S.J. W. (“Miss Up Lifter”); Atlanta Independent, October 29, 1910
Stop, young man, for a moment; I want to talk to you About a question of importance; The subject concerns you. Continue reading
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The Race Problem ( 1906)
William T. Barks; Alexander’s Magazine, July 1906
A problem great the Negro he must face
If to loftier heights he would lift his race. Continue reading
The Hegira (1917)
G. Douglas Johnson; Crisis, March 1917
OH, black man, why do you northward roam and leave all the farmlands bare?
Is your house not war, tightly thatched from storm, and a larger replete your share?
And have you not schools fit with books and with tools, the steps of your young to guide?
Then–what do you seek in the North cold and bleak, ‘mid the whirl of its teeming tide? Continue reading
Bessie Coleman–Air Pioneer (1928)
Harry Levette; California Eagle, December 21, 1928
(Dedicated to the Bessie Coleman Aero Club)
Out of the skies
In the Florida sun while the day is new
And flowers are wet with the morning dew
She falls and dies.
This Must Not Be (1921)
Carita Owens Collins; Poems for Your Scrap Book, Chicago Defender, April 30, 1921
This must not be!
The time is past when black men,
Haggard sons of Ham,
Shall tamely bow and weakly cringe
In servile manner, full of shame. Continue reading
Out of the Smoke (1917)
Geraldine M. Campbell [?]; Chicago Defender, July 21, 1917
To the God of all the heaven, to the God of just and right,
To the God of strength and power, to the God of wield and might,
To the God of ever nation, every country, every creed,
To the God that keeps a record of every act, and every deed,
Dost Thou hear our cries and groanings,
Dost Thou know our pains and moanings?
How much longer must we wait?
The Black Man’s Burden (1921)
T. Thomas Fortune [The Outlook]; Chicago Defender, April 9, 1921
What is the Black Man's Burden, "Ye hypocrites and vile," "Ye whited sepulchers," From th' Amazon to the Nile? What is the Black Man's Burden, Ye Gentile parasites, Who crush and rob your brother Of his manhood and his rights?
Continue reading
It’s Great To Be a Problem (1920)
J. W. Work; Crisis, November 1920
It’s great to be a problem,
A problem just like me;
To have the world inquiring
And asking what you be.
You must be this,
You can’t be that,
Examined through and through;
So different from all other men,
The world is studying you.
(In Flanders Field) (1920)
Andrea Razafkeriefo; Crisis, July 1920
In Flanders fields where poppies blow,
Beneath the crosses, fow on row,
We blacks an endless vigil keep.
Yes, we, though dead, can never sleep–
Ingratitude made it so.
Why are we here? Why did we go
From loving homes that need us so?
Was it for naught we gave our lives,
On Flanders fields?
Ye blacks who live, to you we throw
The torch; be yours to face the foe
At home; and ever hold it high,
Fight for the things for which we die,
That we may sleep, where poppies grow,
In Flanders fields.
The Haunted Oak (1902)
Paul Lawrence Dunbar [from Century Magazine]; Cleveland Gazette, February 22, 1902
Pray why are you so bare,
O bough of the old oak-tree;
And why, when I go through the shade you throw,
Runs a shudder over me? Continue reading
