May 19, 1968, was not just another day in Harlem.
On Malcolm X’s birthday, a group of Black poets gathered at Mount Morris Park, now Marcus Garvey Park, in East Harlem. Out of that moment came The Original Last Poets, a spoken-word group that helped turn poetry into a weapon, a warning, a sermon, and a soundtrack for Black consciousness.
This was only three years after Malcolm X was assassinated. The country was still bleeding from the murder of Dr. King. Black America was grieving, organizing, questioning, and refusing to keep begging a country to see its humanity.
The Last Poets stepped into that fire with rhythm, truth, and language sharp enough to cut through silence. They were not just “performing poetry.” They were speaking to a people who had been lied on, locked out, watched, policed, and told to be patient while injustice kept eating at the table.
Their words carried the energy of the streets, the church, the rally, the drum circle, and the classroom. They spoke about racism, power, revolution, identity, and what it meant to be Black in a country that wanted Black culture but not Black freedom.
That is why so many people call them early ancestors of hip-hop. Before rap became an industry, there were voices like theirs using cadence, repetition, rhythm, and truth-telling to move a crowd. They showed that spoken words could hit like music before a beat even dropped.
And let’s be real, that matters.
Because hip-hop did not come out of nowhere. It came from pain. It came from resistance. It came from people using whatever they had to tell the truth when the official story kept lying.
The Original Last Poets remind us that Black art has always been bigger than entertainment. Sometimes it is testimony. Sometimes it is protest. Sometimes it is survival with a microphone.
On May 19, 1968, poetry stood up in Harlem and spoke with its chest.
#BlackHistory #TheLastPoets #HipHopHistory #SpokenWord #BlackCulture #MalcolmX #HarlemHistory
