EDITORIAL NOTE
This book is published because it represents meri- torious work in the study of a field of American liter- ature hitherto somewhat neglected and for the purpose of providing for both white people and Negroes mate- rial in convenient form for the study of a body of poetic work in which both races are naturally inter- ested. White students are interested because the authors of these poems have achieved their capacity for this form of expression along side of and in close association with their own people. Negroes are inter- ested because these selected poems are evidence of the actual accomplishment of the members of their race. Trinity College is glad to lend this encouragement to the study of achievements in which both races in America have just reasons to feel pride.
