Today's Beautiful Gem: `Negro' by Langston Hughes.

I am a Negro: Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa.
I've been a slave: Caesar told me to keep his doorsteps clean.
I brushed the boots of Washington.
I've been a worker: Under my hand the pyramids arose.
I made mortar for the Woolworth Building.
I've been a singer: All the way from Africa to Georgia
I carried my sorrow songs.
I made ragtime.
I've been a victim: The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo.
They linch me still in Mississippi.
I am a Negro: Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa.

Om s'aantih: Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

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