Sarah Lee Brown Fleming, "Pictures" (1920)
I. SLAVERY
Gaze on this picture of the past,
See cruel master, whip in hand,
Upon yon slave, whose back is bent,
Scourge upon scourge he letteth fall.
“My God, my God!" the slave doth cry,
"How long shall I these burdens bear?"
"To work, to work," the master cries,
"Go fill my coffers with thy brawn."
Who doth not know, who hath not felt,
For those who lived in that sad time?
What is the life of him who slaves,
Whose body is not called his own?
They bore the stripes, endured the pain,
With not one murmur but to pray.
They sang the songs we all do know,
The songs that we shall sing again.
These prayers and songs were wafted up,
And, oh, they were so wondrous sweet,
They reached a throne where sits a Judge
Who judgeth slow but judgeth well.
They listened and they heard response —
"I will repay, I will repay!"
II. WAR
Then discord rose twixt North and South,
'Twas over slaves, you know it well.
Came Ab'ram Lincoln to the front,
A bloody battle to pursue.
See war in all its dreadful state,—
A scourge of men these battles are:
A price was paid so dear in blood,
By North and South in that great war,
That not a home was left without
Some loved one gone forevermore.
A cry was made for volunteers
Who'll answer it? Ah, you can tell.
See black men marching to the front,
With steady step and wondrous stride,
How fearlessly they go to die!
And yet they say we are afraid
To risk our lives for a great cause.
Yet I believe that you or I
If needed at some future time,
Will march as proudly to the front
As they did then in sixty-three.
III. FREEDOM
The war is o'er, the slaves are free,
They walk abroad as man with man.
But note the frown upon the brow
Of yonder man whose skin is fair.
"I will not walk, as man with man,
With yonder black," I hear him say,
"He was not made to cope with me,
Who rule this land, whose skin is fair."
Then what is this I see unearthed,
So soon as slavery's debt is paid?
'Tis prejudice, cursed prejudice,
Another form of slavery.
IV. LYNCHING
See yonder mob, full fifty strong,
Hound that poor lad of Negro blood.
He fleeth to the woods, and oh,
They set the dogs upon his trail.
At last he's caught, and lo, what then?
They string him to yon leafless tree,
And to his clothes they put a flame,
And now he's in eternity.
V. DISCRIMINATION
Not wanted here, not wanted there,
Such signs go up all o'er the land.
My God, then are my people free!
No vote for you, no vote for me.
Have we not borne the stripes enough,
Our cry goes up,—“How long, how long!"
VI. FUTURE
Let's leave these pictures of the past.
And pictures of the present time,
And wander on and on and on,
Unto some great approaching dawn.
My final picture is this one,
'Tis not with master, whip in hand,
But it is Black and White, alike,
Holding aloft the stars and stripes.
They've buried far beneath the sod
Grim prejudice and all lynch laws,
And all in one united band,
Proclaim the freedom of the land.
List, up to heaven there goes a sigh
Of long restraint, and then a cry,—
“Praise God we're free, at last we're free."
Published in Clouds and Sunshine, 1920