"Still I Rise"

One day after being confirmed on April 7, 2022 by the United States Senate, and now being feted on the lawn of the White House, Supreme Court Justice-to-be Katanji Brown Jackson spoke to the world. She surely moved it both emotionally and historically. She projected the power of words, including the power of poetry, the latter by reciting one line from a poem by Maya Angelou titled “Still I Rise.” That one line: “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.” It is in the last stanza of this resonating and haunting poem of human spirit and resilience. “Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.” The poem appears in “The Complete Col…