"Afro-American" by Charles Frederick White (1900)
O, country, 'tis of thee,
Land of the Lynching Bee,
Of thee I sing.
How long will this base wrong
Pollute thy freedom's song?
Perpetrated by a throng
Of heartless fiends.
My native country, thee,
How I long to be free!
Thy name to love.
I long to se ethe time
When this most heinous crime
Will be changed to deeds divine,
Like those above.
Let wailings swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees:
"God's will be done."
Let mortal souls awake--
Let all that breathe partake--
This spell of crimes to break,
Ere the nation's gone.
O gracious God, to thee,
In thine all-wise mercy,
We now appeal!
May this land soon be brought
Out of this doome it's wrought;
For long, in vain, we've sought
Freedom to feel.