Came into being with her birth.
All that without her we would lack
She is in purity and black.
The dark of all the flowers met
And gave their wealth of color in
The sable beauty of her skin.
Gentle with love and rich in grace;
The blazing splendors of her eyes
Are jewels from the midnight skies.
The ancient wonder of the world—
Seems, in its strange, uncertain length,
A constant crown of queenly strength.
The waking of a night in June;
Her teeth are tips of white, they gleam
Like starlight in a happy dream.
Of “peace on earth and all is well!”
Her voice—it is the dearest part
Of all the glory in her heart.
The surging passion of the years,
The mystery and dark of things,
We feel their meanings when she sings.
But makes her good to look upon.
Daughter of God! you are divine,
O, Ebon Maid and Girl of Mine!
Lucian B. Watkins.
I will conclude this section with a very well rhymed tribute to two Negro bards between whom there was a friendship and a correspondence similar to that which existed between Burns and Lapraik. The writer, James Edgar French, was a native of Kentucky, studied for the ministry, and died early:
DUNBAR AND COTTER
Nurst at the breast of heav’nly minstrelsy!
The first two Negroes who have dared to climb
Parnassus’ mount, and carve your names in rhyme;
Who, over icy walls of prejudice,
Where twice ten thousand gorgon monsters hiss,
Did scale the peak and make the steep ascent;
For which great feat ye had small precedent.
There were who said: “The Negro is not fit
To write good prose, much less to rhyme with wit”;
That nothing ever Negroes could inspire
With Spenser’s fancy or with Shakespere’s fire:
With Dryden’s vigor, with the ease of Pope,
To weave the iambic pentametric rope,
But ye, immortal sons of Afric, ye
Have proved these charges gross absurdity;
That old Dame Nature’s no respecter in
Regard to person or the hue of skin.
Omnific God, at whose fiatic hand
Did primogenial light deluge the land;
Whose word supreme did out of chaos draw
A world, and order made its guiding law,
Bequeath’d like talents to the black and white;
To read form’d some and others made to write;
To govern these, and those to governed be,
And you, great twain, endued with poesy!
James Edgar French.
II. Commemorative and Occasional
From this body of Negro verse which I have been describing and giving specimens of may be selected pieces commemorative of days and seasons that are quite up to the standard of similar pieces provided for white children in their school-readers. These selections will further illustrate the variety of themes and emotional responses in this body of contemporary verse.
The first selection hardly needs any allowance to be made for it, I think, on the score that it was written by a girl only sixteen years of age:
CHRISTMAS CHEER
Dear hallowed name of every clime!
How each one’s heart now happy feels,
How each one’s face fresh joy reveals
As Christmas Day is drawing near
The merriest day of all the year!
Are vanquished, all, by kindly cheer,
And friendships nigh forgot and cold
Glow warm again as once of old.
Man’s worries cease, his hope returns,
His breast with love now brighter burns;
So, Christmas cheer! Oh, Christmas cheer!
A hearty welcome to you here.
The source of joy, the Son of God,
The Lowly One who from above
First warmed cold earth with gladsome love:
Who still proclaims with golden voice,
“Peace on earth! Rejoice! Rejoice!”
Corinne E. Lewis.
If the reader is disposed to make comparisons he might recall, without very great detriment to the following poem, Tennyson’s famous stanzas on the same theme. It is in the effective manner of the poems already given from its author:
GOODBYE OLD YEAR
You’ve done wonders; now you’re through;
Adding wisdom to the ages,
Making history’s best pages;
Rest and slumber with the sages.
Good-bye, Old Year. Welcome, New.
Off with false hopes; on with true.
Nations raise a mighty chorus,
Rich intoning, grand, sonorous,
Blithe and gladsome, sad, dolorous;
Goodbye, Old Year. Welcome, New.
Off with false hopes. On with true.
Goodbye, hatreds. Wrongs, adieu.
Down Life’s lane, with high or lowly,
Weak, or strong, sin-cursed, or holy,
Time is reaping—trudging slowly.
Goodbye, Old Year. Hail the New.
Goodbye, hatreds. Wrongs, adieu.
The remainder of the series will be given without comment:
THE MONTHS
January
With rhythmic note the snowflakes fall
Silently from their crystal courts,
To answer Winter’s call.
Wake, mortal! Time is winged anew!
Call Love and Hope and Faith to fill
The chambers of thy soul to-day;
Life hath its blessings still!
February
Are busy architects; they leave
What temples and what chiseled forms
Of leaf and flower! Then believe
That though the woods be brown and bare,
And sunbeams peep through cloudy veils,
Though tempests howl through leaden skies,
The springtime never fails!
March
April
The weird, capricious elf!
The buds unfold their perfumed cups
For love of her sweet self;
And silver-throated birds begin to tune their lyres,
While wind-harps lend their strains to Nature’s magic choirs.
May
Comes garlanded with lily-bells,
And apple blooms shed incense through the bow’r,
To be her dow’r;
While through the leafy dells
A wondrous concert swells
To welcome May, the dainty fay.
June
July
In bosky groves, while from the vivid sky
The sun’s gold arrows fleck the fields at noon,
Where weary cattle to their slumber hie.
How sweet the music of the purling rill,
Trickling adown the grassy hill!
While dreamy fancies come to give repose
When the first star of evening glows.
August
List to the lapsing waves;
With what a strange commotion
They seek their coral caves.
From heat and turmoil let us oft return,
The ocean’s solemn majesty to learn.
September
The autumn leaves drop to the ground;
The many-colored dyes,
They greet our watching eyes.
Rosy and russet, how they fall!
Throwing o’er earth a leafy pall.
October
November
The woods are drear,
The breeze, that erst so merrily did play,
Naught giveth save a melancholy lay;
Yet life’s great lessons do not fail
E’en in November’s gale.
December
The frost’s sharp arrows touch the earth and lo!
How diamond-bright the stars do scintillate
When Night hath lit her lamps to Heaven’s gate.
To the dim forest’s cloistered arches go,
And seek the holly and the mistletoe;
For soon the bells of Christmas-tide will ring
To hail the Heavenly King!
H. Cordelia Ray.
WHILE APRIL BREEZES BLOW
(A Song for Arbor Day.)
Forsake your book, forsake your play,
Bring out the spade and hie away
While April breezes blow.
As full of vigor as this tree,
As fair, as upright and as free,
While April breezes blow.
Both fair and useful in the land,
Supremely tall and nobly grand
A strong and trusty oak.
A firm embrace within the mold:
And may your life in truth unfold
A strong and trusty oak.
A tree to bend when others crash,
And stand when vivid lightnings flash,
And clouds pour down the rain:
And hold our ground, tho’ storms descend
Throughout our life, and lightnings rend,
And clouds pour down the rain.
A graceful spruce in living green,
That e’en in winter days is seen
Like changeless springtime still:
And winter comes and snowflakes fly,
Be yet in heart, and mind and eye,
Like changeless springtime still.
And let us plant a tree today
While skies are bright and hearts are gay,
And April breezes blow.
A NATION’S GREATNESS
Not strength of arms, nor men of state,
Nor vast domains, by conquest won,
That knew not rise nor set of sun;
Nor sophist’s schools, nor learned clan,
Nor laws that bind the will of man,—
For these have proved, in ages past,
But futile dreams that could not last;
And they that boast of such today,
Are fallen, vanquished in the fray,
Their glory mingled with the dust,
Their archives stained with crime and lust;
And all that breathed of pomp and pride,
Like the untimely fig, has died.
One thing, alone, restrains, exalts
A nation and corrects its faults;
One thing, alone, its life can crown
And give its destiny renown.
That nation, then, is truly great,
That lives by love, and not by hate;
That bends beneath the chastening rod,
That owns the truth, and looks to God!
Edwin Garnett Riley.
THANKSGIVING
For strength to labor day by day,
For sleep that comes when darkness wings
With evening up the eastern way.
I give deep thanks that I’m at peace
With kith and kin and neighbors, too;
Dear Lord, for all last year’s increase,
That helped me strive and hope and do.
I know not how to name them all.
My soul is free from frets and stings,
My mind from creed and doctrine’s thrall.
For sun and stars, for flowers and streams,
For work and hope and rest and play,
For empty moments given to dreams—
For these my heart gives thanks today.
William Stanley Braithwaite.
I will conclude this anthology with a selection from our Madagascar poet, Andrea Razafkeriefo, which, in a happy strain, conveys a very good philosophy of life—which is especially the Afro-American’s:
RAINY DAYS
But slip into my rocking chair;
With my old pipe and volume rare
And wade in fiction deep.
The pitter-patter of the rain
Upon the roof and window pane
Comes like a lullaby’s refrain,
Till soon I’m fast asleep.
Of the manifold and immense significance of poetry as a form of spiritual expression the Negro American has lately become profoundly aware, as this presentation must amply reveal. Not only the industrial arts are the objects of his ambition, according to the far-looking doctrine of Tuskegee, but as well those arts which are born of and express the spiritual traits of mankind, the fine arts—music, painting, sculpture, dramatics, and poetry. In them all the Negro is winning distinction. In consequence it would seem that there must dawn upon us, shaped by the poems of this collection, a new vision of the Negro and a new appreciation of his spiritual qualities, his human character. A profounder human sympathy with a greatly hampered, handicapped, and humiliated people must also ensue from such considerations as these poems will induce. One of the poets here represented cries out, as if from a calvary, “We come slow-struggling up the hills of Hell.” Another, in milder but not less appealing tone, cries: “We climb the slopes of life with throbbing hearts.”
This appeal, expressed or implicit throughout the entire range of present-day Negro verse, an appeal sometimes angrily, sometimes plaintively uttered, an appeal to mankind for fundamental justice and for human fellowship on the broad basis of kinship of spirit, may fittingly be the final note of this anthology:
We climb the slopes of life with throbbing hearts.
INDEX OF AUTHORS
INDEX OF AUTHORS INDEX OF AUTHORS, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Allen, J. Mord.—Born, Montgomery, Ala., March 26, 1875. Schooling ceased in the middle of high-school. Since seventeen years of age a boiler-maker. Home, St. Louis, Mo. Authorship: Rhymes, Tales and Rhymed Tales, Crane and Company, Topeka, Kas., 1906. 48-50, 223-226.
Allen, Winston.—230.
Bailey, William Edgar.—Born, Salisbury, Mo. Educated in the Salisbury public schools. Authorship: The Firstling, 1914. 65-67, 213-214.
Bell, James Madison.—Born, Gallipolis, Ohio, 1826. Educated in night schools after reaching manhood. Prominent anti-slavery orator, friend of John Browne. Poetical Works, with biography by Bishop B. W. Arnett, 1901. 32-37.
Braithwaite, William Stanley.—Born, Boston, Mass., 1878. Mainly self-educated. His three books of original verse are: Lyrics of Life and Love, 1904; The House of Falling Leaves, 1908; Sandy Star and Willie Gee, 1922. In Who’s Who. 105-109, 263.
Burrell, Benjamin Ebenezer.—Born, Manchester Mountains, Jamaica, 1892. Descended from Mandingo kings on his father’s side, and on his mother’s from Cromantees and Scotch. Contributor to The Crusader and other magazines. 249-250.
Carmichael, Waverley Turner.—Born, Snow Hill, Ala. Educated in the Snow Hill Institute and Harvard Summer School. Authorship: From the Heart of a Folk, The Cornhill Company, Boston, 1918. 53 219-220.
Clifford, Carrie W.—Born, Chillicothe, Ohio. Educated at Columbus, O. Has done much editorial and club work. Authorship: The Widening Light, Walter Reid Co., Boston, 1922. 240.
Conner, Charles H.—Born, Grafton, N. Y., 1864. Father, a slave who found freedom by way of the underground railway. Mainly self-educated. Worker in the ship-yards, Philadelphia. Authorship: The Enchanted Valley, published by himself, 1016 S. Cleveland Ave., Philadelphia, 1917; contributor to magazines. 209-213.
Corbett, Maurice Nathaniel.—Born, Yanceyville, N. C., 1859. Educated in the common schools and Shaw University. Served in North Carolina Legislature. Delegate to numerous political conventions. Clerk in Census Bureau, then in the Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., until stricken with paralysis in 1919. Authorship: The Harp of Ethiopia, Nashville, 1914. This is an epic poem of about 7,500 rhymed lines, narrating the entire history of the Negro in America. It is a noteworthy undertaking.
Corrothers, James David.—Born, Michigan, 1869. Educated at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., and at Bennett College, Greensboro, N. C., Minister of the Zion Methodist Episcopal Church. Died, 1919. Books: Selected Poems, 1907; The Dream and the Song, 1914. 37, 85-89.
Cotter, Joseph Seamon, Jr.—Born, Louisville, Ky., 1895. Died, 1919. Books: The Band of Gideon, Cornhill Company, 1918; another volume of poems now in press. 67-68, 70, 80-84.
Cotter, Joseph Seamon, Sr.—Born, Bardstown, Ky., 1861. Educated in Louisville night school (10 months). Now school principal in Louisville, member of many societies, author of several books: A Rhyming, 1895; Links of Friendship, 1898; Caleb, the Degenerate, 1903; A White Song and a Black One, 1909; Negro Tales, 1912. In Who’s Who. 52, 70-80, 220-221, 248-249.
Dandridge, Raymond Garfield.—Born, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1882. Educated in Cincinnati grammar and high schools. First devoted to drawing and painting until paralytic stroke, 1911. Authorship: The Poet and Other Poems, Cincinnati, 1920. 54, 169-173, 221-223.
Dett, R. Nathaniel.—Born of Virginia parents at Drummondsville, Ontario, Canada, October 11, 1882; studied in various colleges and conservatories in Canada and the United States. Director of music at Lane College, Mississippi, Lincoln Institute, Missouri, and at Hampton Institute, Virginia, his present position. 214-217.
DuBois, W. E. Burghardt.—Born, Great Barrington, Mass., 1868. Education: Fisk University, A. B.; Harvard, A. B., A. M., and Ph. D.; Berlin. Professor of economics and history in Atlanta University, 1896-1910. Now editor of The Crisis, New York, Books: The Souls of Black Folk, 1903; Darkwater, 1919, and numerous others. In Who’s Who. 201-205.
Dunbar, Paul Laurence.—1872-1906. 37, 38-48.
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice Ruth Moore (née).—Born, New Orleans, 1875. Education: in New Orleans public schools and Straight University, and later in several northern universities. Taught in New Orleans, Washington, and Brooklyn, and other cities. Married Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1898. At present Managing Editor of Philadelphia and Wilmington Advocate. Books: Violets and Other Tales, New Orleans, 1894; The Goodness of St. Rocque, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1899; Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence, 1913; The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer, 1920. Contributor to numerous magazines. 144-148.
Dungee, Roscoe Riley.—58.
Este, Charles H.—57.
Fauset, Miss Jessie.—Born, Philadelphia. Education: A. B., Cornell, Phi Beta Kappa; A. M., University of Pennsylvania; student of the Guilde Internationale, Paris. Interpreter of the Second Pan-African Congress. Literary Editor of The Crisis. 160-162.
Fenner, John J., Jr.—245.
Fisher, Leland Milton.—Born, Humboldt, Tenn., 1875. Died, under thirty years of age, at Evansville, Ind., where he edited a newspaper. Left behind an unpublished volume of poems. 189-190.
Fleming, Mrs. Sarah Lee Brown.—Clouds and Sunshine, The Cornhill Company, Boston, 1920.
French, James Edgar.—Born in Kentucky, studied for the ministry, died young. 253-254.
Grimké, Miss Angelina Weld.—Born, Boston, Mass., 1880. Educated in various schools of several states, including the Girls’ Latin School of Boston and the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics. Now teacher of English in the Dunbar High School, Washington, D. C. Authorship: Rachel, a prose drama, Cornhill Co., Boston, 1921; poems and short stories uncollected. 152-156.
Grimké, Mrs. Charlotte Forten.—Born, Philadelphia, 1837 (née Forten). Educated in the Normal School at Salem, Mass. She was a contributor to various magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly and The New England Magazine. Poems uncollected. 155-156.
Hammon, Jupiter.—Born, c. 1720. “The first member of the Negro race to write and publish poetry in this country.” Extant poems: An Evening Thought, 1760; An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley, 1778; A Poem for Children with Thoughts on Death, 1782; The Kind Master and the Dutiful Servant (date unknown.) These are included in Oscar Wegelin’s Jupiter Hammon, American Negro Poet, New York, 1915. 20-21, 23.
Hammond, Mrs. J. W.—Home, Omaha, Neb. Occupation: Trained nurse. 142-144.
Harper, Mrs. Frances Ellen Watkins (née).—Born, Baltimore, Md., of free parents, 1825. Died, Philadelphia, 1911. Educated in a school in Baltimore for free colored children, and by her uncle, William Watkins. Married Fenton Harper, 1860. From about 1851 devoted herself to the cause of freedom for the slaves. Authorship: Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, Philadelphia, 1857; Poems, Philadelphia, 1900. 26-32.
Harris, Leon R.—Born, Cambridge, Ohio, 1886. First years spent in an orphanage, where he got the rudiments of education. Then was farmed out in Kentucky. Running off, he made his way to Berea College and later to Tuskegee, getting two or three terms at each. Now editor of the Richmond (Indiana) Blade. Authorship: numerous short stories in magazines; The Steel Makers and Other War Poems (pamphlet), 1918. 63-64, 180-184.
Hawkins, Walter Everette.—Born, Warrenton, N. C., 1886. Educated in public schools. Since 1913 in the city post-office of Washington D. C. Authorship: Chords and Discords, Richard G. Badger, Boston, 1920. 62, 119, 126, 234-235, 240.
Hill, Leslie Pinckney.—Born, Lynchburg, Va., 1880. B. A. and M. A. of Harvard. Teacher at Tuskegee; formerly principal of Manassas (Va.) Industrial School; now principal of Cheyney (Pa.) State Normal School. Authorship: The Wings of Oppression, The Stratford Company, Boston, 1921. 52, 131-138.
Horton, George M.—Born, North Carolina. Authorship: Poems by a Slave, 1829. Poetical Works, 1845. Several volumes from 1829 to 1865. 25.
Hughes, Langston.—Born, Joplin, Mo., February 1, 1902. Ancestry, Negro and Indian; grand-nephew of Congressman John M. Langston. Education: High School, Cleveland, O., one year at Columbia University; traveled in Mexico and Central America. Contributor to magazines. Home, Jones’s Point, N. Y. Contributor to The Crisis. 199-201.
Jamison, Roscoe C.—Born, Winchester, Tenn., 1886; died at Phœnix, Ariz., 1918. Educated at Fisk University. Authorship: Negro Soldiers and Other Poems, William F. McNeil, South St. Joseph, Mo., 1918. 191-195.
Jessye, Miss Eva Alberta.—Born, Coffeyville, Kan., 1897. Educated in the public schools of several western states; graduated from Western University, 1914. Director of music in Morgan College, Baltimore, 1919. Now teacher of piano, Muskogee, Okla. 68-69, 139-142.
Johnson, Adolphus.—The Silver Chord, Philadelphia, 1915. 104-105.
Johnson, Charles Bertram.—Born, Callao, Mo., 1880. Educated at Western College, Macon, Mo.; two summers at Lincoln Institute; correspondence courses, and a term in the University of Chicago. Educator and preacher. Authorship: Wind Whisperings (a pamphlet), 1900; The Mantle of Dunbar and Other Poems (a pamphlet), 1918; Songs of My People, 1918. Home, Moberly, Mo. 52, 63, 95-99.
Johnson, Fenton.—Born, Chicago, 1888. Educated in the public schools and University of Chicago. Authorship: A Little Dreaming, Chicago, 1914; Visions of the Dusk, New York, 1915. Songs of the Soil, New York, 1916. Editor of The Favorite Magazine, Chicago. 64-65, 99-103.
Johnson, Mrs. Georgia Douglas.—Born, Atlanta, Ga. Educated at Atlanta University, and in music at Oberlin. Home, Washington, D. C. Books: The Heart of a Woman, the Cornhill Co., Boston, 1918; Bronze, B. J. Brimmer Co., Boston, 1922. 61, 148-152, 232-233, 249.
Johnson, James Weldon.—Born, Jacksonville, Fla., 1871. Educated at Atlanta and Columbia Universities. United States consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua. Author of numerous works. Original verse: Fifty Years and Other Poems, the Cornhill Company, Boston, 1917. In Who’s Who. 54, 90-95, 226-227, 235-236.
Johnson, Mrs. Mae Smith (née).—Born, Alexandria, Va., 1890. Now Secretary at the Good Samaritan Orphanage, Newark, N. J. Contributor of verse to papers and magazines. The grandmother of the poet escaped from slavery in Virginia. She lived to be ninety-two years old. 57, 251-252.
Jones, Edward Smythe.—Authorship: The Sylvan Cabin and Other Verse, Sherman, French & Co., Boston, 1911. 163-169.
Jones, Joshua Henry, Jr.—Born, Orangeburg, S. C., 1876. Educated Central High School, Columbus, O., Ohio State University, Yale, and Brown. Has served on the editorial staffs of the Providence News, The Worcester Evening Post, Boston Daily Advertiser and Boston Post. At present he is on the staff of the Boston Telegram. Authorship: The Heart of the World, the Stratford Company, Boston, 1919; Poems of the Four Seas, the Cornhill Company, Boston, 1921. 113-119, 234, 256-257.
Jordan, Winifred Virginia.—Contributor to The Crisis. 56.
Lee, Mary Effie.—Contributor to The Crisis. 56.
Lewis, Corinne E.—Student in the Dunbar High School, Washington, D. C. 255.
McClellan, George Marion.—Born, Belfast, Tenn., 1860. Educated at Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., of which he became financial agent. Later, principal of the Paul Dunbar School, Louisville, Ky. Authorship: The Path of Dreams, John P. Morton, Louisville, Ky., 1916. 55, 173-179, 246-247.
McKay, Claude.—Born, Jamaica, 1889. Has resided in the United States ten or eleven years. Till lately on the editorial staff of the Liberator. Books: Constab Ballads, London, 1912; Spring in New Hampshire, London, 1920. 126-131, 241-242, 244.
Margetson, George Reginald.—Born, 1877, at St. Kitts, B. W. I. 109-111.
Means, Sterling M.—Authorship: The Deserted Cabin and Other Poems, A. B. Caldwell, publisher, Atlanta, 1915. 222-223.
Miller, Kelly.—Born, Winsboro, S. C., 1863. Educated at Howard and Johns Hopkins Universities. Degrees: A. M. and LL. D. Professor and dean in Howard University. Books: Race Adjustment, 1904; Out of the House of Bondage, Neale Publishing Co., New York, 1914. In Who’s Who. 206-209.
Moore, William.—Contributor to The Favorite Magazine. 111-112.
Ray, H. Cordelia.—Authorship: Poems, The Grafton Press, New York, 1910. 257-260.
Razafkeriefo, Andrea.—Born, Washington, D. C., 1895, of Afro-American mother and Madagascaran father. Educated only in public elementary school. Regular verse contributor to The Crusader and The Negro World. 197-198, 247-248, 263-264.
Reason, Charles L.—Born in New York in 1818. Professor at New York Central College in New York and head of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia. Authorship: Freedom, New York, 1847. 23-24.
Riley, Edwin Garnett.—Contributor to many newspapers and magazines. 262.
Sexton, Will.—Contributor to magazines. 197, 233-234.
Shackelford, Otis.—Educated at Lincoln Institute, Jefferson City, Mo. Authorship: Seeking the Best (prose and verse). The verse part of this volume contains a poem of some 500 lines entitled “Bits of History in Verse, or A Dream of Freedom Realized,” modeled on Hiawatha.
Shackelford, Theodore Henry.—Born, Windsor Canada, 1888. Grandparents were slaves in southern states. At twelve years of age had had only three terms of school. At twenty-one entered the Industrial Training School, Downington, Pa., and graduated four years later. Studied a while at the Philadelphia Art Museum. Authorship: My Country and Other Poems, Philadelphia, 1918. Died, Jamaica, N. Y., February 5, 1923. 228.
Spencer, Mrs. Anne.—Born, Bramwell, W. Va., 1882. Educated at the Virginia Seminary, Lynchburg, Va. Contributor to The Crisis. 156-159.
Underhill, Irvin W.—Born, Port Clinton, Pa., May 1, 1868. In boyhood, with irregular schooling, assisted his father, who was captain of a canal boat. At the age of 37 suddenly lost his sight. Author of Daddy’s Love and Other Poems, Philadelphia. Home, Philadelphia. 184-187.
Watkins, Lucian B.—Born, Chesterfield, Virginia, 1879. Educated in public schools of Chesterfield, and at the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, Petersburg. First teacher, then soldier. Books: Voices of Solitude, 1907, Donohue & Co., Chicago; Whispering Winds, in manuscript. Died, 1921. 59, 236-239, 252-253.
Watson, Adeline Carter.—232.
Wheatley, Phillis.—Born in Africa, 1753. Brought as a slave to Boston, where she died in 1784. Many editions of her poems in her lifetime. Poems and Letters, New York, 1916. 23-24.
Wiggins, Lida Keck.—Authorship: The Life and Works of Paul Laurence Dunbar, J. L. Nichols & Company, Naperville, Ill. 41.
Whitman, Albery A.—Born in Kentucky in 1857. Began life as a Methodist minister. Authorship: The Rape of Florida, Not a Man and Yet a Man, and Twasnita’s Seminoles. 32, 35-36.
Wilson, Charles P.—Born in Iowa of Kentucky parents, 1885. Printer and theatrical performer. 179-180.
INDEX OF TITLES
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, V, W, Y.
| PAGE | |
| Apology for Wayward Jim.—James C. Hughes, | 188 |
| Ask Me Why I Love You.—W. E. Hawkins, | 125 |
| A Song.—Roscoe C. Jamison, | 193 |
| As the Old Year Passed.—William Moore, | 112 |
| At the Closed Gate of Justice.—J. D. Corrothers, | 88 |
| At the Carnival.—Mrs. Anne Spencer, | 158 |
| At Niagara.—R. Nathaniel Dett, | 216 |
| At the Spring Dawn.—Miss Angelina W. Grimké, | 154 |
| Autumn Sadness.—W. S. Braithwaite, | 108 |
| Band of Gideon, The.—Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., | 83 |
| Black Mammy, The.—J. W. Johnson, | 236 |
| Black Violinist, The.—Winston Allen, | 230 |
| Bomb Thrower, The.—Will Sexton, | 197 |
| Boy and the Ideal, The.—Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., | 74 |
| Brothers.—J. H. Jones, Jr., | 118 |
| Castles in the Air.—Roscoe C. Jamison, | 193 |
| Christmas Cheer.—Miss Corinne E. Lewis, | 255 |
| Chicken in the Bread Tray.—Folk Song, | 15 |
| Compensation.—Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., | 82 |
| Counting Out.—J. Mord Allen, | 48 |
| Credo.—W. E. Hawkins, | 119 |
| Dawn.—Miss Angelina W. Grimké, | 153 |
| Daybreak.—G. M. McClellan, | 246 |
| Death of Justice, The.—W. E. Hawkins, | 123 |
| De Innah Part.—R. G. Dandridge, | 221 |
| Don’t-Care Negro, The.—Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., | 220 |
| Dream and the Song, The.—J. D. Corrothers, | 85 |
| Dreams of the Dreamer, The.—Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, | 148 |
| Dunbar.—J. D. Corrothers, | 37 |
| Dunbar and Cotter.—J. E. French, | 253 |
| Easter Message, An.—Mrs. Carrie W. Clifford, | 240 |
| Ebon Maid.—L. B. Watkins, | 252 |
| Edict, The.—Roscoe C. Jamison, | 194 |
| El Beso.—Miss Angelina W. Grimké, | 154 |
| Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soothe the Weary Eyes.—Paul Laurence Dunbar, | 41 |
| Eternity.—R. G. Dandridge, | 172 |
| Expectancy.—William Moore, | 112 |
| Facts.—R. G. Dandridge, | 172 |
| Fattening Frogs for Snakes.—Folk Song, | 117 |
| Feet of Judas, The.—G. M. McClellan, | 177 |
| Flag of the Free.—E. W. Jones, | 167 |
| For You Sweetheart.—L. M. Fisher, | 189 |
| Foscati.—W. S. Braithwaite, | 108 |
| Goodbye, Old Year.—J. H. Jones, Jr., | 256 |
| Harlem Dancer, The.—Claude McKay, | 128 |
| Heart of the World, The.—J. H. Jones, Jr., | 117 |
| Hero of the Road.—W. E. Hawkins, | 122 |
| Hills of Sewanee, The.—G. M. McClellan, | 176 |
| Hopelessness.—Roscoe C. Jamison, | 195 |
| If We Must Die.—Claude McKay, | 241 |
| In Bondage.—Claude McKay, | 129 |
| In Memory of Katie Reynolds.—G. M. McClellan, | 178 |
| In Spite of Death.—W. E. Hawkins, | 62 |
| In the Heart of a Rose.—G. M. McClellan, | 54 |
| I Played on David’s Harp.—Fenton Johnson, | 65 |
| I See and Am Satisfied.—Kelly Miller, | 207 |
| I Sit and Sew.—Mrs. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, | 145 |
| It’s All Through Life.—W. T. Carmichael, | 53 |
| It’s a Long Way.—W. S. Braithwaite, | 106 |
| I’ve Loved and Lost.—L. B. Watkins, | 237 |
| Juba.—Folk Song, | 16 |
| Life.—Paul Laurence Dunbar, | 43 |
| Life of the Spirit, The.—Charles H. Conner, | 210 |
| Light of Victory.—George Reginald Margetson, | 110 |
| Lights at Carney’s Point, The.—Mrs. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, | 146 |
| Litany of Atlanta, A.—W. E. B. DuBois, | 202 |
| Loneliness.—Miss Winifred Virginia Jordan, | 56 |
| Lynching, The.—Claude McKay, | 128 |
| Mammy’s Baby Scared.—W. T. Carmichael, | 219 |
| Mater Dolorosa.—L. P. Hill, | 134 |
| Message to the Modern Pharaohs.—L. B. Watkins, | 239 |
| Months, The.—Miss H. Cordelia Ray, | 257 |
| Mother, The.—Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, | 249 |
| My Lady’s Lips.—J. W. Johnson, | 226 |
| My People.—C. B. Johnson, | 95 |
| Mulatto’s Song, The.—Fenton Johnson, | 101 |
| Mulatto to His Critics, The.—Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., | 67 |
| Nation’s Greatness, A.—Edwin G. Riley, | 262 |
| Negro, The.—Langston Hughes, | 200 |
| Negro, The.—Claude McKay, | 244 |
| Negro Child, The.—Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., | 248 |
| Negro Church, The.—Andrea Razafkeriefo, | 198 |
| Negro Woman, The.—Andrea Razafkeriefo, | 247 |
| Negro Singer, The.—J. D. Corrothers, | 89 |
| New Day, The.—Fenton Johnson, | 102 |
| New Negro, The.—Will Sexton, | 197 |
| New Negro, The.—L. B. Watkins, | 236 |
| Octoroon, The.—Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, | 151 |
| Ode to Ethiopia.—Paul Laurence Dunbar, | 44 |
| Oh, My Way and Thy Way.—Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., | 81 |
| Old Plantation Grave, The.—S. M. Means, | 222 |
| Ole Deserted Cabin, De.—S. M. Means, | 223 |
| Old Friends.—C. B. Johnson, | 97 |
| Old Jim Crow.—Anonymous, | 231 |
| Optimist, The.—Mrs. J. W. Hammond, | 143 |
| Oriflamme.—Miss Jessie Fauset, | 162 |
| O Southland.—J. W. Johnson, | 92 |
| Peace.—Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, | 61 |
| Plaint of the Factory Child, The.—Fenton Johnson, | 101 |
| Poet, The.—R. G. Dandridge, | 170 |
| Prayer of the Race That God Made Black, A.—L. B. Watkins, | 59 |
| Psalm of the Uplift, The.—J. Mord Allen, | 50 |
| Puppet-Player, The.—Miss Angelina W. Grimké, | 153 |
| Rain Song, A.—C. B. Johnson, | 99 |
| Rainy Days.—Andrea Razafkeriefo, | 263 |
| Rain Music.—Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., | 81 |
| Rise! Young Negro—Rise!—John J. Fenner, Jr., | 245 |
| Sandy Star.—W. S. Braithwaite, | 106 |
| Self-Determination.—L. P. Hill, | 137 |
| She Hugged Me.—Folk Song, | 17 |
| Singer, The.—Miss Eva A. Jessye, | 69 |
| Slump, The.—W. E. Bailey, | 65 |
| Smothered Fires.—Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, | 150 |
| Somebody’s Child.—Charles P. Wilson, | 179 |
| So Much.—C. B. Johnson, | 98 |
| Soul and Star.—C. B. Johnson, | 96 |
| Southern Love Song, A.—J. H. Jones, Jr., | 115 |
| Spring in New Hampshire.—Claude McKay, | 127 |
| Spring with the Teacher.—Miss Eva A. Jessye, | 139 |
| Steel Makers, The.—Leon R. Harris, | 182 |
| Sunset.—Miss Mary Effie Lee, | 56 |
| Thanking God.—W. S. Braithwaite, | 109 |
| Thanksgiving.—W. S. Braithwaite, | 262 |
| The Flowers Take the Tears.—Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., | 76 |
| The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face.—J. W. Johnson, | 226 |
| These Are My People.—Fenton Johnson, | 100 |
| Threshing Floor, The.—Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., | 75 |
| Time to Die.—R. G. Dandridge, | 171 |
| To——.—R. G. Dandridge, | 171 |
| To a Negro Mother.—Ben E. Burrell, | 249 |
| To America.—J. W. Johnson, | 53 |
| To a Caged Canary....—L. P. Hill, | 136 |
| To a Nobly-Gifted Singer.—L. P. Hill, | 137 |
| To a Rosebud.—Miss Eva A. Jessye, | 141 |
| To a Wild Rose.—W. E. Bailey, | 213 |
| To Hollyhocks.—G. M. McClellan, | 176 |
| To My Grandmother.—Mrs. Mae Smith Johnson, | 251 |
| To My Lost Child.—Will Sexton, | 233 |
| To My Neighbor Boy.—Mrs. J. W. Hammond, | 143 |
| To My Son.—Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, | 232 |
| To Keep the Memory of Charlotte Forten Grimké.—Miss Angelina W. Grimké, | 155 |
| To Our Boys.—Irvin W. Underhill, | 185 |
| Truth.—Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper, | 28 |
| Turn Out the Light.—J. H. Jones, Jr., | 114 |
| Vashti.—Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper, | 30 |
| Victim of Microbes, A.—J. Mord Allen, | 224 |
| Violets.—Mrs. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, | 55 |
| Want of You, The.—Miss Angelina W. Grimké, | 154 |
| We Wear the Mask.—Paul Laurence Dunbar, | 47 |
| What Is the Negro Doing?—W. Clarence Jordan, | 190 |
| What Need Have I for Memory?—Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, | 149 |
| While April Breezes Blow.—D. T. Williamson, | 260 |
| Winter Twilight, A.—Miss Angelina W. Grimké, | 153 |
| With the Lark.—Paul Laurence Dunbar, | 46 |
| Young Warrior, The.—J. W. Johnson, | 94 |
| Zalka Peetruza.—R. G. Dandridge, | 180 |