Is It Because I'm Black?

In honor of Black History Month....

Is It Because I'm Black?
by Joseph Cotter

Why do men smile when I speak, 

And call my speech 

The whimperings of a babe 

That cries but knows not what it wants? 

Is it because I am black? 

Why do men sneer when I arise 

And stand in their councils, 

And look them eye to eye, 

And speak their tongue?
Is it because I am black?

Joseph Seamon Cotter Sr. (February 2, 1861 – March 14, 1949) was a poet, writer, playwright, and community leader raised in Louisville, Kentucky (but born in Nelson County, Kentucky)] Cotter was one of the earliest African-American playwrights to be published. He was known as “Kentucky’s first Negro poet with real creative ability.” Born at the start of the American Civil War, raised in poverty with no formal education until the age of 22, and living through a time of monumental change, Cotter also became an educator and an advocate of black education.