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aka Anna Louise Strong

[When the SUFFRAGE law]
The Crisis, January 1921

When the SUFFRAGE law
*    *     *
Was passed
*    *     *
And the colored women
*    *     *
Of the South
*    *     *
Came out to register
*    *     *
Many were the humiliations
*    *     *
That met them.
*    *     *
On the first day
*    *     *
They were kept standing
*    *     *
Many hours in line
*    *     *
To DISCOURAGE them,
*    *     *
While the white women
*    *     *
Were called forward
*    *     *
As fast as they entered.
*    *     *
But still the colored women
*    *     *
Kept on coming!
*    *     *
On the second day
*    *     *
They were examined
*    *     *
With difficult questions,
*    *     *
On law and politics;
*    *     *
They were tested in reading
*    *     *
And were yelled at:
*    *     *
“Heah, girl,
*    *     *
Yo’ misponounced two words.
*    *     *
Yo’ git out o’ here!
*    *     *
Yo’ can't vote,—
*    *     *
Yo’ ain’t got sense enough!”
*    *     *
But still the colored women
*    *     *
Kept on coming!
*    *     *
On the third day
*    *     *
The “high sheriff”
*    *     *
Grew impatient.
*    *     *
He shouted:
*    *     *
“Yo’ n––––––s
*    *     *
Get out and stay out!
*    *     *
An’ if yo’ don’t stay out,
*    *     *
Dey’ll be some BUCK-SHOT
*    *     *
To KEEP you out!”
*    *     *
But still the colored women
*    *     *
Kept on coming.
*    *     *
And somebody cried: “WHO
*    *     *
STIRRED UP
*    *     *
All these colored women
*    *     *
To come and register?”
*    *     *
And nobody told him WHO;
*    *     *
But I guess it was GOD,
*    *     *
Or whatever power it was
*    *     *
That put in man’s soul
*    *     *
From the very beginning of time
*    *     *
DREAMS
*    *     *
And hunger for FREEDOM!
*    *     *
Anyway,
*    *     *
They stretched out their hands
*    *     *
For the little white ballot,
*    *     *
The first slight sign
*    *     *
That they who had been
*    *     *
The slaves of slaves
*    *     *
Were self-governing citizens!
*    *     *
And SOME of them
*    *     *
SUCCEEDED
*    *     *
In getting registered,
*    *     *
And the other day at election
*    *     *
They VOTED,
*    *     *
But I hear the judge is going
*    *     *
To throw the ballots OUT,
*    *     *
On some technical reasons,
*    *     *
For fear those colored women
*    *     *
Might really come
*    *     *
To BELIEVE
*    *     *
That representative government
*    *     *
EXISTS
*    *     *
In America!
*    *     *    

The Crisis, republishing this poem in ”The Looking Glass/Literature“ section of their January 1921 issues, attributes the poem, undated, as follows: “Anise in the Seattle, Wash., Union Record.”

 

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   Contributor’s notes

   A White Man’s Party: Selections from The Crisis at the Century Mark

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