award, and a holder of a Langston Hughes Medal. She wrote that “writing is … what I do to justify the air I breathe.” Below is a poem she penned for the Prospect, reflecting on the March on Washington 50 years later.

We, too

I was home

In Lincoln Heights

Named for Abraham

As many other small black

Communities are

Only 20 years old

Not cowardly

I had picketed Rich’s

Department Store in Knoxville

I sat in with Fisk University

In Nashville

But not all that Brave

Mommy didn’t want

Me to go

Neither did my father and I wondered

Would it matter

50 years later I know

It did

We watched

We prayed

We, too, were

inspired

I didn’t go

I stayed home

And reminded myself:

We also serve

Who sit

And Wait

Nikki Giovanni, currently an English professor at Virginia Tech, gained fame after self-publishing her first book of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk, in 1968 at the age of 25, shortly after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. She soon began winning awards for her poetry, essays, and books for young people; appeared on television; recorded albums; and was anthologized over and over. Some of her best-known poems include “Nikki-Rosa” and “Ego Tripping (there may be a reason why).”

Read More Nikki Giovanni Remembers 1963 with a New Poem.