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Interracial, Multiracial, and Race Relations Poems

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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. 

In the poems linked below, some use the "tragic mulatto" trope, where the true nature of a person's mixed heritage might be a secret liability; the "tragic mulatto" is of course also a well-known trope in fiction from this period. An example of such a poem might be Countee Cullen's "To One Who Crossed a Line (She Crosses)," which describes a woman who passed as white for a time before returning to the African American community. (As of this time, we have not separately tagged peoms dealing with racial passing, though we may begin to do so. For now, "passing" poems are also included in the list below.) 

Other poems below are more celebratory and proud (see Joseph S. Cotter's "The Mulatto To His Critics" for an instance of a proud 'mulatto' poem). 

Contents of this tag:

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