Negritude

By Dudley Randall

Black is the first nail I ever stepped on

Black is the hand that dried my tears

Black is the first old man I ever noticed

Black is the burden of his years

Black is waiting in the darkness

Black is the ground where the hoods have lain

Black is a sorrow-misted story

Black is the brotherhood of pain (unhh)

Black is the quiet iron door

Black is the path that leads behind

Black is the detour through the years

Black is the diary of the mind

Black is Gabriel Prosser’s knuckles

Black is Sojourner’s naked breast

Black is a schoolgirl’s breathless mother

Black is the child who led the rest

Black is the putting of a motor

Black is the foot when the light turns green

Black is last year’s dusty paper

Black is the headlines yet unseen

Black is the burden bravely chanted

Black cross of sweat for a nation’s rise

Black is the boy who knows his heroes

Black is the way a hero dies

Black is the girl who knows her sheroes

Black is the way a sheroe dies

The Author

Dudley Randall was a critical collector of African American poetry and publisher of poets. He was also an accomplished poet himself. Here is a short video biography of Dudley Randall.

How is Negritude another way of saying Black?

What does it mean to you to be Black?

Two major historical figures in the history of Black people in the United States are mentioned in this poem, Sojourner Truth and Gabriel Prosser. Each of these figures are icons in the history of Black resistance and of the struggle for self determination for Black men and Black women respectively.