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• 1 2016-11-11T18:27:54-05:00 If We Must Die 5 The Liberator (July 1919); Workers Dreadnought (September 6, 1920); Harlem Shadows (1922) plain 2020-01-14T15:51:07-05:00 1919, 1922 Class, Liberation, Race, Revolution, Slavery, Soul
  If we must die, let it not be like hogs
  Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
  While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
  Making their mock at our accursed lot.
  If we must die, O let us nobly die,
  So that our precious blood may not be shed
  In vain; then even the monsters we defy
  Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
  O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe !
  Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
  And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
  What though before us lies the open grave?
  Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
  Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
  
  ​(The Liberator, 1919. Workers Dreadnought, September 1920. Harlem Shadows, 1922)
  ​(Edited and Proofread by Brenda Martinez)
  
  See Contextual Essays by Alex Thompson elsewhere on this site: "If We Must Die" in its Original Context; "If We Must Die" in Civil Rights-Era America; "If We Must Die" in England