YOU HAVE NOT SEEN, AS I HAVE, THE LITTLE INLETS OF AMERICA. YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE GLASSES ON A BLACK GIRL, TWELVE YEARS OLD, WITH A VOCABULARY OF NINETEEN, OR TWENTY-NINE, CRUSHED UNDER THE WEIGHT OF HER SKIN, WHICH, ON THE CHEMIST’S SCALE, WOULD MEASURE VERY LITTLE. YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE LITTLE BROWN BOYS, FOURTEEN, AND FIFTEEN, TRUCCULENT (SIC), TOUGH, INSIDE TREMBLING. YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE OLD WOMEN, THE SETTLED WOMEN, SHY, EMBARRASSED, AND, IN THE MOMENT OF TRUTH, DEADLY. YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE BRAGGADACIO (SIC) OF THE BLACK MAN WHO HAS LIVED ALL HIS LIFE, PLEASING, OUTWITTING THE WHITE MAN, GETTING AHEAD, BUILDING A HOUSE, TAKING ON SOME OF THE COLORATION OF THE UNCLE TOM, BUT UNDERNEATH, DEEP DOWN, A RACE MAN, BUT SKEPTICAL OF THE STRUGGLE. HE WILL GIVE YOU A DEFEATIST ARGUMENT, BUT WHEN YOU REPLY WITH THE SLASHING VEHEMENCE OF THE NEW NEGRO, HE SMILES, GLAD THAT YOU HAVE ANSWERED HIM. 

 

AH, MY PEOPLE ARE A PEOPLE OF MANY RICHES. “IN MY FATHERS HOUSE THERE ARE MANY MANSIONS.” MY PEOPLE…. ARE THE CAT PEOPLE… THE PEOPLE WITH EASY FEET…. THE ONES WHO WALK STEADY IN THE FACE OF DISASTER. WE HAVE LIVED THREE HUNDRED YEARS ON THE EDGE OF NOTHINGNESS. WOE WAS OUR WAY, DISMAY OUR DESTINY. BUT WE RESIST, WE RESIST, WE RESIST. 

 

YOU HAVE NOT SEEN OUR CHILDREN, WHEN THE LITTLE BLACK GIRL COMES, WITH TENDERNESS IN HER HEART, TO HUG DADDY’S NECK, TO SING, TO TEASE, TO BEG FOR CANDY. SHE COMES, THE LITTLE DARK ONE, WITH THE SWEET SMILE AND LOVING EYES, AND WHO IS THERE TO TELL HER THAT SHE IS DOOMED, THAT HER FATE WAS WRITTEN THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO ON A SLAVE SHIP CALLED THE JESUS? WILL YOU TELL HER? WILL YOU FACE THIS LITTLE GIRL, AND TELL HER THAT SHE MUST WAIT ANOTHER HUNDRED YEARS FOR HER LITTLE PATCH OF SUNLIT MEADOW? NO! THIS LITTLE GIRL AND I HAVE HEARD A DIFFERENT MESSAGE, MY WHITE FRIEND. IT IS THE MESSAGE OF MONROE! IT IS THAT WE HAVE WAITED OVERLONG, THAT WE MUST NOW WIN, BY FIRE AND SWORD, WHAT WE HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO BESEECH WITH TEARS. PATIENCE WAS A CHRISTIAN VIRTUE, AND THE LIONS PROFITED. A GREAT PATRIOT LEFT A LIGHT FOR THE WORLD, AND GUIDE FOR ALL HUMANITY, WHEN SHE SAID, “VALE MAS MORIR EN PIE QUE VIVIR EN LAS RODILLAS.” IT IS BETTER TO DIE ON OUR FEET THAN TO LIVE ON OUR KNEES.