“The Negro Mother” by Langston HughesChildren, I come back todayTo tell you a story of the long dark wayThat I had to climb, that I had to knowIn order that the race might live and grow.Look at my face dark as the nightYet shining like the sun with love’s true lightI am the child they stole from the sandthree hundred years ago in Africa’s land.I am the dark girl who crossed the wide seaCarrying in my body the seed of the free.I am the woman who worked in the fieldBringing the cotton and the corn to yield.I am the one who labored as a slave,Beaten and mistreated for the work I gaveChildren sold away from me, husband sold, too.No safety , no love, no respect was I due.Three hundred years in the deepest South:But God put a song and a prayer in my mouth .God put a dream like steel in my soul.Now, through my children, I’m reaching the goal.Now, through my children, young and free,I realize the blessings deed to me.I couldn’t read then. I couldn’t write.I had nothing, back there in the night.Sometimes, the valley was filled with tears,But I kept trudging on through the lonely years.Sometimes, the road was hot with the sun,But I had to keep on till my work was done:I had to keep on! No stopping for meI was the seed of the coming Free.I nourished the dream that nothing could smotherDeep in my breast, the Negro mother.I had only hope then, but now through you,Dark ones of today, my dreams must come true:All you dark children in the world out there,Remember my sweat, my pain, my despair.Remember my years, heavy with sorrow.And make of those years a torch for tomorrow. Make of my pass a road to the lightOut of the darkness, the ignorance, the night.Lift high my banner out of the dust.Stand like free men supporting my trust.Believe in the right, let none push you back.Remember the whip and the slaver’s track.Remember how the strong in struggle and strifeStill bar you the way, and deny you life.But march ever forward, breaking down bars.Look ever upward at the sun and the stars.Oh, my dark children, may my dreams and my prayersImpel you forever up the great stairs.For I will be with you till no white brotherDares keep down the children of the Negro Mother.Photo: Jackson, Mississippi circa 1935.