"Poetry for the People": Reading Garveyism through Poetry

Lord, Lift Our Race., by Prof. O.M. Skinner

 

Lord, lift our race and set our feet

Upon the solid rock,

And life and happiness complete,

Give to thy Negro flock.

 

This race so tried and trodden

Has called aloud to Thee.

And have we been forgotten?

O Lord, how can it be?

 

We know Thou art our father,

And hence we need Thy care

And as we draw together

We ask Thee to draw (You) near.

 

Our fathers’ blood is crying:

Who can’st revenge but Thou?

And still Thy people is dying,

Lord, rise up and save us now.

 

For we need thy protections

In this, our present, fight.

Against the world’s subjections

O, give us Negroes might.

 

Then when shall come the victory

O’er earth, and hellish wrongs,

Will cease this earthly worry,

We, too, shall join the throngs.

    Prof. O. M. Skinner

    620 Lenox Avenue, New York


From the February 19, 1921 issue.

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