Poem by Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer

Why Negroes Don't Unite

Why of all the many races in the country where we live,
Do we find so little union as the Negro race can give?
Is it lack of love? or color? who will give the reason true,
Why they cherish opposition more than other peoples do?

We'll examine for a moment, how the Negro race is made,
Now, we find them all complexions, any hue and ev'ry shade,
Scraps of all the human races in among them we can find,
All the many dispositions, ev'ry nation of its kind.

Ev'ry tribe will hang together, though among the Negroes found,
Which will bring about dissensions, on all questions that abound,
Ev'ry blood must have a "say so," red or yellow, white or black,
Differ always in opinion, racial union always lack.

Hark! the whites of this assembly to a special plan agree,
Lo! the red men now are holding their opinion, don't you see?
Aye, the blacks must have a hearing in the question of today,
Yellow folks compose a factor and the same will have a say.

Scripture tells how Ham was tickled by the shame of Noah's plight,
How his brothers with a mantle shielded Noah from the light,
Now we find that Ham's descendants keep disgraces well exposed,
While the children of the others keep a shameful secret closed.

From inheritance the Negro gets his levity and mirth,
More than any other species of the races of the earth,
He rejoices in reporting what will bring his neighbor shame,
Charity extends her mantle and the others cover blame.

When the race discards the fragments, by the others thrown aside,
And suppresses altogether sinful levity and pride,
Then begins a cultivation of a union of the race,
That will strengthen all its borders which for naught will yield apace.

1. Birthday Wishes to a Physician
2. Negro Heroines
3. Injustice of the Courts
4. The Negro Ballot
5. A Legal Mouse

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