Azalia E. Martin, "A Protest" (1906)
By AZALIA E. MARTIN
Ye who would stop the progress of a race,
Give ear ; that race would question thee. So base
A deed as thine belies the name of man.
This bickering that comes 'twixt clan and clan,
Let Justice rule and prejudice erase.
Ye call us enemies of thine to-day,
But when the cannon sounded far away
Calling thy fathers to the battle's din,
This enemy upon thy threshold lay
The watch dog, lest a foe should enter in.
A friend or foe was he to thee and thine?
This upward movement of a mighty host
Is ever onward still. Like Banquo's ghost
They will not down, whatever you design
To bruise and crush it with thy tyrant heel.
The day is past when we knew but to kneel.
Lost is thy purpose, as the wild bird's cry
Within a storm. Its shriek is never heard
Above the mutterings of the thunder's roar,
Though Truth and Right upon the altar lie
To see them cricified our hearts are stirred
This sacrifice but makes Ambition soar
To loftier heights, and we commit our plan
To Him who better knows each struggling clan,
To Him who rightly judges man and man.
Published in Voice of the Negro, December 1906
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- Azalia E. Martin (Author Page) Amardeep Singh