Selma, 1965

House’s “Selma, 1965” is a free verse poem written in 23 lines of varying lengths. There is no set metrical pattern, rhythm, or rhyme scheme and the poem consists of a single stanza. Highly enjambed—the sentences continue beyond the line break into the next line—the poem sets the scene of the historic march out of Selma, Alabama by layering in added details line by line (“in Selma / in the summer so hot” [Line 2-3]).

Written as a memory of a past event, House opens “Selma, 1965” with the image of ghosts (“Amid the ghosts of civil rights marchers” [Line 1]), which is carried throughout the poem and revisited in Line 9 (“We watched them come”) and again in Line 15 (“The were tattered angels of hope”). The ghosts introduced in Line 1 haunt the poem and become a larger symbol moving through Selma's streets—and through the lines of the poem. The word “Amid” (Line 1) stands out. Amid means surrounded by or in the middle of. In the middle of these ghosts walking for rights, are children singing in the street a song that defies slavery: “Before I’d be a slave, / I’d be buried in my grave…” (Lines 6-7). Taking place during the heart of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the poem addresses themes of freedom and justice as the marchers walk from Selma to the state’s capital in Montgomery. The poem stands at a pivotal moment in history for Black Americans. This is represented by the children (who symbolize the next generation) singing songs of freedom, and the marching ghosts (who represent slavery of the past) who march for that freedom.

Told through the first-person plural perspective, “Selma, 1965” is written as a memory from House’s time in Selma. The “we” recounts the memory of the ghost-like marchers and watches them “From the freedom school window” (Line 8), where House taught when she lived in Selma. The speaker watches the ghosts “come / across the lawns of the housing projects” (Lines 9-10), indicating low-income, government-owned housing for poverty-stricken people. The ghosts march “down the rain-rutted dirt roads” (Line 11) and “through the puddles waiting cool for bare feet” (Line 12). This imagery of the scenery indicates the toughness of the march, how uncomfortable it was, and how poor the marchers are (indicated by their bare feet walking through the wet streets). The roads are worn, the marchers are barefoot, and the streets have puddles of mud. As a civil rights poem, “Selma, 1965” has thematic undertones of slavery, represented by the threadbare imagery of the steadfast marchers.

In Line 15, the speaker defines the ghosts as “tattered” (Line 15), further indicating their worn nature. Yet, by defining them as “angels of hope” (Line 15), these marchers stand for hopeful freedom in the face of injustice. The speaker further provides imagery of “plaits caught at odd angles” (Line 16)—an allusion to braids and the cultural hairstyle of Black Americans. These marchers are frustrated at the unjust way they’re being treated as they are “standing indignantly” (Line 17).

The march, led by Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, was a five-day, 54-mile journey for equal voting rights. House describes the marchers as a “ripped hem” (Line 18), again focusing on their ripped clothing and the arduous journey on which they’re embarking. Before they even begin, they have “grey knees poking through denim frames” (Line 19); already, they are ghosts. Describing the marchers as ghosts may be a reference to the previous unsuccessful marches in Selma weeks before this march—some of which ended in police brutality and the death of Black American protesters.

These ghosts paint a haunting picture of the marchers heading to Montgomery to demand rights that should have long ago been granted to them. The poem concludes with the image of the marchers dancing as “they performed their historic drama / against the set of their / wet brick project homes” (Lines 21-23). By describing the march as a “drama” (Line 21) and as the marchers as “Dancing the whole trip” (Line 20), House comments on the theater of this iconic event. Far from a performance, these marchers were marching for the right to vote and the right to be counted as a human being in America. Far from a play, this march is an act of determination and justice. The poem concludes against the set of the “wet brick project homes” (Line 23), alluding to their inequity when compared to those they will face at the state’s capital.