sul to Madagascar. The poet was born in the city of Washington in 1895 and now resides in Cleveland, Ohio.
To a young student in Columbia University we are indebted for some of the most symmetrical and effective free-verse poems that have come to my attention. His name is Langston Hughes. For information about him I refer the reader to the first index, at the end of this book. This poem appeared in The Crisis, January, 1922:
THE NEGRO
I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa.
I’ve been a slave:
Cæsar told me to keep his door-steps clean,
I brushed the boots of Washington.
I’ve been a worker:
Under my hand the pyramids arose.
I made mortar for the Woolworth building.
I’ve been a singer:
All the way from Africa to Georgia I carried my sorrow songs.
I made ragtime.
I’ve been a victim:
The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo.
They lynch me now in Texas.
