African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Interracial, Multiracial, and Race relations Poems

This tag references poems dealing with relationships that cross racial borders, including friendships, antagonistic relationships, and romances.

We also use this category for poems that reference mixed-race or multiracial people, such as W.E.B. DuBois' poem "The Quadroon," Georgia Douglas Johnson's "The Octoroon" or Rosalie Jonas' "The Quadroon's Ball."  Some poems use the term 'mulatto' to describe mixed race people; this term is now of course archaic and might be considered offensive, but it was widely used during this historical period. 

Contents of this tag:

  1. Langston Hughes, "Negro Dancers" (1925)
  2. Langston Hughes, "Cross" (1925)
  3. Langston Hughes, Harlem Night Club (1926)
  4. Langston Hughes, "The White Ones" (1924)
  5. Claude McKay, "The Barrier" (1922)
  6. Otto Bohanan, "Mammy" (1917)
  7. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Octoroon" (1922)
  8. W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Quadroon" (1911)
  9. Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. "The Mulatto To His Critics" (1918)
  10. Countee Cullen, "Caprice" (1925)
  11. Rosalie Jonas, "The Octoroon Ball" (1911)
  12. James Weldon Johnson, "The White Witch" (1915)
  13. Edna Porter, "That Yaller Gal (La. 1924)" (1925)
  14. Bertha Johnston, "I Met A Little Blue-Eyed Girl" (1912)
  15. William Stanley Braithwaite, "Rye Bread" (1927)
  16. Tableau (For Donald Duff) by Countee Cullen
  17. Jessie Fauset, "Touche" (1927)
  18. Two Who Crossed a Line (She Crosses) by Countee Cullen
  19. Two Who Crossed a Line (He Crosses) by Countee Cullen
  20. To My Fairer Brethren by Countee Cullen
  21. George Marion McClellan, "Poems" (1895)
  22. Poems by James Weldon Johnson in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  23. Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. "Band of Gideon: and Other Poems" (Full text) (1918)
  24. Poems by Claude McKay in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)