3
Read the excerpt from "Elegy for the Native Guards."
The Daughters of the Confederacy
has placed a plaque here, at the fort's entrance-
each Confederate soldier's name raised hard
in bronze; no names carved for the Native Guards-
2nd Regiment, Union men, black phalanx.
What is monument to their legacy?
All the grave markers, all the crude headstones-
water-lost. Now fish dart among their bones,
as we listen for what the saves intone.
Only the fort remains, near forty feet high,
round, unfinished, half open to the sky,
The elements-wind, rain,-God's deliberate eye.
"Native Guard" from Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey. Copyright (c) 2008 by Natasha
Trethewey Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
What does this excerpt express about the struggle for
equality?
O Even the forgotten find peace at the end of life.
O Nature does not discriminate while causing
destruction.
O Even in death, oppressed people are treated poorly.
O At the end of their lives, everybody faces an
identical fate.
