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NEGRO POETS AND THEIR POEMS
Mourn for the thousands slain,
The youthful and the strong;
Mourn for the last; but pray,
For those hung by the mobbing throng.
Pray to our God above,
To break the fell destroyer’s sway,
And show His saving love.
The second is the last stanza of a poem entitled Shall Race Hatred Prevail? by Adeline Carter Watson.
By the tears of Negro mothers,
By the woes of Negro wives,
By the sighs of Negro children,
By your gallant snuffed-out lives,
By the throne of God eternal;
Standing hard by Heaven’s gate,
Ye shall crush this cursed, infernal,
Western stigma: groundless hate!
The following two poems have a world of pathos for every reflecting person, in the unanswered question of each. The first is by Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson:
TO MY SON
Shall I say, “My son, you are branded in this country’s pageantry,
Foully tethered, bound forever, and no forum makes you free?”
Shall I mark the young light fading through your soul-enchanneled eye,
As the dusky pall of shadows screen the highway of your sky?
