They Changed the Map but Not the Game
The law was signed to change the land,
to break the grip of Southern hands,
so Black Americans could finally stand,
with equal rights the law had planned.
For years the South denied the vote,
with threats and fear at every poll,
through crooked laws and shifting goals,
they fought to keep us from control.
They changed the map but not the game,
just gave the old rules newer names,
and hid old power behind new claims,
while saying race was not to blame.
No burning cross stood in the square,
no sheriff’s dogs were waiting there,
yet maps were drawn with careful care,
to split Black voices everywhere.
In Tennessee the lines were split,
in Alabama courts still sit,
while Louisiana battles it,
and race hides deep in politics.
They changed the map but not the game,
just gave the old rules newer names,
and hid old power behind new claims,
while saying race was not to blame.
The lines were drawn to shift the weight,
to move the power, seal the fate,
to guard old power within the state,
while courts still wrestle claims of hate.
The old attacks were harsh and plain,
today they hide through laws and claims,
through maps designed to shift the game,
while saying race was not the aim.
And if we fail to teach what’s true,
the past returns in something new,
because old fears still travel through
the laws and maps we still live through.
They changed the map but not the game,
just gave the old rules newer names,
and hid old power behind new claims,
while saying race was not to blame.
Eric Lawrence Frazier Poet