This document summarizes and analyzes a poetry collection by Frank X Walker titled Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers. The collection uses persona poems to tell the story of Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1963. Walker coins the term "Affrilachia" to represent the importance of the African American presence in Appalachia. The document discusses various poems from the collection, analyzing references and allusions to history, music, and culture. It provides context on the people and events mentioned in the poems, such as Emmett Till, Harriet Tubman, and the songs "Dixie" and "Strange Fruit."

1. Frank X Walker
Poet Laureate of Kentucky

2. Appalachia
Walker coined the term ‘Affrilachia’
to signify the importance of the African
American presence in Appalachia.
Affrilachia is also the title of one of
Walker’s six books of poetry.

3. In 2013, Walker became the first African American to be
Poet Laureate of Kentucky.

4. When Walker is honored as the new Poet
Laureate, he reads three poems:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2P0JmT90F
0.

5. “Ultra Sheen” is a poem dedicated to his wife. It
demonstrates the playfulness of poetry.
Unlike informative writing, poetry is as much
about the journey as the destination, as much
about the medium (language) as the message.
Poetry is meant to be heard, to be reread and
savored.
Informative writing is a commute on I-380;
poetry is a roller coaster ride or a leisurely drive
through a park.

6. “Sorority Sisters” is from the Walker’s most recent book, Turn Me Loose:
The Unghosting of Medgar Evers.

7. “Kentucke” helps demonstrate why Walker
coined the term ‘Affrilachia.’

8. Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers pays
tribute to slain Civil Rights leader, Medgar Evers.

9. Medgar Evers was the head of the Mississippi NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

10. Evers was assassinated in 1963, the same year
that President Kennedy was assassinated--five
years before the assassination of Martin Luther
King Jr.

11. The poems in Turn Me Loose are
persona poems.
They are not in the poet Walker’s voice, but in
the voice of several historical figures. None of
these voices belong to Medgar Evers himself,
but to the following people:

12. Myrlie Evers, Medgar Evers’ widow

13. Charles Evers, Medgar Evers’ brother

14. Byron de la Beckwith,
Medgar Evers’ killer

15. Beckwith’s two wives—Mary Louise “Willie” and
Thelma—and anonymous sixth voice that, according to
Walker, “works like a Greek chorus” in a tragedy.

16. Walker’s poems contain several historical and cultural
allusions (references). The titles of his book’s five sections
allude to two songs.
“Dixie” “Strange Fruit”

17. “Dixie”
• The song is now best known as a cheery tune
that celebrates the South.
• The first verse and chorus are the most
famous part.
• Some people see the song as racist.

18. “Dixie” was originally written shortly before the Civil War. In its original form,
it was a sort of persona poem set to music.
A white man, Daniel Decatur Emmett, wrote it in the voice of a fictionalized
former enslaved person who wants to return to the South.
Emmett wrote the song for a minstrel show, a popular entertainment with
skits and songs featuring white people in “blackface” making fun of black
people and fostering stereotypes such as the bumbling happy-go-lucky slave.

19. “Dixie” became the unofficial “national anthem” of the
Confederacy.
I wish I was in the land of cotton,
old times there are not forgotten,
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.
In Dixie Land where I was born in, early on a frosty mornin',
Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.
Then I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! hooray!
In Dixie Land I'll take my stand to live and die in Dixie,
Away, away, away down South in Dixie,
Away, away, away down South in Dixie.
Listen to a 1916:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff58W_m2
ipk.

20. “Strange Fruit” was originally written by Abel
Meeropol, a white teacher from the Bronx, in 1937. The
poem was inspired by 1930 photo of Thomas Shipp and
Abram Smith, two black men who were lynched in
Indiana.
photo by Lawrence Beitler

21. “More than 85 percent of the estimated 5,000 lynchings in the post-Civil War
period occurred in the Southern states. . . . In most years from 1889 to 1923,
50 to 100 lynchings occurred annually across the South.”
The racism behind lynching was expressed by Benjamin Tillman, a South
Carolina governor and senator, as he addressed the U.S. Senate in 1900:
We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to
govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to
be the equal of the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying
his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him.
“Lynching in the United States.” Wikipedia. 15 September 2014.

22. Billie Holiday popularized “Strange Fruit.”
Find her performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs.

23. “Strange Fruit”
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

24. Rene Marie combines “Dixie” with “Strange Fruit,” thus highlighting the
absurdity of a former enslaved person wanting to return to “Dixie”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjCJAs-56nI.
Compare the tone and style with which Rene Marie sings “Dixie” to the more
popular version you just heard.

25. other allusions in Turn Me Loose:
The Unghosting of Medgar Evers

26. “Dixie Suite”
Part 1

27. “Rotten Fruit” (5)
“They put up a lil’ fight, at first / but sooner or later a lucky man / will get his hand on a cat…”
Misogynistic: reflecting or exhibiting hatred, dislike, mistrust, or mistreatment of women.

28. “How to lay / low, be patient and wait.”
This is a picture of Byron De La Beckwith on his front porch, with the confederate flag in the background.

29. “in a fair fight between his nigger, jack, / and that nigger, joe louis.”
Who is Joe Louis?
Joe louis was an African American boxer and World Heavy Weight Champion from 1937 to 1949. He
is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweight of all time.
Joe Lewis

30. “The N-Word”
Page 8

31. “...brings back the smell / of German shepherd
breath…”
In the slaveholding South, German shepherds were used
"for hunting, sport, and tracking runaway slaves."
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57784-2004Sep2.html

32. “of fresh gasoline / and sulfur air…”
Sulfur is a component of black gunpowder.

33. “of fresh gasoline and sulfur air…”

34. “I hear nine brave children / walking a gauntlet of hate
in Little Rock…”
Little Rock Nine = nine
brave students who
started to attend the
previously all-white
Little Rock Central High
in 1957

35. “...and four innocent little girls/lifted up to heaven
too soon.”

36. “...and four innocent little girls
lifted up to heaven too soon.”
In 1963, a Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Alabama was
bombed by white
supremacist.
Four little girls (11-14) were
killed, twenty others were
injured.
(http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmjustice3.html)

37. “Instead of a rebel yell / I hear a rifle bark.”
Rebel yell was a battle cry used by
Confederate soldiers during the American Civil
War to intimidate enemies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_yell)

38. “BYRON DE LA BECKWITH
DREAMING I”
Page 11

39. “...there was a sign saying “Welcome Home De lay” and when
I go in the outskirts of Greenwood, there was another one. It
brought tears to my eyes.”
There was a large sign posted on the outskirts of town as well
as people crowding on the streets screaming “Welcome
home” after the trial of Byron De La Beckwith. (
Devil's Sanctuary: An Eyewitness History of Mississippi Hate Crimes
By James L. Dickerson, Alex A. Alston, Jr)

40. “Mamma’s holding a baby / with perfect blue eyes”
“She drops it when a tea kettle /
screams”

41. “she reaches for me / but I start to float away”
“there is a sound like a loud / hand clap and
suddenly...” Both trials ended in mistrials with all-white, all-male juries unable to
reach verdicts.
De La Beckwith was twice tried for
murder in 1964

42. “I’m floating face up / in a thick warm soup”
There was a third trial in 1994, before a jury of eight African-Americans
and 4 whites. The only new evidence brought to his third trial was Byron
Beckwith’s boasting of the murder at Ku Klux Klan rallies over the past three
decades, after the crime.

43. “the air smells like our bathroom
when Willie’s on the rag
I drink down all the soup and a crowd
gathers around me singing ‘Dixie’”
Beckwith was convicted for murder and
died in prison in 2001.
“’Dixie’ made the case, more strongly than any previous
minstrel tune had, that slaves belonged in bondage. This was
accomplished through the song's protagonist, who, in comic
black dialect implies that despite his freedom, he is homesick
for the plantation of his
birth.”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_(song)

44. “Southern Dreams”
Part 2

45. “Fire Proof” (15)
• How guilty is Willie? How directly involved is
she? How much did she know?
– As guilty as her husband. She’s not directly
involved, but she knows exactly what she is doing.
She doesn’t know the specifics, but she knows
enough to know it’s wrong.
• There are no photos or any real record of
Mary Louise “Willie” Williams that can be
found on the internet. Nor is there any record
of Willie De La Beckwith.

46. “White of Way” (18)
• Why is it formatted like a
dictionary entry?
– What De La Beckwith believes
to be the definitions of these
words: “[white] power”,
“[white] pride”, and “[white]
privilege.”
– Written after A. Van Jordan, and
twisted to fit De La Beckwith’s
own views.
• Who is A. Van Jordan?
– An African American Poet. Born
in Akron, Ohio in 1965.

47. “Music, Niggers, & Jews” (19)
• Is De La Beckwith racist against
everyone that is not a white
Christian?
– Yes, based on how his views and
opinions are shown in the poem.
For instance, “ the Jews that
control television is even less.”
• Who was Johnny Cash and George
Jones? Who was Johnny Carson
and Dick Clark? What was “Hee
Haw”?
– They were both famous musicians
and singers. Carson was the front
man for the Carson Show, and
Dick Clark tried to integrate the
“American Band Stand”. “Hee
Haw” was a “Saturday Night Live”
kind of show, which showcased
country music.

48. “Unwritten Rules For Young Black Boys
Wanting to Live in Mississippi Long
Enough to Become Men” (23)
• Why must young black
boys adhere to these
rules so strictly?
– If they didn’t they ran
the risk of being beaten,
murdered, tortured,
raped, maimed, burned,
lynched, drowned, and
killed through the use of
automobiles.

49. PART 3
“LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY…”

50. “After Dinner in Money, Mississippi” (29)
• This poem was written after Tyehimba Jess, who was born in
Detroit and who earned his BA from the University of Chicago
and his MFA from New York University.
• What is a “75-lb cotton gin fan”?
Emmett Till’s body was found in the Tallahatchie River with a 75
lb. cotton gin fan as a weight.

51. “After dinner in Money, Mississippi” (29)
Left side: recipe for pecan pie
Right side: “recipe” for killing
black people
“Corn syrup,
vanilla… and
butter… a
thin crust…
with
pecans…”
“
“any nigger
looking at
white
women…
wait till
after… open
wounds”
“ready when brown and puffy”
These two complete different pictures are getting connected in this
poem. It makes it seem like both things were daily activities and that
killing a black person is on the same level as baking a pie.

52. “World War Too” (30)
• Jim Crow Army
Jim Crow army was a black army from the USA that fought in the
frontline and horrible positions at war.
• Blitzkrieg
An intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift
victory. (German army during the second world war)
• Messerschmitts
Was a German aircraft manufacturing corporation and known for
their World War II fighter aircraft.

53. Medgar and Charles fought in World War II in the Jim Crow Army
After they came back from the war they had to fight for their
rights.
After they risked their life for their country they had to fight for
being a part of it.

54. “Believing in Hymn” (31)
• Music helped these people to not fight back in a violent way.
• “God would come in a song / wearing a black woman’s voice”
• “so much space there was no room to hate back.”
Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”
(April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959)

55. • “Every Time she laid down a verse over the roar / of fire
hoses, attack dogs, and police batons, / our own voices would
join hands, pick it up / and let the chorus carry us as far as we
needed to go.”
Music was something that helped to deal
with their situation and to fight back in a
non-violent way.

56. “Southern Bells” (32)
“When our grandfathers strutted back
from the slave quarters
still unzipped and whiskey-eyed
and on occasion forgetting
it was a sweet southern belle
they were now wringing”
• What does Walker mean when
he says “unzipped and
whiskey-eyed”?
• The grandfathers were in the
“slave quarters” raping the
slaves, coming back with their
pants still “unzipped”.

57. “Fighting Extinction” (33)
“Allowing the free mixing of colored and
white / is worse than too much pepper on a
bowl of grits.”
This certain stanza in this
poem was very powerful
message. It was making it
seem like integration was
never going to be accepted.

58. “Harriet Tubman as Villain: A Ghost
Story”( 34)
“There was a scary ol’ black woman ghost /
that carried a shotgun and snuck into the
quarters / at night to steal little picaninnies
an’ field hands.”
Harriet Tubman escaped
slavery at the age of 29
before the American Civil War
began. She wanted to become
an abolitionist. She returned
many times to rescue both
family members and non-relatives.
Tubman led many to
freedom. She was known as
the “conductor” of the
Underground Railroad.

59. “After the FBI Searched the Bayou”
(36)
“We could only find solace
looking out over the Mississippi,
watching that dark woman
swallow the sun.”
Who is the dark woman?
Who is responsible for all these deaths?
The KKK, people who don’t like someone based on their
The dark woman is the Mississippi River.
ethnicity and color, are those who are
responsible for the murder of all these people.

60. “After the FBI Searched the Bayou” (36)
Bayou: a marshy part of a lake
Who were Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney?
They were American civil rights leaders. They
were shot in 1964 by members of the KKK and
the Philadelphia Police Department located in
Philadelphia, Mississippi. They were trying to
get African Americans registered to vote.

61. “Haiku For Emmett Till” (37)
Who was Emmett Till?
“Emmett Till was an African-American teenager
who was murdered in Mississippi the age of 14
after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till
was from Chicago visiting his relatives in
Mississippi, when he spoke to 21-year-old
Carolyn Bryant, several nights later, Bryant's
husband and his half-brother went to the house
where Till was staying. They took Till away to a
barn, where they beat him and gouged out one
of his eyes, before shooting him through the
head and disposing of his body in the
Tallahatchie River. Three days later, Till's body
was discovered and retrieved from the river.”
(Wikipedia)
eyeball rape: Till’s supposed flirtation
with a white woman
come home in a box: the box Till
came home in was a casket
mongrel: racist word for
a person of mixed descent
Medgar Evers’ Involvement in the Till Case
After the murder of Emmett Till,
Evers was investigating the murder,
and he had a target on his back from the
white supremacists.

62. “No More Fear” (38)
Who was Lamar Smith?
Lamar Smith was an organizer for voter registration
for the African-Americans. He was shot in front of
the courthouse.
Who is Uncle Mose?
Uncle Mose was Till’s Great Uncle
What happened to Emmett Till’s killers?
They were found "Not Guilty." Six weeks after
the murder trial, a Leflore County grand jury
refused to indict Bryant and Milam on
kidnapping charges, and both men were
released from custody.
Lamar Smith

63. “When Death Moved In” (39)
U.S. marshals escorted James Meredith, a nine-year U.S. Air
Force veteran, onto the campus of the University of Mississippi
in Oxford as the school’s first African-American student.
Meredith being escorted into the university

64. “Gallant South”
Part 4

65. “After Birth” (44)
“Just laying there covered with blood, / (laughs)
but already trying to crawl.”
A newborn squirms/tries to crawl after being
born and someone who is about to be murdered
is squirming or trying to crawl to survive.

66. “Sorority Meeting”
(45-46)
• What event made Myrlie, Willie, and Thelma
become sisters?
– Definition of sorority is a society for females that
attend a university or college, mainly used for social
purposes.
– The three became sisters because they were all sort of
trapped in their own situation that seemed to overlap
with the other women’s lives.
• What are the secrets that they will take to their
graves?
– The secrets of their husbands? Byron being a killer?
Did Medgar have some secrets as well?

67. “Sorority Meeting” Continued
• What is “country ballad”?
– Definition of country ballad is a song that tells a
story and can have different themes such as:
romantic, dramatic, funny, sad, etc.
• Myrlie sleeps with the ghost of her husband
while Willie is sleeping with Medgar’s killer.
– Medgar was killed by Byron and Myrlie finds
herself sleeping with a ghost because of her
husband’s death. Willie is sleeping with a killer
because Byron was the individual that took
Medgar’s life for no reason.

68. “Big-Hearted”
(50)
• Big-Hearted is not at all how this
poem should be titled instead it
should be called Cold-Hearted.
• Thelma is saying that Byron is not a
monster. Instead, she was saying that
Byron was being “generous” by
shooting Medgar in the back rather
than in the face. Shooting someone
is never an act of generosity.

69. “What They Call Irony”
(52)
• In Mississippi, did white men on trial always lie? Was
there a reputation of lying and being caught?
• What is Judases?
– An individual that betrays another under friendship
• What is the connection between the lynching postcard
and playing jump rope with a tree?
– Jump rope is something that is generally fun so maybe the
disturbing connection is that lynching is fun to those doing
it.
• What is carpetbaggers?
– Northerners who move to the South to take advantage of
the unstableness occurring. Called Carpetbaggers because
of the bags they carried that were made of carpet.

70. “What They Call Irony” Continued
De la Beckwith is saying that
being found guilty is like
seeing himself being
lynched. Frank X Walker says
“it’s like Christmas” because
Beckwith being convicted
was a gift to everyone that
hated him and what he did.

71. “On Moving to California” (53)
• Who is Fannie Lou Hamer?
– She was an American voting rights activist
and civil rights leader. Died at the age of 60
because of heart failure.
• Why was it important to include her in
this poem?
– She was a strong individual and showed others
how to stand up for what they believe in and
encouraged other blacks to vote.
• What does the title mean?
– The title has a lot to do with the poem. After
Medgar was killed, Myrlie and the children
moved from Mississippi to California where
Myrlie became a civil rights activist.

72. “Bitter Fruit”
Part 5

73. “One Missisippi, Two Missippis” (57)
Parchman Prison
• Giant plantation
• Slept in cages
• Started in January 1901
• 12 male camps, 1 female camp with racial segregation

74. Thomas Sayers Ellis…
• Professor at Sarah Lawrence College
• Poet and author of “The Maverick Room”
• Helped found The Dark Room Collective, a
group of black writers

75. Debutante Balls
• An event where a young woman, sometimes a young man,
is formally introduced into society
• Typically dressed in all white ball gown dresses, or all white
military uniform
• “Coming of age” party
“You got debutante balls
We got juke joints”

76. “Now One Wants to Be President” (59)
An Educated Mongrel
• Normal definition: Any other animal resulting
from the crossing of breeds.
• Offensive definition: A person of mixed
descent.
• Referencing to how Obama is our first African
American President and “Thelma’s thoughts
on it.
“forty-five years to raise another boy
man enough to send home in a box”

77. “Epiphany” (60)
An epiphany is a sudden realization about the
nature or meaning of something. Epiphany can
often come from a person’s life experience.

78. “The Assurance Man” (64)
Alvin Alcorn
• African American trumpet player in New
Orleans.
• Successful African American in the south.

79. “White Knights” (62)
KKK Then and Now
Today there are 152 chapters of the KKK, which means 5,000 to 8,000
members.

80. “White Nights” continued
For every hateful act in the world, there is
someone out there still trying to do good.

82. This presentation was created by members of Mount Mercy University’s Fall
2014 composition class, EN114 Writing and Social Issues.
The introductory slides were created by instructor Mary Vermillion.
The slides related to Part 1 were created by Mary Starks, Nikola Janatova, and Dana Ukari.
The slides related to Part 2 were created by Quinn Burke, Autumn Miene, and Cheylee
Octavio.
The slides related to Part 3 were created by Heather Horstman, Makayla McIntyre, and
Tomas Zaijfert.
The slides related to Part 4 were created by Receva Duos, Shelby Sorensen, and Rylie
Worm.
The slides related to Part 5 were created by Alivia Clark, Sarah Jirik, Katie Rolfes, and Eric
Stevenson.
All of the videos and images in this presentation were taken from online sources.