Only dumb guys fight. If I wasn’t dumb I wouldn’t be fightin’. I could make six dollars a day On the docks

Love Is a ripe plum Growing on a purple tree. Taste it once And the spell of its enchantment

I know I am The Negro Problem Being wined and dined, Answering the usual questions That come to white mind

Here I sit With my shoes mismated. Lawdy—mercy! I’s frustrated!

Children, I come back today To tell you a story of the long da… That I had to climb, that I had t… In order that the race might live… Look at my face —dark as the night…

In places like Selma, Alabama, Kids say, In places like Chicago and New York...

I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you, Take the neon lights and make a cr… Take the Lenox Avenue busses, Taxis, subways,

Remember The days of bondage— And remembering— Do not stand still. Go to the highest hill

In the Quarter of the Negroes Where the doors are doors of paper Dust of dingy atoms Blows a scratchy sound. Amorphous jack—o’—Lanterns caper

My old man’s a white old man And my old mother’s black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mot…

Harlem Sent him home in a long box— Too dead To know why: