Katherine D. Tillman, "Bashy" (1902)
'A Negro girl killed in a house of shame."
In cities oft you may hear the same.
How the poor girls go down in the struggle of life,
And yield to dishonor, both maid and wife.
But Bashy, I'll swear, never had a chance;
A black face never does enhance
A woman's value in our land.
Black faces are, well—not just in demand.
Not only in proud Anglo-Saxon race,
But Negroes there are who hate a black face!
We have men who will pass a black girl by
Because she is black—that's the reason why.
You see, we look up to the Saxon race,
And prize above all a white man's face!
And our Bashy was black and ignorant, too,
And what was a poor black outcast to do?
She tried hard to work, but a green farm hand,
Is it strange she never could understand
How to please Miladi on the avenue,
Who could not teach her what to do.
Bashy loved, and she gave her all.
The man who caused her awful fall
Thought her too black to make a wife,
So she drifted on to a dreadful life.
Till one day, while filled with maddening drink,
Bashy was thrust o'er eternity's brink
Without a chance for a whispered prayer
That God would have mercy on her despair.
Her murderer was hung, but every day
Some poor girl goes down in the self-same way,
Some Bashy of our struggling race
Is made an outcast by her face!
Some black mother crooming her baby to sleep
Prays now that the Father of all may keep
Her girl away in the city to toil,
Pure from the deeds and thoughts that soil.
When she hears the news of her girl's dark shame,
And the strain she has brought on her soul and her name,
The house will be dark and the mother's heart
Ache till the life-threads break apart.
Oh, women and men of the Negro Race,
Can we not rise above color of face?
Teach our girls that the worst disgrace
Is blackness of life, not blackness of face!
That women are needed pure-souled and high,
Who sooner than fall will prefer to die!
That a black girl needing a helping hand
Will be helped by the blackmen of the land.
Lift the women up and the race ascends;
Let the women go down, and our progress ends.
Published in Tillman's Recitations, 1902