Mad White Disease Poem by Ima Ryma

The year was 1964.
Some places in the South were still
Fighting the U.S. Civil War,
In brutal ways as mad whites will.
A Mississippi murder case,
Three young civil rights workers dead,
Focused the nation, time and place,
On how mad white disease had spread,
Infecting local government
Into complicity with crime,
Encouraging mad whites, hell bent
Being racist in place and time.

In South and North there still exist
Mad whites bent on being racist.