Negro Poets and Their Poems

In 1923, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, a white minister and educator undertook an ambitious project: gathering the finest Black poets of the era into a single volume that could stand as proof of Black artistic brilliance. Robert Thomas Kerlin's anthology captured a pivotal moment when Black writers were claiming their place in American letters, assembling voices that ranged from the already-legendary Paul Laurence Dunbar to the young Langston Hughes. The collection includes W.E.B. DuBois's intellectual fire, Claude McKay's defiant cadences, Jameseldon Johnson's elegant mastery, Jessie Fauset's nuanced elegance, Anne Spencer's spiritual depth, and Georgia Douglas Johnson's intimate lyricism. Biographical sketches and photographs accompany each poet, while sculptures by Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller add visual power to the volume. What emerges is more than an anthology: it is a living argument for Black humanity and genius, assembled in an era when such arguments were urgently needed. The book endures as a historical artifact and a testament to the richness of Black poetic voice during one of the most consequential decades in American culture.