is a title, 

is a preoccupation, 

is a commitment Blacks 

are to comprehend— 

and in which you are 

to perceive your Glory. 

The conscious shout 

of all that is white is 

“It’s Great to be white.” 

The conscious shout 

of the slack in Black is 

"It's Great to be white." 

Thus all that is white 

has white strength and yours. 

The word Black 

has geographic power, 

pulls everybody in: 

Blacks here— 

Blacks there— 

Blacks wherever they may be. 

And remember, you Blacks, what they told you— 

remember your Education: 

“one Drop—one Drop 

maketh a brand new Black.” 

         Oh mighty Drop. 

______And because they have given us kindly 

so many more of our people 

Blackness 

stretches over the land. 

Blackness— 

the Black of it, 

the rust-red of it, 

the milk and cream of it, 

the tan and yellow-tan of it, 

the deep-brown middle-brown high-brown of it, 

the “olive” and ochre of it— 

Blackness 

marches on. 

The huge, the pungent object of our prime out-ride 

is to Comprehend, 

to salute and to Love the fact that we are Black, 

which is our “ultimate Reality,” 

which is the lone ground 

from which our meaningful metamorphosis, 

from which our prosperous staccato, 

group or individual, can rise. 

Self-shriveled Blacks. 

Begin with gaunt and marvelous concession: 

YOU are our costume and our fundamental bone. 

       

      All of you— 

      you COLORED ones, 

      you NEGRO ones, 

those of you who proudly cry 

      “I’m half INDian”— 

      those of you who proudly screech 

      “I’VE got the blood of George WASHington in MY veins” 

      ALL of you— 

            you proper Blacks, 

      you half-Blacks, 

      you wish-I-weren’t Blacks, 

      Niggeroes and Niggerenes. 

      You.