Festival honors Frank McQueen

WW photo: Joseph Piette

A year ago on June 2, Frank McQueen was shot and killed by Chester, Pa., police. Since then, McQueen’s mother, Del Matthews, has been seeking justice and trying to get answers on why cops killed her son.

Matthews organized a June 6 community festival dedicated to McQueen’s memory and to raise money for his children’s college fund.

A highlight was when McQueen’s sister, Genita Beckham, read the poem “America’s Problem: Black Man” from “My Way of Saying Thank You,” one of McQueen’s three published books, revealing the talent lost when cops killed her brother:

You created the genocide we now witness,
plus the modern-day slavery
of drugs and jail cells
minus reparations, education, and rehabilitation.
And this is supposed to be equal?
America the beautiful?
Where’s the beauty in sweeping problems under the rug?
“Outta sight, outta mind,” is for the ignorant.
But I know, oh I know it still exists.
So because I don’t close my eyes
I am another one of America’s problems!
Because I don’t shut my mouth
I am another one of America’s problems!
Because I was born Black
I am another one of America’s problems!
Well then,
I accept my fate.
America, you got a problem
and I refuse to go away easily!