PART A: Which of the following best identifies a theme of the poem? A. Hate and fear are powerful emotions that always lead to violence.

B. Fear of change can cause people to act in ways they normally wouldn’t.

C. Even when change is met with violence, the ideals behind the change persist.

D. The law views everyone as equal, but groups may not.

This is a poem called freedom summers, its author is J. Patrick Lewis.

This is the poem:
That day in June we stopped in Meridian, I reached in my pocket for the penny I called Hope. The Negro barber nodded, Y’all comeback soon. In Long dale the KKK had burned down Mount Zion Church. We had left the inferno when Sheriff Price ordered us into a cruiser for a shortcut to county jail. With the odor of pee running down my pant leg, Mickey whispered, Don’t expect that one phone call, and he was right. They fed us potatoes, peas, poke salad, and spoon bread. Our last supper. But once the Klan ambush was set up, the sheriff fined me $20, and told us, Git gone for good. Then the whole thin shimmer of our lives evaporated like smoke in a fog. Armed with cone-hat con-viction and long-necked persuaders, the Klan rode in for last rites to the first rights of a gaunt trio. Flames licked the car as it sank under Bogue Chitto Swamp. After single shots to the heart had taken Mickey and Andrew, they’d saved three bullets for me. Freedom Summer is Forlorn Winter at the tag end of living. And just before they pitched our bodies into earthen graves on Old Jolly Farm, I remember that my hand was in my pocket. I could still feel Hope.