Category Archives: Injustices and Burdens

Poets pointed out a wide range of discriminations that demonstrated disrespect and unequal justice. They sometimes also called attention to problems created by blacks themselves.

Up in Front (1909)

Welborn Victor Jenkins; Atlanta Independent, June 19, 1909

(Written by a trainman in appreciation of the boys who fired the trains on the Georgia road.)

1.
 No muse will sing of our deeds of nerve,
    No plaudits for us when our course is won;
 For we are naught but the dogs who serve,
    And silence must keep when the struggle is done.
 Yet we know best of all that our hearts are right,
    So we bend to our task till the saf'ty pops, "ziz."
 We fire our engines with all our might,
    But we're up in front where the danger is. 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 →

(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.

Hast Thou Forsaken Us? (1921)

Miss V. C. Thomas; Poems for Your Scrap Book, Chicago Defender, May 9, 1921

Twelve million strong we stand in grim array,
Twelve million strong denied the light of day;
Twelve million hearts in Thee, God, do they trust,
Twelve million dry: Has Thou forsaken us?

Like herded beasts they brought us to these shores,
Like beasts were we disposed of to our foes,
Like beasts they scourged our bodies to the dust,
O God, hast Thou, hast Thou forsaken us?

We’ve plowed these fields and made these forests clear,
We’ve drained these swamps and made waste places bear,
Our fate through all these years has seemed unjust,
With tears, we ask, hast Thou forsaken us?

In battle, too, we’ve labored side by side;
When needed, for this country we have died,
For America alone, and not for lust,
We’ve fought; and now, proud land, has thou forsaken us?

We’ve given of our best to this fair land:
In men, in blood, in labor of the hand.
Our bank accounts, though scant and very few,
Yet even in this have we forsaken you?

Must we forever be denied man’s right,
Because our skins, by nature, are not light?
If color for true manhood is the test,
Why were we called to battle with the rest?

We do not ask removal from our sphere,
Our race, our kin are to our hearts most dear;
Within this land, together and as friend,
We only seek the chance, the rights of men.

We long no more to hear the din of mobs:
We long no more to hear the victim’s sobs;
When justice, love, our laws begin to sway,
Then for us will have dawned that brighter day.

In right triumphant, we would not lose faith.
We would believe in all our Savior saith,
Yet through these years of pain and hate unjust,
Twelve million cry, hast Thou forsaken us?