SONNET TO NEGRO SOLDIERS by Joseph Seaman Cotter Jr.

They shall go down unto life’s Borderland,
Walk unafraid within that Living Hell,
Nor heed the driving rain of shot and shell
That round them falls; but with uplifted hand

Be one with mighty hosts, an armed band
Against man’s wrong to man-for such full well
They know. And from their trembling lips shall swell
A song of hope the world can understand

All this to them shall be a glorious sign,
A glimmer of that resurrection morn
When age-long faith, crowned with a grace benign,
Shall rise and from their brows cast down the thorn
Of prejudice. E’en though through blood it bee,
There breaks this day their dawn of liberty…

From: an anthology of verse by American Negroes, reprinted by permission of Moore Publishing Co.

Reference:
Joseph Seamon Cotter