Mr. Africa Poetry Lounge!

Negro

I've been a slave:
      Caesar 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 still in Mississippi.

I am a Negro:
      Black as the night is black,
      Black like the depths of my Africa.

Written by Langston Hughes (1902-1967)