‘The Black Man’s Burden (A Reply to Rudyard Kipling)’ by Hubert H. Harrison from When Africa Awakes. Porro Press, New York City. 1920.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—
Send forth the worst ye breed,
And bind our sons in shackles
To serve your selfish greed;
To wait in heavy harness
Be-devilled and beguiled
Until the Fates remove you
From a world you have defiled.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—
Your lies may still abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check our racial pride;
Your cannon, church and courthouse
May still our sons constrain
To seek the white man’s profit
And work the white man’s gain.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—
Reach out and hog the earth,
And leave your workers hungry
In the country of their birth;
Then, when your goal is nearest,
The end for which you fought,
Watch other’s trained efficiency
Bring all your hope to naught.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—
Reduce their chiefs and kings
To toil of serf and sweeper
The lot of common things:
Sodden their soil with slaughter,
Ravish their lands with lead;
Go, sign them with your living
And seal them with your dead,

Take up the Black Man’s burden—
And reap your old reward:
The curse of those ye cozen,
The hate of those ye barred
From your Canadian cities
And your Australian ports;
And when they ask for meat and drink
Go, girdle them with forts.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—
Ye cannot stoop to less.
Will not your fraud of “freedom”
Still cloak your greediness?
But, by the gods ye worship,
And by the deeds ye do,
These silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the Black Man’s burden—
Until the tale is told,
Until the balances of hate
Bear down the beam of gold,
And while ye wait remember
That justice, though delayed,
Will hold you as her debtor
Till the Black Man’s debt is paid.

When Africa Awakes by Hubert H. Harrison. Porro Press, New York City. 1920.

Harrison’s uniquely important collection of writings from 1917-1920 published in various journals from the time, published by Porro Press (personally published).

Contents: Introduction, THE BEGINNINGS). Launching the Liberty League, Resolutions Passed at Liberty League Meetings, Petition to Congress, DEMOCRACY AND RACE FRICTION) The East St. Louis Horror, ‘Arms and the Man’, The Negro and the Labor Unions, Lynching Its Cause and Cure, THE NEGRO AND THE WAR) Is Democracy Unpatriotic?, Why Is the Red Cross?, A Hint of ‘Our Reward’, The Negro at the Peace Congress, Africa and the Peace, ‘They Shall Not Pass’, A Cure for the Ku-Klux, THE NEW POLITICS) The New Politics for the New Negro, The Drift in Politics, A Negro for President, When the Tail Wags the Dog, The Grand Old’ Party. THE PROBLEMS OF LEADERSHIP) Our Professional ‘’Friends’, Shillady Resigns, Our White Friends, A Tender Point, The Descent of Du Bois, When the Blind Lead, Just Crabs, THE NEW RACE CONSCIOUSNESS) The Negro’s Own Radicalism, Race First versus Class First, An Open Letter to the Socialist Party, ‘Patronize Your Own’, The Women of Our Race, To the Young Men of My Race, OUR INTERNATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS) The White War and the Colored World, U-need-a Biscuit, Our Larger Duty, Help Wanted for Hayti, The Cracker in the Caribbean, When Might Makes Right, Bolshevism in Barbados, A New International, The Rising Tide of Color, The White War and the Colored Races, EDUCATION AND THE RACE) Reading for Knowledge, Education and the Race, The Racial Roots of Culture, The New Knowledge for the New Negro, A FEW BOOKS) The Negro in History and Civilization, Darkwater, The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy. EPILOGUE: The Black Man’s Burden A Reply to Rudyard Kipling.

PDF of full book: https://archive.org/download/ldpd_13339574_000/ldpd_13339574_000.pdf