Edwin J. Morgan, "Rhapsody" (1917)
Pouskin or Dumas or Toussaint L’Overture.
I am Black.
I have been the path of the Centuries
And Pharoes and Napoleons have
Trod me up to glory.
I am Black.
Ham or Othello or Crispus Attucks–
I have been fuel for the
Flame of Progress.
I have reared the everlasting Pyramids
And have flung Nineveh and Babylon
Up to God.
I am Black.
I have dredged the Nile
That Civilization might bring
Darkness unto me.
I have cut marble and granite
For Rome and Carthage.
I have lifted the rocks from
Culebra and Pedro Miguel
And have watched the Seas meet.
I am Black.
I have been the great Burden-bearer,
The rungs in the ladder of mine
Enemy.
Mine Enemy has bound mine eyes.
I have borne him to the mountain-top
And he has gloried in the Sunlight
That I could not see.
But now I shall cast off the bandage
From mine eyes
And I will see the glory
That I have made.
I am Black.
Published in The Crisis. January 1917