Standing to America, bringing home black gold, black ivory, black seed. - Robert Hayden

This man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
shall be remembered.

Oh who and oh who will sing Jesus down
to help with struggling and doing without and being colored
all through blue Monday?
Till way next Sunday?

What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?