I don’t drink no alcohol
I don’t smoke no herb
I don’t snort no coke
I don’t even like tea
yet there’s still one addiction
that’s got a hold on me
and like any true addict
I ain’t trying to get free
I’m hooked on poetry
hooked on the expressed word
got a gigantic habit
the whole neighborhood’s done heard
they be lookin’ at me funny-like
talkin’ ‘bout me behind my back
but it don’t bother me none

As another Memorial Day rolls around, it becomes even more meaningful as more participants of World War II—the event that shaped them, their descendants, and the globe arguably more than any other—pass on.

These battle-harden veterans exchanged their uniforms for civilian dress and became the cornerstone of Black communities across America; paving the way for Civil Rights triumphs later in the century. Freeman Gamble Sr. was one of those men.