A Ballad of Negro History

   A Ballad of Negro History (So Much to Write About) 
   Written especially for The Authors Association at the request
   of Dr. M.A. Majors, June, 1951.

There is so much to write about 
In the Negro race.
On each page of history
Glows a dusky face.
Ancient Pharaohs come to mind
Away back in B.C.
Ethiopia's jewelled hand
Writes a scroll for me.
It was a black man bore the Cross
For Christ at Calvary.
There is so much to write about 
In the Negro race.
Though now of Ghana's Empire 
There remains no trace, 
Once Africa's great cultures 
Lighted Europe's dark
As Mandingo and Songhay 
Cradled learning's ark
Before the Moors crossed into Spain 
To leave their mark.
There is so much to write about 
In the Negro race.
Ere the ships of slavery sailed 
The seas of dark disgrace, 
Once Antar added
Winged words to poetry's lore 
And Juan Latino searched
The medieval heart's deep core— 
All this before black men in chains 
At Jamestown were put ashore. 
There is so much to write about 
In the Negro race,
So many thrilling stories
Time cannot erase:
Crispus Altuck's blow for freedom,
Denmark Vesey's, too.
Sojourner Truth, Fred Douglass, 
And the heroes John Brown knew— 
Before the Union Armies gave 
Black men proud uniforms of blue.
1863—Emancipation! 
The Negro race
Began its mighty struggle 
For a rightful place
In the making of America 
To whose young land it gave 
Booker T. and Carver—
Each genius born a slave— 
Yet foreordained to greatness 
On the crest of freedom's wave. 
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Penned his rhymes of lyric lace— 
All the sadness and the humor 
Of the Negro race.
To the words of colored Congressmen 
The Halls of Congress rang.
Handy wrote the blues. 
Williams and Walker sang. 
Still on southern trees today 
Dark bodies hang.
The story is one of struggle
For the Negro race—
But in spite of all the lynch ropes,
We've marched on to take our place: 
Woodson, Negro History Week, 
Du Bois, Johnson, Drew, 
Cullen, Maynor, Bunche, 
The cultural record grew.
Edith Sampson went around the world 
To tell the nations what she knew— 
And Josephine came home from France 
To claim an equal chance
Through song and dance.
There is so much to write about 
To sing about, to shout about
In the Negro race!
On each page of history
America sees my face— 
On each page of history 
We leave a shining trace—
On cach page of history
   My race! 
        My race! 
             My race!