Robert Whitaker, "Awakening" (1927)
By Robert Whitaker
The Negro in his blindness
Bows down to white men's gods,
Content with crumbs of kindness
Or any other odds;
Yet once his wits were duller,
Once, weaker his backbone;
And at last the man of color
Stirs, and dreams about his own.
Published in The Messenger, May 1927