Mark Twain’s words resonate with me not because I am a poet and a history buff but because today’s headlines sometimes feel ripped from the past. My poetic books on historical subjects help young readers connect the dots between past and present. Thus, the poems below from Jesse Owens: Fast Man Alive and Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time–A One-Man Show could not be more timely. Both books are illustrated by my frequent collaborator, Eric Velasquez. Jesse Owens is set during the 1936 Berlin Olympics when Nazism was on the rise. Outspoken is a full biography of entertainer and activist Paul Robeson, who was blacklisted and barred from performing after testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s.

You are not meant to see
the concentration camps
that hold free-thinking souls
who dared to challenge Hitler’s rise.
***
This is not war–not yet.

From JESSE OWENS

You want to shut up every Negro
who has the courage to stand up and fight
for the rights of his people, for the rights of workers.

From OUTSPOKEN

Download a free teachers guide for Outspoken here.