Within days of George Floyd's 2020 killing by a police officer who kneeled on his neck, Herbert Martin channeled widespread public grief and outrage over the gruesome murder into a text for what became a choral work.
"Everybody knew about it and everyone felt overwhelmed by it," the poet said five years after the murder that inspired A Knee on the Neck. "One of the things that I thought was this is an opportune time to take advantage of this particular moment in our history, to say something that is meaningful to everybody in the country who want to listen to this."
The requiem cantata, which was composed by Adolphus Hailstork, had its world premiere in 2022 at the National Philharmonic, with the National Philharmonic Chorale and members of The Washington Chorus just outside Washington, D.C.
Martin grew up in Alabama in the aftermath of the Great Depression — years before the peak of the civil rights movement. He spoke with NPR's Olivia Hampton about the "talk" his mother gave him to stay safe from possible undue harm by law enforcement, advice he says Black parents still give their children to this day.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Olivia Hampton: When we spoke three years ago, you mentioned the talk that your mother gave you as a young child to avoid any bad run-ins with police. And you called this "the Black mother's commandment." What are the basic tenets of this commandment?
Herbert Martin: My mother was very apt, and she always knew that at any moment we might end up in jail. And she said, 'You must always mind your manners. Say yes or no, sir, like we've taught you.' My mother was always fearful that by the time she got the news that I was in jail, she did not know what she was going to find. when they took her to the room that they placed me in and locked me in. She wanted to find me whole and not to have to rush me off to the hospital. So I tried not to cause her any more hurt than was necessary. I knew that she would always be troubled by it all. And so I had to have my manners always in my mind. And when I spoke to whoever it was that had me as a captive, I had to make sure that they understood I was clearly being obedient and answering their questions as best I could.
Hampton: Did you ever end up in a situation where you were caught by police or had to face police?
Martin: If I ever ended up that way, I made sure that the lawyer got me out of there before the news got to my mother, because I knew that if it got to her first, that the world would be upside down. I always tried to protect her as much as I could. I never challenged the police or suggested that they didn't do anything other than what they were supposed to do as law officers.
Hampton: So were you ever arrested?
No, I managed not to get in jail or anything like that. So I didn't have to ever confront my mother because I knew that she would confront me and then she would confront the police. It's one of the things you have to understand is that the mothers arrive at the jail with the guns ready to fire. They're not playing. Then they know that it's the jail house and maybe even death or whatever is coming, they are there in some way prepared for that. But I know that my mother would say, if you're in the jailhouse, I don't know what I'm going to find until they open the door and I see inside that cage. So be on your best behavior., be mindful of the manners I have instructed you all my life, answer their questions politely and don't be upset. Don't be angry. Don't be anything. Just mind your mind, your Ps and Qs.
Hampton: And that's what you put in the libretto.
Martin: Yes.
Hampton: I'm just wondering, has any of that changed over the decades? Do mothers still have to have the same talk with their sons and daughters?
Martin: Yes, I think they do. I think they know my mother as I'm talking. Usually you listen and you mind what I'm saying, because it's important and because that importance means that it's going to save your life and and it's going to protect you until I can get there. And that's what I try to tell my children and my grandchildren.
Hampton: Do you see a future where the mothers will not have to talk? Give this talk anymore?
Martin: Oh, I think not. I doubt that that future is on the horizon. If that sounds pessimistic, I'm sorry. But on the other hand, one has to be prepared for whatever the future brings. And you have to understand that that future requires you to be in a certain position. And if you're not there, you have to get there as fast as you can and as clear-minded as you can with all of your intentions and all of the intentions that the world is asking you to pay attention to, so it's a double-whammy in some way, but it's the one that will save your life.
Hampton: In the intervening years since the requiem cantata's premiere, do you see things any differently or are things just the same? How are you feeling today about these big questions?
Martin: These are huge questions, and I'm not always sure that they are being solved. We're just simply getting a great big push back, which means that the problems are still there, but that we're putting them under some kind of cover. There have been a number of changes. But over the years, those changes have been, shall we say, set aside. And the climate right now is not for advancement unless I am just absolutely blind. But beyond that, one can only hope that the future is going to be much more enlightened and much brighter than it has been in the past.
Hampton: It sounds like you have a grim picture of what the future may hold on race issues in America.
Martin: Yeah, I think so. I think it's going to get worse and worse. And then we're going to have to find somebody who is willing to stand up to all of the conflict and all the pressures that goes with it. But I don't see any really on the horizon right now to do that.
Hampton: What do you think that might look like? Is that a sort of inspirational figure, like a present-day Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Martin: Yeah, I think somebody like that. But there's nobody on the horizon that I've seen and nobody who people are actively pursuing or celebrating even. So my sense is that that person is not yet on the mantle so we can all see him or her. I just need somebody who is going to give voice to the problems that we are facing.
Hampton: The murder of George Floyd was a traumatic event. The killing of Breonna Taylor was a traumatic event. If you want to go back to Emmett Till, that was a traumatic event.
Martin: Yes.
Hampton: Why is it important to recall these moments of deep trauma years later?
Martin: Well, I think partly because people tend to be very, very angry instantaneously and then they forget why they were troubled. And so one has to remind them of what brought us to that point of agitation and then what brings us even beyond that to doing something about it or to writing something that is meaningful to all of us and say, this is why we have to pay attention to how we treat each other as human beings.
Hampton: So, in a way, it's about race, but there's also a broader message that goes beyond race.
Martin: I think so. I don't think that I write to Black people particularly. I'm talking to all Americans and I'm hoping that they are all on my boat rather than single boats sailing to wherever. The trick is to engage your audience, and that means everybody that's in the country who is using the same language.
The broadcast version of this story was edited by Olivia Hampton and Jan Johnson. It was produced by Lindsay Totty. The digital version was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.
Copyright 2025 NPR