Gwendolyn Brooks: The Blackstone rangers

This poem was written by a black poet in 1968, the year of the assassination of Martin Luther
King, and in a period that politically and artistically was influenced by the black reolutionary
and ciil rights moements! "ne of the pillars of the #lack $rts Moement was #rooks, who
on the contrary to the #lack %ower and #lack %anthers wanted to make an impact on
goernment policy and to influence racist attitude by the instrument of art!
This poem, howeer, is not a political creed, but only the description of a &hicago gang, yet
the difficulties and desperateness of blacks and the lack of alternaties of negro life is tangible
in the poem! The opus contains three parts! These units of different length place the gangsters
of #lackstone 'treet in the limelight, and focus on their life from different aspects and iews!
The first unit describes the (angers through the eyes of the lawmakers and those who keep up
law and order! These fie lines of the first stan)a are the most e*pressie in the whole poem+
simple structured sentences with efficient e*pressions show how low,rate the -.isciplines/
consider the gang members+ they are -'ores in the city0that do not want to heal!/
The second part of the poem introduces the leaders of the (angers! They are shown as no
dupes of the downtown, they are easy,going guys who are not in a hurry! #ut they are also
unlike #elafonte, King, 'tokely or Malcolm 1, that is 2arry #elafonte, Martin Luther King,
'tokely &armichael and Malcolm 1! These men were freedom fighters of the black affairs in
the 1963s! The lack of similarity between these men and the gang leaders, that is 4eff, 5ene,
5eronimo, and #op, may be attributed to the (angers6 outlaw e*istance, while the formerly
mentioned people were legal actiists of their moement! The outlaw being of the (angers
can be caught in the following sentence+ -Their country is a nation on no map!/
The third and longest part of the poem show gang life from the point of iew of the gang
girls, the (angerettes! "ne of them is highlighted, called Mary $nn, a loer of a gang
member! 'he sometimes wishes herself away from her dwelling place to other -cities of blue
and 7ewel/! -Mary is a rose in a whiskey glass/ means the same+ she lies in a place which is
inade8uate for girls of her kind! Then an aerage year of Mary $nn is described! 9or the first
sight it seems a dull and eentless period of her life, but reading on the reader can find out the
other happenings that bring about in Mary $nn6s life+ somebody, perhaps a friend, terribly
dies: -an amount of rainbow/ is brought to her, which may be a diamond ring, assumably
robbed at someplace by the gang! Then comes the act of loe,making, also an essential part of
their relationship, which may end, as an arrial, in marriage or some other type of
confirmation of their connection! The insufficient circumstances improper for a young girl
again comes up in the following lines+ -from the rooming,flat, pants carefully, peers at0 her
labouring loer;/: meaning that she catches site of her man doing some lawless acts!