The 61 poems in White Terror Black Trauma concentrate on some of the most traumatic events in Black history from colonial to contemporary times, from the arrival of enslaved Africans in 1619 to Black revolts, Civil War atrocities, incalculable lynchings, the Tulsa massacre, the brave sacrifices of Rosa Parks, the Freedom Riders, the heroes of school desegregation, the murders of Emmet Till, Dr. King, Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Eric Garner, and Tyre Nichols. And so many other Black tragedies.
Each poem here carries a brief head note identifying the person, place, time, or event that addresses the historical context of the poem. Some poems are written in a his/her recollection of the historical event. Above all, each poem highlights the topography of Black trauma, be that a Civil War fort, a lynching tree, a prison, a school, an island, a ghetto, a river, a national monument, a church, or city street. These resistance poems are chronicles, laments, petitions, heroic recollections about racial attacks on Black people in America.