| James Weldon Johnson, ed. (1871–1938). The Book of American Negro Poetry. 1922. |
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| To the White Fiends |
| | | Claude McKay (1890–1948) |
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| THINK you I am not fiend and savage too? | |
| Think you I could not arm me with a gun | |
| And shoot down ten of you for every one | |
| Of my black brothers murdered, burnt by you? | |
| Be not deceived, for every deed you do | 5 |
| I could match—out-match: am I not Africa’s son, | |
| Black of that black land where black deeds are done? | |
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| But the Almighty from the darkness drew | |
| My soul and said: Even thou shaft be a light | |
| Awhile to burn on the benighted earth, | 10 |
| Thy dusky face I set among the white | |
| For thee to prove thyself of highest worth; | |
| Before the world is swallowed up in night, | |
| To show thy little lamp: go forth, go forth! | |
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